Calling all "old" dudes

There was much which was "chavvy". There was also much which was cool.

Some of the stuff I was trying to buy in the mid-late 80s but as I wasn't working yet I just couldn't make it.... bah.

Like a '66 Dodge Corronet coupe for £225 ono with MOT and tax. scruffy but solid. Proper Mopar muscle. I also missed a '68 or '69 Plymouth Valiant for £85 at a "bomb site" car dealer in town. I went back the week after with £60 to make an offer and the whole place had gone!

A lot of the cars were end-of-life Saloons bought cheap and splattered with accessories from Halfords or Charlie Brown's. I remember a mates brother had a '73 or '74 CROWN Custom Coupe in about 1980 and that had big chrome fake dual exhaust lowered at the front, sun strip, CB aerial, faded metallic blue paint, rusty arches. That was kind of the standard of cars on the street scene. I loved that car, I thought it was way cool.

Even more cool was a mate who's brother had a aussie Chrysler Charger in bright yellow, with slot mags and side pipes. This was about 1979. That was awesome.

In 1984 or so a mate of minbe's brother bought a '69 Mustang Mach1 sportroof. Stunning thing with all the factory stripes and go faster goodies. He paid £1500 for it and it was mint. Add a zero to the end of that price now. He was 18 or 19 at the time. Insurance wasn't a problem really. Madness.

Other local stuff and stuff I tried to buy was a Mk2 Consul "kustom" which had been lowered nosed and decked and shaved. It had failed the MOT but was solid as a rock. In 1986 I struggled to get the £75 he wanted together for it. I failed and it sold elsewhere.

A mate's neighbour had a 100E which was called "The Coyote" or something. It was daytona yellow with red painted weller wheels, jacked up like a 4x4 at the back, low at the front. I swear all you could see out of the windscreen was tarmac. Talk about rake. It had coyote and desert scene murals on it. That was about 1978 or 1979.

A mate's neighbour had a MG ZA series Magnette which had a 2.5 Daimler V8 in it and was a gasser. He moved house before I ever saw it finished. I was well impressed. c. 1985?

A chap I knew built a few nice rods. He had a pre-war Ford 8 which had a V8 in it, and was low and metallic green. He then built a Ford Y which he widened and fitted with IIRC a Mopar V8 and a wicked roof chop. Blakc & flames I think, with Centrelines. c. 1987 / 1988.

Same fellow (I forget his name now but I was round his place most weekends back then) started a local hot rod and street machine club. We had some great cars and some odd stuff. A couple of Morris Minors, an A40 Farina in grey with white revolutions, a Mk1 Granada with wierd body mods sculpted out of filler and inappropriate spoilers. Best was a Peugeot 504 on slot mags with a "wide body" kit the owner had made himself, kinda like box arches but smoother. I think it had a ROver V8 and a chromed Jag IRS. It was candy apple red with a red velour interior. And chrome cobra side pipes. I hated it at the time as I thought it looked very dated. "do people still drive those style cars?" but now Iook back and I feel a lot of love for it.

A mates neigbour had a jacked up Allegro with a full body kit and a bonnetr scoop and a whale tail spoiler. It was white with blue stripes and blue tinted glass.

I has a Hillman Avenegr 1500DL estate in gold with blackedout glass and I painted cherries on it (why???) and gave it a name - "PASSHION WAGON". Nope, I never checked the spelling before painting it either. It was getting twin 40s and goodness knows what but it got vandalised to death in a car park before I finished it (or even passed my test). This was 1985 I think.

I saw many Capris - the favouriote mod was cherry bomb back box, jack up kit, stock front wheels painted bright silver, 8x15 or so rear wheels (wellers painted brioght silver or slot mags were the favourites), lots of rust, limo tint glass, pop up sunroof (or two), rear louvres, bumpers removed.

A teacher at school ran a Mk2 Cortina which was slammed low on lotus steelies with no hubcaps, no bumpers, loud exhaust, stick on number plates, tints or sunstrip I forget, in a matt metallic blue. c. 1982

my second project c.1986 was a F reg Morris Minor. It was going to be a gasser, with a 1275 MG lump, Shorrock c75B blower, fat woolfy slots on the back, skinny centrelines on the front. It was marroon and I painted lime green flames on the nose with a rattle can, and put gasser style race class lettering on the sides (badly). A girlie distracted me from completing it, I ran out of money and my parents made me sell it (in exchange for being given free use of my mum's old Opel on the proviso I sold it when I was done with it and gave my dad any money that I made. I ran that stock for 18 months before I got the Capri. I sorted all the body work out had that resprayed lime green.

There were loads more examples, more later. I might even have some photos.

I'm not that old but I remember the 80's, Chelsea Cruise and car shows especially.

Early 80's still had a lot of the 70's jacked up, portholed, buttoned draylon, crushed velvet & tassles interiored Capris and Cortinas but the cars were starting to come down a bit. You still saw them driving about like that. Paintjobs were WILD, purples with heavy metal flake over the top and bright orange scallops, slotmag wheels and bodywork had a lot of funny shaped stuff being moulded in.

As the 80's went on there seemed to be a lot of pickups on the scene, basically badly cut down cars with flat backs that looked curse word. Hotrods looked a bit rubbish in general, wheel and tyre choices were primitive and the arch clearances were really bad. I think it was due to lack of choice more than anything else.

VW Beetles were all being turned into Baja Bugs jacked up with massive General Grabber tyres, spotlights on the roof, bodywork all cut away and mad paint. Wehey, I loved them!

Then bigfoots became big. There were giant 4x4's everywhere, loads up at Chelsea.

The modern scene on new cars were really rubbish looking square bodykits but there were some mad cars out there like the Renault 5 turbo 2's and the Metro 6R4's so everyone was trying to make their normal cars look like that.

Then near the end of the 80's the billet scene was creeping over from the States and all the cars had really basic looking machined aluminium parts stuck all over them. The wheels really did look quite agricultural byt todays standards but waaaaay new style back then. Cars were all monotone and simple looking, stripped of all trim.

Actually the whole scene was in a bit of a dip by the end of the 80's if I recall, there wasn't a lot of money about and no-one could afford to do anything.

what does 'gasser' actually mean? Where does the word come from?

Gas class drag racing in the late 50's early 60's. As in not alky or nitro. The gas classes were generally stock bodied so they messed about with chassis/suspension to try and improve weight transfer in a backyard period tech stylee leading to the high nose up stance.

The robin sounds ace!

My dad used to be into the drag racing scene a bit (as he lives near santa pod)
at the time he was a biker mainly but he helped out on mates cars in the very late 60's early 70's. He remembers getting a go down the strip in ahotted up 66 charger and again later in a 71 cuda. All his mates ran stuff like old V8 pilots and one particular guy had a chopped roof model Y ford, jag rear axle and tuned up rover 3500. Cars like this were cool , are cool and always will be cool. Rodding was the thing for me, some UK cars could be made to loook damn cool and things that run on a tiny budget at the pod these days like mk2 matt black 'tinas and the like will always be cool.

What I remember is that a car with over 60,000 on the clock or over 7 years old was a banger. How that has changed with cars racking up 200,000 miles and 15 years old still looking factory fresh!
I also remember paying £350 for a Mk 1 Escort Mex in daytona yellow that the previous owner had jacked up at the back with huge tyres and a cherry bomb. Immaculate it was. What price now! Luckily I quickly returned it to a normal stance, added a set of cibies and rs four spokes plus a Demon Tweaks zorst!

Oh and back in the day there were still Fiat 131 sports roaming wild!

Yeah photo's would be most appreciated

Rose tinted spectacles..............

It was better then tho - back in the mid 90's I was watching teenagers near me buying 205 GTi and R5 Obrut's as their first cars - I was thinking sheesh - how the hell can they afford them (I'd bought a 205 GTi brand new in 87 and it was a shed load of cash!!) but in relative terms 10 years later they were as cheap as the wibblepoo boxes I bought back in the 80's and had slumped into unloved and unwanted.

You only have to look at car prices on ebay to realise that even relatively modern stuff is peanuts to buy now!!! Trouble is I don't like any of it......... well most of it!!!