Rob M
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,915
Club RR Member Number: 41
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This thread may drop into the abyss but, hey ho... I've just watched Car S.O.S where they restored a Bedford H.A Ice Cream van and that took me back to the first vehicle I ever drove, on my own, after passing my driving test. Many of us drove something that we didn't actually own, hence the idea that the first car you ever drove was not the first car you ever owned. My first drive, the morning after I passed, was my Dads 1972 Ex British Telecom HA van. It's why I have a massive soft spot for them and, having driven the rivals ( Escort Vans, Marina Vans ) I can say that the HA was so much nicer to drive! After owning over 60 cars in the last 39 years, not including all those that I drove but never owned, the HA had one of the best gear changes ever which was heaven to use with its short and accurate throw, It's steering was pin sharp, the engine was peppy and it was FUN to drive. It taught me, from the outset, that BHP really meant bog all in the fun to drive stakes. For a vehicle that barely changed throughout its run, it still was a great workhorse, tough, reliable, easy to fix and a bloody hoot to drive. It's one of my auto heroes.  |
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jimi
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 1,805 
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I learned to drive and passed my test in a driving school HB Viva like this  First car I drove after passing was my mum's Morris 1100 like this  |
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Black is not a colour ! .... Its the absence of colour
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I remember the “Freedom” and nervousness of driving my dads pride and joy Princess 2.2 HLS (Ex funeral car!) after passing my test in a learner Volvo 340, which was a rather unique choice of an official learner anyway, At that time it felt huge and cumbersome, but perhaps by today’s sizes it was average! I loved the velour interior but most of my mates were from the Ford brigade and snubbed BL!  |
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tofufi
South West
Posts: 1,452
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This was the first car I drove after passing my test:  My first drive on my own was taking it to an MOT, as it didn't have one when I'd bought it. I'd spent the last 9 months welding it up, replacing the front axle etc. The drive went fine until the car filled with smoke just before I reached the MOT station. I still have it, 16 years (and a lot more work) on   |
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Last Edit: May 7, 2021 7:06:42 GMT by tofufi
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Viva HB with a 1600 engine it it for me.
Passed my test in a Ford Escort MkII
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gte86
Part of things
Posts: 611
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When I was 15 I paid 600 for my first car. A 1989 Nova Gte. I paid 2800 insurance for it. It was ready and waiting for me when I returned from my test. I did 160 miles that first day and got the speedo needle up to 128 on the clock. I miss those days
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Last Edit: May 7, 2021 12:32:33 GMT by gte86
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Trying to find a pic but the truck my dad and I put together out of a scrapyard was an 81 Dodge D150 shortbed stepside with a turbo 225 and a four speed. I think the first car I drove on my way back from the drivers test would have been a full-size 92 Dodge van. My mother had a business driving Amish around so we always had a fleet of them.
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The first car I drove after my test (in fact, I took my test in it) was my car, a red Mk3 Escort 1600 just like the one below.  |
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This was my first drive/car, which I bought when I had just turned 17 and before I began lessons for the price of £600 blindly from eBay. It was a 1.4 diesel, which was laughably slow but dirt cheap to run. I loved this thing at the time and it served me well.  |
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Project - 1990 Trabant 601 Daily - 2006 Saab 93 |
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passed my test mid week, and at the weekend dad trusted me with his 1.1 Talbot Horizon L . it was awesome to be out driving on my own
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Learned to drive in 1985 in a really mundane daihatsu charade
First car I drove on my own was my sisters viva HC
I’ve been banned from ever driving any of her cars over the last thirty odd years after blowing the engine up!
My mk1 escort was then my own proper car in December 85
Owned well over 400 cars since then........the one I miss most, my aubergine series 2 1600E cortina
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Fraud owners club member
1999 Jaguar s type
1993 ford escort
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Learned to drive in 1985 in a really mundane daihatsu charade First car I drove on my own was my sisters viva HC I’ve been banned from ever driving any of her cars over the last thirty odd years after blowing the engine up! My mk1 escort was then my own proper car in December 85 Owned well over 400 cars since then........the one I miss most, my aubergine series 2 1600E cortina So you’ve basically pretty much owned 1 car a month for every month since 85? How on earth have you done that? |
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I chose a driving instructor who had a Rover 100, because my mum had an identical one and I was going to buy it off her when I passed my test (this was in the days before everyone got bought a car by their parents for their 17th birthday, and I dislike being given anything for nothing no matter what it is, so I paid her for it). Passed my test in the instructor's one, then went out for my first solo drive the next day. I wasn't excited, nor was I nervous, just drove around a couple of local towns with a calm realisation that I could do it, and for the first time in my life could do something without making a complete mess of it all the time. Car looked identical to this one but on an M plate (edit - and was a 3-door).  |
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The first car I ever drove (aside from an aborted attempt of my mate Graham's Allegro) was on my first driving lesson with a local driving school in 1991 - their car? A 1987 Ford Fiesta XR2. I didn't gel with the instructor though, so I went with a recommendation from a work colleague and had lessons with a lovely lady called Steph. She was proper old school and a bit gruff at times. She also had a habit of shouting out of the window at impatient drivers trying to get past. She was awesome! I passed my test in her H-reg Golf 1.3 - it was only a 4-speed. The first car I drove after passing was my mate Graham's then girlfriend's knackered Renault 5TL. We took it round his local housing estate. I thought it was a bit ropey, and only a couple of weeks later it was scrapped due to catastrophic rust! Aside from then driving Graham's Citroen BX 16TRS, I wasn't able to afford my own car until I got my Mini 1000 just over a year later. Note - I do NOT look like this now!!   |
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Learned to drive in 1985 in a really mundane daihatsu charade First car I drove on my own was my sisters viva HC I’ve been banned from ever driving any of her cars over the last thirty odd years after blowing the engine up! My mk1 escort was then my own proper car in December 85 Owned well over 400 cars since then........the one I miss most, my aubergine series 2 1600E cortina So you’ve basically pretty much owned 1 car a month for every month since 85? How on earth have you done that? Yep constantly changing cars But I have got to add I was buying and selling a lot in the late 80s and early 90s I worked for a big local car dealer and sold trade ins from home |
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Last Edit: May 7, 2021 19:12:37 GMT by Mercdan68
Fraud owners club member
1999 Jaguar s type
1993 ford escort
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So you’ve basically pretty much owned 1 car a month for every month since 85? How on earth have you done that? Yep constantly changing cars But I have got to add I was buying and selling a lot in the late 80s and early 90s I worked for a big local car dealer and sold trade ins from home Ya can’t count cars for a business, that’s cheating 😀 The bloke who owns available cars.com has owned about half a million in 6 months then |
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Yep constantly changing cars But I have got to add I was buying and selling a lot in the late 80s and early 90s I worked for a big local car dealer and sold trade ins from home Ya can’t count cars for a business, that’s cheating 😀 The bloke who owns available cars.com has owned about half a million in 6 months then 😂but not registered to him!! Many of mine were so poor they took months to sell And I kept buying mk1 escorts back then from local papers either scrapping them for parts or ragging them about as a few people on here will remember..Rmad?? |
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Fraud owners club member
1999 Jaguar s type
1993 ford escort
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Mine was a 94 Astra Mk3, Rainbow Blue, learnt to drive in it and it was all grand, virtually mint. Passed my test, instructor dropped me at work, walked home, got the car and took my then Mrs for a meal in Chester around 40 miles away. Where it shat its oil pump. On my first legal day driving. Weighed it in and fixed my Citroen Ax which was from the scrappy for 80 quid, loved that car. Loved them both hence I bought another one and kept it 12 years. Edit - don't judge the sunscreen, I'm tall and if I put the visor down in the AX I couldn't see anything at all  |
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Last Edit: May 7, 2021 20:33:43 GMT by astranaut
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The first car I ever driven was a mk 3 Ford Granada. I passed my test in a mk 2 Fiesta. Went straight home after passing my test and went for a rip in my MK 1 Vauxhall Cavalier Sports Hatch. I was pulled over by the police that first night, luckily it was only to tell me that a rear light was out. My car looked just like the one in the picture,  |
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1955 Austin A30
1981 Jawa Mustang
1990 Trabant 601 (Tommy)
1989 Trabant 601
2009 Jaguar XF
2012 Toyota AYGO
2018 Scomadi TL
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Learned to drive in a mk4 escort. I owned a ‘72 beetle but it wasn’t roadworthy when I took my test. First car I drove after passing my test was my Mums 1300 Ital, which was incidentally the first car I ever wrote off* *it was also the same journey  |
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