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As a newbie here, whenever I get a few minutes spare, I scan around old threads, especially Reader's Rides, finding some riveting stories of individual cars, current and serial fleets, which sent my mind back to 1967, and my first car, then wandering through the subsequent years.
Considering that I generally buy cars carefully, and keep them "forever", ninety cars over a fifty four year legal driving career does seem excessive, especially as I was in my forties before I could consistently keep more than two simultaneously. ETA: I won’t include cars bought solely to sell on, nor pure racing cars. All would be considered retro to an extent now, most were even during my ownership period. In the early days though, we called them old bangers.  Until the advent of cheap camera phones, laptops etc, I was especially lame / tight about taking photos, two divorces, heaven knows how many addresses, and having lived in several different countries, ensured the loss of most that I did take. Those I have, I will post, for those that I don't have, I'll try to find ones similar on the net for the benefit of those younger than I (almost everybody), who may never have seen one. Fortunately, someone elsewhere started a thread about car history, to which I contributed, so I do have a reasonably accurate chronological list to work from.
The first, as the title suggests, an Austin A40 Devon, bought in equal partnership with a mate, because neither of us could raise the £4 purchase price: 
This one is much better than ours, which was a sort of scummy grey colour, with a few patches of rust, but did have a recent Gold Seal reconditioned engine, which added little to longevity, as Mick managed to roll it three weeks into our joint ownership. None of the eight teenage occupants were injured, but few of us passengered Mick again.
Next came a Ford Popular; £5:
almost identical, except that the previous owner being a hippy, mine had flowers hand painted on the doors.  Sold after a month for £10, so I was £3 up so far.
More anon.
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Last Edit: Nov 26, 2021 8:54:58 GMT by etypephil
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Nov 26, 2021 10:50:08 GMT
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# 3 was a Wolseley 6/80, £10, and inspired by Bonnie & Clyde, and other US gangster films of the time. Yes I know, but I was 17 and far too impecunious to buy a 1920s / 30s American car, even had I known where to find one.
Ironically, mine was an ex Metropolitan Police car (MXC330). its 2,215 cc sohc engine consumed fuel at an alarming 12 mpg, and would wind up to an indicated 80 mph, if one was brave, or a foolhardy youth. After 6 months or so, the sodium filled exhaust valves started to burn (a common problem), and I schemed to fit a 3.8 Jaguar XK engine. Lacking the necessary facilities, skills, and finance, to put this into practice, I paid the local Council £2 to take it away.
A comfortably off uncle felt sorry for me, offering a couple of years worth of advance birthday and Christmas presents in cash form, which led to an Austin Healey 3000 Mk 2, identical in colour and wheels to this one:
a tad less pristine, much less so after I spun it, hitting a tree, and wiping off the bodywork aft of the rear axle.
A couple of months later, a motorcycle accident, entirely the fault of the Ford Classic driver, whose car the bike almost cut in half, provided the wherewithal to buy:
A brand new, but by then out of production, and offered at hefty discounts, Jaguar 340 manual with overdrive. A car I had yearned for since my elder brother had let me drive his 3.4 Mk1 the day I got my provisional licence at 17.
Seriously cool transport for an 18 year old engineering apprentice. No, of course I couldn't really afford to run it, but it did use less fuel than the Wolseley, or the Healey, but insurance for a year cost about five weeks wages, and it ate tyres, especially rear ones. And front. On the other hand, it was almost 50mph faster than the typical teen transport of a Mini, or Ford Anglia.
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Last Edit: Nov 26, 2021 18:07:10 GMT by etypephil
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Nov 26, 2021 12:00:02 GMT
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Even if you couldn't really afford to run it, that Jaguar was a very sensible buy. Given what was available in the UK at that time, I would have spent it all on something crazy, uncomfortable, and unreliable...  |
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Nov 26, 2021 17:47:09 GMT
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Even if you couldn't really afford to run it, that Jaguar was a very sensible buy. Given what was available in the UK at that time, I would have spent it all on something crazy, uncomfortable, and unreliable... In a perverse way you are quite right; if I hadn't bought the Jag, I would doubtless have spunked the compensation money and had nothing to show for it when two and a half years later, with an expectant mother girlfriend, I got married and needed to buy a house. The sale of the Jag netted around £900, which represented 50% of the purchase price of a very run down, heating and bathroomless, 2.5 bedroomed terraced house to renovate, modernise, and live in, the balance being borrowed. Given the typical depreciation of bigger engined cars, a loss of around 30%, although a shock to me at the time, with hindsight wasn't too bad.
The bad bit was having to suffer one of these:
a very tatty £25 one.
It got worse; the Anglia failed its MOT a few months later on underbody corrosion which by then I had the skills to repair, but not personal access to the necessary equipment. Salvation, of sorts, came in the form of father in law's neighbour, who had a pristine, bought new, Prefect 100E
sitting in the garden with knocking big ends. Mine for a fiver, two hours to exchange the broken engine for the Anglia one, aided by a very muscular mate, as I had no lifting gear, a walked through MOT, and I was mobile again. The Prefect was in the very smart, sober two tone maroon / grey, so I painted it bright orange with two black go faster stripes offset to the left. Very cool, IMO, at the time.
Completion of my apprenticeship brought a hefty pay rise, enabling the Prefect to be replaced by an Allardette
a supercharged Anglia 105E, which I kept for about a year, using it for local club sprints local sprints as well as daily transport.
An interesting new job, as a sales engineer for a specialist lubricant manufacturer came with a company Escort 1300L; HYX344K in Tawny, very similar to the one below:
Remarkably, my employer allowed us to make minor modifications, such as fitting a Peco exhaust, and wider wheels. Mine were steels, not the fancy alloys like the one in the photo. As small cars go, it was ok, but lacked grunt and the all round drum brakes were rubbish. At 18 months, and 55,000 miles the engine was well past its best, and the company replaced it.
My power and brake grumbles applied much less to another (simultaneous) Escort which a mate and I built from an 1100 base model which had fought an Austin Princess 4 litre R, and lost. We pulled the front rails straight (ish) by inserting long solid bars in the open ends, tugging and comparing measurements with my company transport, beat the living daylights out of the inner wings, fitted new outer wings, used disc brakes and struts from a 1340 Classic, afair, the engine from a wrecked Mk1 Lotus Cortina, and a roll cage, making ourselves an Escort Twin Cam, for about 25% of the cost. We competed in sprints fairly successfully, until John hit a tree stump on the way home from the pub one evening, sending it end over end.
My employer replaced the 1300L with a 1.3 Marina Coupe which I considered uncool, until I discovered that there was no need to row it along with the gear lever, as one did with Fords of similar capacity and claimed power. I fitted wider steels to this too; Dunlop 5.5Js, more commonly found on Triumph Spitfires and GT6s.
Mine, registered RLU277L, was in virgin white, like the one in the photo:
Many more to come.
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Last Edit: Nov 26, 2021 18:28:11 GMT by etypephil
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Nov 26, 2021 19:39:00 GMT
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Suddenly a must read thread.
I am so pleased we have a few more cars to come.
Thank you Phil.
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Nov 26, 2021 21:46:23 GMT
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A great thread, I'm amazed you can remember your company cars, I haven't a clue what I've had over the last 20 odd years!
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Nov 26, 2021 23:37:54 GMT
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A great thread, I'm amazed you can remember your company cars, I haven't a clue what I've had over the last 20 odd years! Thanks, but not too difficult for me to remember the only two company cars, other than ones from my own business. It was a novelty in those days, and a real financial benefit, rather than a tax incurring liability. |
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#12 was a 1964 MGB roadster, in ivory, or whatever BMC called "not quite white", with the standard steel wheels. Its doppleganger is below:
Bought for peanuts from a bod going to live in Switzerland the following day, I kept it for a couple of years alongside other cars, before selling it to a UoE student.
Thinking about a change of day job, as being smartly turned out, and fully occupied during normal "office hours" made it difficult to run my car business, I would need something to replace the company Marina when I left.
My loss on the 340 made me realise what a bargain used Jags were; for less than the price of the most mundane small saloon, one could buy a bank manager's / robber's 3.8 Mk2, so I did:
Carmen red, mine had chrome wires and a black interior.
Some potential customers were put off by the Jag, seeing it as "a bit flash" so I relegated it to private use only, and took a Wolseley 18/85 Mk2 from stock to use as a business car. Damask Red, matching fake leather interior,
extremely spacious and competent, although it did suffer a couple of Hydrolastic suspension problems. RCF846H It's strange that I remember some registration numbers from so far in the past, yet have no idea about others, even much more recent ones.
The Jag went in favour of a Capri 3000 GT:
which I quickly regretted, renaming it the Crapi. It was fun to drive, in a tail happy way, and made a glorious racket, but more cramped, less comfortable, didn't handle as well, and despite being almost half a ton lighter, was slower and used more fuel than the Jag. Ironically, if they both still existed in the same condition, the Ford would be worth more.
A Sunbeam Tiger 4.2 in took the Capri's place (sorry, I couldn't find a bright yellow one on line)
apart from the obvious of being a convertible, in most respects similar to its predecessor; all the right noises, a great deal of promise, but short on delivery.
I think that makes sixteen so far, and it's still the early 1970s.
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Last Edit: Nov 27, 2021 5:33:38 GMT by etypephil
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My new day job hadn't worked out so well, my wife was divorcing me, and ducking and diving in the car and property games for a living was hard going, so I consoled myself with a Mk VII Jaguar:
mine was in faded beige and ferrous oxide, the plan being to remove the body and fabricate something along the lines of the 1920s Le Mans Bentleys. That did not occur. And a pair of E-Types, neither being the best example in the world, both FHCs, one a 1962 car with the spot welded in bonnet louvres the other, one of the very last 3.8s from 1964 which had leatherette dash and console rather than the engine turned aluminium, and a few other features of the later 4.2.
I replaced the floor and sills of the early car, used it for a few months while preparing CWB664B for long term ownership, then sold it to a mate who promptly wrote it off.
As soon as I put the keeper on the road somebody poured brake fluid / paint stripper / some other corrosive substance over the bonnet,
giving me the excuse for its umpteenth colour change
I obtained a Jaguar publication entitled "Tuning And Preparation Of E-Type Cars For Competition Use", followed the advice therein, additionally having a .060" overbore, and removing .050" from the cylinder head face. Then thrashed the living daylights out of it for seven years and 217,000 miles, by which time I perceived the need for some structural welding, flared arches, bolt on Wolfrace wheels, the loss of bumpers, and another colour change:
Then I sold it. It's still on the road, now red and further modified, not to my taste though:
#20 was another Jag; 996MPX a 1961 Mk X
which gave comfortable, reliable, if not exactly frugal service for a year until I decided to move back to London, where I would have room to park just the one car.
At the same time, I abandoned an Austin A40 Sports, for which I had great, but unfulfilled plans:
A couple of years, another move, another wife, and another sprog on the way, necessitated something with space for wife, large dog, and carrycot; a Mercedes Benz 280SE 3.5 seemed appropriate, and it was (relatively) cheap:
Mine was black.
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Last Edit: Nov 28, 2021 5:27:29 GMT by etypephil: Lame typing, as usual.
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Loving this thread.
What did those atrocious headlights on CWB664B come from? They look vaguely Citroen to me.
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Brilliant, brilliant thread,
Loving your reminiscing, I remember so many of the cars, a number of which "my Dad had" to use the oft used line,
Looking forward to seeing future updates,
Nigel
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BMW E39 525i Sport
BMW E46 320d Sport Touring (now sold on.)
BMW E30 325 Touring (now sold on.)
BMW E30 320 Cabriolet (Project car - currently for sale.)
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Loving this thread. What did those atrocious headlights on CWB664B come from? They look vaguely Citroen to me. Peugeot 206/207 maybe? |
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Last Edit: Nov 27, 2021 9:59:58 GMT by jasellan
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Nov 27, 2021 13:55:45 GMT
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Thanks gentlemen, if I can make one person smile each day, then I'm happy. I suspect that jasellan is right about the headlamps; also suggested by someone elsewhere.
My wife wanted to learn to drive, so I bought a Triumph Spitfire 4 very much like this one:
as I thought neither the E-Type, nor the automatic Mercedes suitable for that purpose.
The Mercedes was generally good, bar a few electrical troubles which I didn't expect, one of which stopped the car on the road, miraculously curing itself after of half an hour of fiddling, but not really finding anything obviously wrong. I was already a bit miffed about the price of service parts for it; about five times the price of equivalent Jag parts. Confidence in it gone, as was the car itself shortly afterwards, but not before I had purchased the scruffiest, smokiest, manual (a very rare beast) Daimler 250 V8 in existence MOL6F, like this one, but not nearly as nice:
and replaced the clapped out 2.5 litre engine with a 4.6 litre one from a Majestic Major:
The engine was externally a little bigger all round, but was an easy conversion; nuts and bolts, plus a few brackets. Keeping the original axle ratio ensured that it accelerated like a scalded cat, but ran out of rpm in overdrive at about 120mph.
A white V12 E-Type roadster similar to this
joined the fleet for a short while. I would probably like it now, but found it a bit soft for my taste at the time; I wanted a really hardcore sports car to play in, couldn't afford a 427 Cobra, even then they were mega£, so took what I was familiar with, a 3.8 E-Type, and commenced building a special, having only a vague idea of how I would make a body for it. Fortuitously there was a letter in Classic Car magazine from someone very local asking for identification of a GRP sports car body that they had acquired. I recognised it as a Falcon Competition shell; eminently suitable for my needs
and doorstepped the writer taking it off his hands for £40.
frequently fitted to Elvas powered by an 1,100cc Coventry Climax engine.
I fabricated a box section tubular chassis to accept the Jag engine, gearbox, and running gear, the rear suspension being removed from its cage,
the E-Type wheelbase being reduced by 6" to match that of the Falcon body, making it very cramped indeed. The Local Vehicle inspector accepted the Jaguar ID plate, and allowed me to keep the registration number 167CYT.
No surviving photos of the finished car, just a couple of polaroids taken when under construction. 
The engine was modified as CWB664B's, the complete car weighed less than 1,000kgs, so it marched on a bit.
Eventually I sold it via the Exchange & Mart to a Norwegian who sent me cash through the post, in a well wrapped parcel, then collected the car a few weeks later with several friends in vans, dismantling it on the road outside my house, explaining that this was the only way to import it without paying a 350% inflation adjusted tax on the new list price of the vehicle on which it was based. And we think we have it tough.
During the five year project several other cars came, and went:
#27;- A 2 door Mk2 Ford Cortina GT, half fitted with a Rover 3.5 V8 and automatic gearbox when purchased a lot like this, but with fatter wheels:
All the hard work was done, just some wiring and tidying up to do. Great fun at the traffic light GP, only sold to make way, and help with funding one of these:
A Mk1 Jensen Interceptor. Ideal family transport; four seats, just two doors (so that the kids can't fall out, and 6.3 litres of Chrysler V8, delivering 9mpg, on a good day.
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Last Edit: Nov 28, 2021 5:25:57 GMT by etypephil
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Rob M
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,915
Club RR Member Number: 41
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Nov 27, 2021 19:06:06 GMT
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Ok, I'm hooked!!
I love these type of threads, thank you!
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Nov 27, 2021 19:36:17 GMT
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Good stuff! Crack on! Very entertaining. |
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1968 Mini MkII, 1968 VW T1, 1967 VW T1, 1974 VW T1, 1974 VW T1 1303, 1975 Mini 1000 auto, 1979 Chevette, 1981 Cortina, 1978 Mini 1000 1981 Mini City, 1981 Mini van, 1974 Mini Clubman, 1982 Metro City, 1987 Escort, 1989 Lancia Y10, 1989 Cavalier, 1990 Sierra, 1990 Renault 19, 1993 Nova, 1990 Citroen BX, 1994 Ford Scorpio, 1990 Renault Clio, 2004 Citroen C3, 2006 Citroen C2, 2004 Citroen C4, 2013 Citroen DS5. 2017 DS3 130 Plenty of other scrappers!
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Nov 28, 2021 15:53:53 GMT
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#29 An odd choice for a bloke in his mid 20s, it was offered to me at a very attractive price by a pub landlord being chased by creditors; the type of creditors with whom he needed to settle accounts this afternoon, as it were. It was an early model with the 6.2 litre engine, almost the same as the Jensen, but much, much less powerful. Nicely appointed, but I can't imagine anyone being old enough to feel at home in one, not even 45 years later.
I kept it for three months, selling at an embarrassing profit.
Another Jag, Mk IX this time:
a lumbering old bus like the Bentley, but a little quicker, and more sure footed. I kept it for about six months, selling it to a Manchester dealer in the Alexandra Palace car park after attending a classic car auction there.
Due another career diversion, necessitating a return to college, I also sold the Daimler, which I enjoyed, replacing it with ROC898G, which was a clone of this:
Triumph Herald 13/60 convertible; I think that the 60 referred to its maximum speed, in mph. It was ok in that it did the job, albeit very slowly and noisily. Not a nice sort of noise though.
Since returning to the London area, I had been combining my car business with buying a run down newsagent shop, building up trade, selling as a successful going concern, and repeating. By now on my third, the 7 day week, starting at 05.00 was wearing thin, and computer programming was the in thing, hence college, study, and having no income, the need for cheap transport.
Gaining my Diploma, I blagged myself a contract in the Middle East, where such things as 454 Corvettes like this:
and 5.3 Jags like this:
were almost valueless on the used market. The downside being that they could not be exported when one returned home. Which I did after a couple of years, having learned that engineering, motors and the property game were my home, not sweating over core dumps in an office.
Back home found me in an eight year old BMW 3.0 Csi, which had been fitted with a later 3.5 litre engine, and five speed gearbox, identical in appearance to this one:
Much sharper than one might expect from the archaic steering box and Macpherson strut front / semi trailing arm rear suspension. A bit frilly around the edges, it felt flimsily constructed given the original price, but it was a properly quick car.
Still with money burning a hole in my pocket, I also bought a Mercedes Benz 450 SLC, in JRG:
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Last Edit: Nov 28, 2021 16:18:18 GMT by etypephil
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philsford
Part of things
Posts: 733
Club RR Member Number: 100
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Nov 28, 2021 20:40:48 GMT
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Great thread and you have had some great cars so far. We'll done for remembering them, I can remember my first few years of living at home but since having my own place and having multiple cars at a time it gets all cloudy in my mind. I might just sit here for a while and try and count them.
Looking forward to next post.
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Great thread and you have had some great cars so far. We'll done for remembering them, I can remember my first few years of living at home but since having my own place and having multiple cars at a time it gets all cloudy in my mind. I might just sit here for a while and try and count them. Looking forward to next post. Thanks, I have, but have also had some very mundane cars during hard times, coming up later. Memory is aided by having compiled a list to contribute elsewhere a few years ago, and going through it recently in conjunction with a box of photos which my ex wife found in her loft, and returned to me. |
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Your ex sounds a lot friendlier than mine mate. I'd be lucky to get the time of day.
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The Mercedes was deceptively quick, by the standards of the day; probably as quick as the concurrent BMW, but much more refined, and far better put together it seemed, until withoout warning, the timing chain snapped at around 41,000 miles.  I was struggling to re establish myself back in England, and had neither the time nor money to investigate the failure and rebuild the engine, so a used one from a scrapped saloon went in, and the car disposed of. The E-Type special, which had been in storage at the in laws' while I was abroad, also went to bolster funds.
A Humber Sceptre, YOO972F, provided reliable transport
although I was never able to fix the overdrive, which worked when it felt like it.
A Renault 4 seemed like a good idea at the time
it wasn't; random electrical faults (remarkable considering the lack of gadgets), and water poured in through the windscreen "seal" when it rained. I gave it to someone I didn't particularly like.
A Morris 1000 van, GNO975B
and a Hillman Imp were next up; the van to carry my tools around a couple of engineering companies who were using me on an ad hoc basis, and the Imp for family stuff; shopping etc. The Imp eventually blew its cylinder head gasket, upon trying to remove the head, a couple of the bolts snapped, so I scrapped it. The Morris started to fall apart after a year, but at least earned its keep. That I scrapped too.
The next bad deal was a Vauxhall Viva GT similar to this one:
I barely remember what it drove like, but I do remember spending hours under its bonnet getting it to run properly. An enthusiast of the marque bought it after seeing me working on it outside the house.
Things looked up with a new "day job" (actually on the nightshift) as a precision grinder, and RVX862M, an £80 MOT failure 1974 Marina TC!
all it needed was new sills. It did the job of family transport, getting me to and from my workshop, and the 24 mile A12 commute to PAYE-land without a murmur surprising both myself and a BMW 2002 owning colleague when he could not stay with the Morris on the A12. I eventually part exchanged it for a Motor Torpedo Boat project.
An Alfasud Ti KGS252N simultaneously provided my driving entertainment until rust killed it very suddenly. The only FWD car that I have ever gelled with.
Meanwhile, a Triumph Herald Estate like this one, but with a mildly tweaked engine, took over the previous van duties.
Fun came in the form of a Triumph Spitfire Mk3, WNK865E, a bit like this, but with Dunlop 5.5Js, and a subtle bulge in the bonnet to clear the front of the 2.5 Petrol Injection engine:
I bought it from a chap who was working part time for me at the workshop, and had carried out the conversion for himself. It came to me with wire wheels, but one of the hub splines stripped on the way back from MOT, so I fitted the steel wheels which I had originally bought for my first (company) Marina. It really was quick, embarrassing more than one 911 on the road. I sold it to a young cop who crashed it a few weeks later.
The year is 1981 / 1982, 44 down, 46 to come, if my arithmetic, and memory are correct
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Last Edit: Nov 29, 2021 6:30:20 GMT by etypephil: Grammar.
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Sold after a month for £10, so I was £3 up so far. 
I was struggling to re establish myself back in England, and had neither the time nor money to investigate the failure and rebuild the engine, so a used one from a scrapped saloon went in, and the car disposed of. The E-Type special, which had been in storage at the in laws' while I was abroad, also went to bolster funds.
