Armrests ?

[Blatto]

10 hours ago, isetta said:

They were good, but the worse thing about cars of that era were there were so low geared.In 1982 my brother had 1971 Cortina Mk3 2000GXL  . I had 1971 Vauxhall VX4/90 (which is like a GT version of 2000cc Vauxhall Victor)

I had a K  reg 2000GXL, blue with a black vinyl roof,  whatever year that was 72/73 maybe? And I remember trips up to Norfolk in my mates dad's VX4 90, was quite quick for it's day but full of rust. I can remember we hit some fairly deep standing water around the Thetford Forest area and the car instantly filled up with water above ankle deep from a hole in the floor .😮

8 hours ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

I remember reading a test on the first 1500 Maxi - they said something like: " It seems to have 50 gear positions, 49 of them neutral". They improved it a bit when the 1750 was added to the range, but I never remember the Maxi and the similar engined Allegros having a good change.

 

My Uncle had a 1750 Maxi in Maroon red, I used to slide all over the back seats when he went round corners. I seem to remember them being like polished leather and with no seatbelts in those days I spent most of the journey banging into the doors on either side. Gearbox used to whine a lot if i remember correctly , unless that was just his dodgy box.

 

9 hours ago, TomsFocus said:

Oh it's not just the arm...my clutch leg gets tired too...

Sounds like you need to buy a new years Gym subscription. Lucky you didn't have cars from the 70's and 80's, todays cars are as light as a feather to drive compared to them. Your leg would have needed a rest after reversing off the drive 🤣 

[isetta]

"Bachmann Turner 5th gear" just doesn't have the same ring to it.    I have three of their LPs in a box upstairs.

I did have a some other cars with overdrive on also - Triumph Spitfire 1500, Dolomite 1850, Scimitar SE5A.

There is an advantage to overdrive over a 5th gear. That being you do not need to declutch, just flick the switch. So in winding country lanes put the lever in third and flick switch on and off to change between 3rd and 3rd + overdrive (which was about the same as 4th) in and out of the bends. 

What and when were the last cars to have overdrive available on a manual gearbox? 

[TomsFocus]

30 minutes ago, Blatto said:

Sounds like you need to buy a new years Gym subscription. Lucky you didn't have cars from the 70's and 80's, todays cars are as light as a feather to drive compared to them. Your leg would have needed a rest after reversing off the drive 🤣 

Haha, my first car (well first 4!) were 306s...clutch cable on those was draped around the exhaust for the RHD models so it dries out quickly...  Time I bought them the clutches were near impossible to use! Don't know how I managed back then! :laugh:.  Then I fitted a new clutch to one (was my mates, I didn't go around wasting money like that lol) and realised how light even a cable clutch could be when new!!

They did at least all have PAS though...  I had a horrible poverty 106 non-turbo diesel as a stop gap in 2012...no PAS, no ABS, no electrics...tbh it could've been produced in the 70s!! :lol:. Even on the tiny 13s it was a work out steering into tight parallel spaces!

 

 

[Eric Bloodaxe]

29 minutes ago, isetta said:

What and when were the last cars to have overdrive available on a manual gearbox? 

Now that's a good question. At a first guess I would have thought some of the BL cars like the MG B that lingered on past their sell by date into the 80's? But Volvo used a similar Laycock unit into the 70's at least, so will be fascinated if anyone has the answer.

I seem to remember the bigger engined Triumphs  - TRs, Stag etc - having o/d on 2nd/3rd/4th effectively giving 7 ratios. 

As usual, we seemed to have somewhat strayed from the original topic!😀

[Blatto]

59 minutes ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

As usual, we seemed to have somewhat strayed from the original topic!

Well it keeps the forums interesting and lively.👍

[Bobr]

I can still remember the reg number of my first car (van) YTV 962.   How many can?

[Eric Bloodaxe]

18 minutes ago, Bobr said:

I can still remember the reg number of my first car (van) YTV 962.   How many can?

9081SP😀

[isetta]

I remember the older ones better than the more recent ones. I think it’s because the part of my brain that remembers that kind of stuff is full and there is no room for newer stuff. 

[mozz]

I remember my dads Moggie 1000 was 873 DNU. 

[TomsFocus]

My first was R792 WHJ...it was 'only' 10 years ago though.   Then Y414 DBD, X763 OBD, X128 ENH, YC51 AEZ, S663 SDX, LN52 FOJ, AY52 KPT, X69 RCP, W763 JNN, VO06 YUS, X471 EDU...the list goes on!  I can't remember most of the recent ones though...I even forget my current Golf despite owning it for over 18 months now...  Weird how the mind works!  

Oddly I can remember all of the letters on my parents cars but apparently not the number sequence so these are as close as I can get...D128 OAR (Volvo 340) N912 TBD (K11 Micra), L762 WDX (Mk1 Mondeo), F818 EFL (Mk3 Cavalier).  The odd thing is, looking back those cars actually weren't particularly old when they owned them, yet they look really dated in my mind.  Particularly the Cav which I absolutely hated...we totally ruined it on holiday one year, unknown electrical fault where it wouldn't restart after stopping, AA man just poked it and it started in the Motorway services...then we moved a few yards to get petrol...and it wouldn't start again!  That pretty much set the tone for the rest of the ~6 hour journey...  I remember it being sat on the drive the next day with all of us hating it and being full of faults, sunroof stuck open, visor snapped and hanging down with the headlining, rusty bodywork, pair of scissors in the glovebox because the passenger seatbelt buckle wouldn't release everytime…  And being F reg it would have only been about 10 years old at the time! 😮  

Then there was the L reg Mondeo GLX (I still remember the feel of the velour!)...we pulled out of Tesco petrol station and the auto-box completely gave up...just wouldn't select any gear so we rolled to the side of the roundabout and waited there for what seemed an eternity.  Oddly, with hindsight we were literally outside of a 24 hour Tesco yet we didn't go in there...all remained in the car waiting for the recovery!  Shortly after that we lost the exhaust on holiday at a farm cottage...  The farmer met us at the top of the road and my Dad, with his typical, but often annoying, foresight, said 'can you warn us of any bumps in the middle as I've got a very low slung exhaust'...'yeah, yeah' said the farmer...minutes later the exhaust was on the floor!   Que the first holiday trip being to a tyre and exhaust garage!  I wonder now if the rubbers had snapped and he just didn't bother fixing it before the holiday...I don't remember seeing anyone else complain of low exhausts on Mk1 Mondeos?  

[Nick Y]

11 hours ago, Bobr said:

I can still remember the reg number of my first car (van) YTV 962.   How many can?

I can remember pretty much every car registration my family has had over the last 30 years (except the last few as rarely seen them) and all my own too (except 1). 
The first car my dad had from when I can remember (age 5) was a white mk2 Ford Granada BWX 582Y. Had many family caravan holidays to France in this vehicle. 
My first car was a black Mk1 phase 2 Renault clio 1.2  RL Oasis P128 PUA (later written off by the lad I sold it to). 

[isetta]

At school I was always embarrassed about my Dad's cars. My friend's Dads were getting new cars. I can remember one buying a brand new Morris Marina as they first came out and everyone was: wow! look at those cool door handles.

My Dad always had 'old' cars which seemed ancient then but actually were not all that old (like Toms Focus says). He had a Morris Minor van(289 BBP), Anglia 105E (YCD 104), Mk1 Cortina Estate MPD 645D,  Cortina Mk2 low spec model but 2 door! - very rare in 2 door NKM 445F.   And then he got a Renault 4 - not very old when he bought it but not cool at all.

When my kids were young I had even older cars so I probably treated them to more embarrassment than I got. 

My first car was a tatty mk3 cortina estate. 2nd was Vauxhall VX4/90 mentioned above. As I worked for an insurance company when I was 19 I could get cheap insurance. you got 25% staff discount, and also 10% commission and the best part was, if you were under 25 they rated you as 25 yrs old as because you worked there you must be a decent sort of person and not a young tearaway? The insurance for a 'GT' car like VX4/90 would have been too much otherwise. 

vx4/90 in same colour as mine

https://www.ebay.co.uk/i/133271700008?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=710-134428-41853-0&mkcid=2&itemid=133271700008&targetid=522577553743&device=c&mktype=pla&googleloc=1006565&poi=&campaignid=7412990545&mkgroupid=76068633770&rlsatarget=pla-522577553743&abcId=1139356&merchantid=7253684&gclid=CjwKCAiAmNbwBRBOEiwAqcwwpUS5k1L_olEwxDrJjuqnDO0UuD8O9gFxTGHluQfxwG-PsPzFvoFT_hoCqr0QAvD_BwE

[Eric Bloodaxe]

17 minutes ago, isetta said:

At school I was always embarrassed about my Dad's cars. 

Not a problem for me as my Dad (like most other kid's Dad's) couldn't afford one😀. When I was at grammar school, only 3 Dads had cars, so I can still remember what they were. One had a Saab, which we thought was very cool, one had a Vauxhall Victor, and the other had an Austin A40.

[Guy Heaton]

So I was born 1970 and grew up on a council estate up north, where car ownership was not widespread.  😀

When my dad got his Rover P6 3.5 V8, which was a pretty classy car, the old bloke across the road would actually doff his cap as we drove down the road.

[TomsFocus]

I don't remember being embarrassed by my Dad's car at school as that was the late 90s when everyone's Dad drove a Mk1 Mondeo.  I wasn't really into cars though and it was just pretty boring I guess, being silver didn't help either...   My mates Mum had a classic orange Beetle which seemed much cooler!  

I think my Grandads car was probably the least cool at the school gates...an FSO Polonez…  Definitely don't see any of them nowadays!  My other grandad drove a massive Volvo estate, he needed a load lugger for boot sales & fayres.  Problem was his very strong Essex accent made it sound like a ladies private part...I was repeatedly told how to say it properly by my parents but didn't understand why at the time!   He eventually swapped it for an early 80s Aaahdee Coupe...I never could understand what the swapper got out of that but it was probably the coolest looking car I remember any relative having!*  Sadly he was well known for being one of the slowest drivers in the area (one single rural main road all the way down, slow drivers are not liked!) so it was probably never used properly...

*Oh yeah, I've just remembered my Uncle had a Marcos...I suppose that was pretty cool.  Only saw him once a year though, if that, so it wasn't a regular thing.  I only went out in it once and didn't like it tbh, was too fast and being a cabby very noisy as well, I never did like fun.  

 

[TomsFocus]

16 minutes ago, Guy Heaton said:

So I was born 1970 and grew up on a council estate up north, where car ownership was not widespread.  😀

When my dad got his Rover P6 3.5 V8, which was a pretty classy car, the old bloke across the road would actually doff his cap as we drove down the road.

Presumably he was walking his whippet and smoking a pipe at the time? 

I must admit I am surprised there was still such a big difference across the North South divide in the 70's!  My Dad was in his 20's driving an Escort Mexico around Chelmsford at the time!! 😮 

[eddie eastwood]

I remember the reg,s of a couple of my motor bikes 93UN and JUN26E one of the cars was NCA87M the only car that I bought brand new, others have been used or ex-demonstrators.

[Eric Bloodaxe]

20 minutes ago, TomsFocus said:

Presumably he was walking his whippet and smoking a pipe at the time? 

I must admit I am surprised there was still such a big difference across the North South divide in the 70's!  My Dad was in his 20's driving an Escort Mexico around Chelmsford at the time!! 😮 

Ah, an Essex boy eh?

A lot of miners used to keep whippets for hunting rabbits, which I think was partly because it was a fresh air pursuit and, when times were hard, which they often were, a source of meat. My Gran often had rabbit stew on the go. Pipes were similarly common, I think it was cheaper than cigarettes at the time, also you can spin pipe smoking out into a bit of a ritual so don't actually use much tobacco.

Taking any smoking equipment down the mine was of course an instant dismissal offence, so they enjoyed a smoke in their free time.

 

 

 

 

[Guy Heaton]

I think whippets were a Yorkshire thing.  I'm from sunny Lancashire.

[TomsFocus]

19 minutes ago, Eric Bloodaxe said:

Ah, an Essex boy eh?

A lot of miners used to keep whippets for hunting rabbits, which I think was partly because it was a fresh air pursuit and, when times were hard, which they often were, a source of meat. My Gran often had rabbit stew on the go. Pipes were similarly common, I think it was cheaper than cigarettes at the time, also you can spin pipe smoking out into a bit of a ritual so don't actually use much tobacco.

Taking any smoking equipment down the mine was of course an instant dismissal offence, so they enjoyed a smoke in their free time.

 

 

 

 

Yeah, my Dad's an Essex boy...but my step Dad's a Northerner so I have seen a bit of the north south divide lol, spent many weekends up north back in the day.  His Dad was a miner for his whole working life though a lot of that was as a supervisor so he certainly isn't poor now.

Now I think about it, smoking seems like such an odd thing for miners...  Ahhh fresh air, finally a break from all this coal dust...let's spark up a pipe...

As you mentioned rabbits, what I found really interesting a few years ago was asking my Nan (born 1930 in London) if she'd ever been able to deal with preparing animals for food and if we'd all become too squeamish now...  But she said no, neither her or her Mum (born 1890s!) could...but they knew one woman on the road who would kill and prep everyone's meat for them! 

 

[Eric Bloodaxe]

1 hour ago, TomsFocus said:

Now I think about it, smoking seems like such an odd thing for miners...  Ahhh fresh air, finally a break from all this coal dust...let's spark up a pipe...

It certainly does, looked at from today's perspective, but everybody smoked then. Just watch a few old B&W movies on the Talking Pictures TV channel - they're all at it. And of course  most people could have a smoke while they were at work, which miners couldn't, so I guess if you were a smoker you'd be gagging for a puff by the time you came up.

Most of the miners health was already shot by the time they retired, if they made it that far. One of my Grandads died soon after retiring, the other (amazingly) wheezed on until 82. He'd been very seriously injured down the pit during WW2, and told he wouldn't last long, so he probably thought his prolific intake of Woodbines wouldn't make much difference!

[wild_one]

On 1/7/2020 at 9:42 AM, TomsFocus said:

....................... It's odd because I can walk about 5 miles before starting to feel it, yet 15 minutes of town traffic and I'm struggling to hold the clutch bite with a quivering foot!

Sounds like your clutch is on the way out?

[Blatto]

I remember a few of my old cars Reg numbers but not that many. One that springs to mind is My old 1600 MKIV Cortina in tasteful brown/beige (or puppy ***** as my mum used to call it).

SLF 714R I remember that well as there was a TV series called Minder on TV at at the time with Denis Waterman playing Terry McCann. He had a Capri in that series and his plate was SLE 714R almost the same as mine 🙂

I have the VehicleSmart App on my Android based phone (don't know if it's available on IOS?)

A nice app for checking out cars over 3 years old, gives MOT details etc... It also has many old cars that still show up on the DVLA register my old Cortina is still listed, would've been 43 years old this year 🙂

9 hours ago, TomsFocus said:

My first was R792 WHJ

Using that app I can see Toms car was a Peugeot 306 1997 model 1360cc Petrol in Red and its full mot passes and failures. Last MOT listed was expiring on 19 May 2011, with 90,993 miles on the clock, WIndscreen damage and oil leak advisories🙂

[Blatto]

4 hours ago, wild_one said:

On 1/7/2020 at 9:42 AM, TomsFocus said:

....................... It's odd because I can walk about 5 miles before starting to feel it, yet 15 minutes of town traffic and I'm struggling to hold the clutch bite with a quivering foot!

Sounds like your clutch is on the way out?

Sounds like he's on the way out 😃

[TomsFocus]

4 hours ago, wild_one said:

Sounds like your clutch is on the way out?

Nah it's my body that's worn out!  Had several vital fluids leaking today as well.    I'm a perfect example of why condition matters far more than age!

I can hold the clutch down full, it's the 'gentle' balance on the bite I struggle with after a few miles...of course I could use the handbrake instead and just bang the clutch in when necessary but I prefer the smoothness (and laziness) of clutch abuse...

19 minutes ago, Blatto said:

I remember a few of my old cars Reg numbers but not that many. One that springs to mind is My old 1600 MKIV Cortina in tasteful brown/beige (or puppy ***** as my mum used to call it).

SLF 714R I remember that well as there was a TV series called Minder on TV at at the time with Denis Waterman playing Terry McCann. He had a Capri in that series and his plate was SLE 714R almost the same as mine 🙂

I have the VehicleSmart App on my Android based phone (don't know if it's available on IOS?)

A nice app for checking out cars over 3 years old, gives MOT details etc... It also has many old cars that still show up on the DVLA register my old Cortina is still listed, would've been 43 years old this year 🙂

Using that app I can see Toms car was a Peugeot 306 1997 model 1360cc Petrol in Red and its full mot passes and failures. Last MOT listed was expiring on 19 May 2011, with 90,993 miles on the clock, WIndscreen damage and oil leak advisories🙂

Indeed it was...  In Miami spec which came with manual windows and no central locking but an electric sunroof...

Also came with no ABS which I found out one dark, wet winters night with a very near miss!  Couldn't trust it after that so I sold it in Feb 2010 and bought an identical red 1.4 306 but facelifted in top spec instead!  Full electrics, climate control, auto wipers, half leathers etc!  Lasted a week before the failed headgasket built up so much pressure in the cooling system it blew a rad hose in a crowded terrace outside college...sounded like a gunshot, followed by the unmistakeable rainbow fluids running down the road and into the drains... 'You shoulda kept the old one'...'Yep, thanks mate'...

Oh, and it didn't have an armrest...

I too use that app...was given a free air freshener advertising it at a car show earlier this year and have been using it ever since...so the advert worked! 

 

19 minutes ago, Blatto said:

Sounds like he's on the way out 😃

Absolutely this...if I was a dog I'd have been put down by now...apparently you can't do the same for humans lol. Shame really as it'd drastically reduce CO2 & climate change, NHS strain and national debt...win win!