An old bloke's motoring history

[Wagon Sailor]

Right, I've bored members of another forum with something similar, and it's your turn now ...

I was into bikes. I had the jacket and went to the cafe, but without wheels. Then my dad came home with a bike-shaped tarpaulin on the back of his truck. The best dad in the world!

But it was a scooter. A Capri.



Dads can go from hero to zero, you know. Still, it was transport and it was worth swallowing my pride if it meant that I could get out of the village.


The first car I drove was my uncle's. He didn't know.





The scooter was thrashed and soon replaced by a nifty little Bantam:-






I learned to drive in one of these and was soon using it almost daily:-





After a bit of badgering, the company I worked for allowed me full use of a pool car ...





... until I bought a beast of my own from a pal. At two quid down and the rest over 4 months, it was a step down!









[to be continued]

[ITSv40]

Does rolling my pedal car at the age of three count? My first motoring accident and still have the scar on my right knee 61 years later.

[Wagon Sailor]

Originally Posted by ITSv40

Does rolling my pedal car at the age of three count? My first motoring accident and still have the scar on my right knee 61 years later.

Of course it counts. If you don't lose it at least once, you're not trying hard enough ...

[Triple-S]

Sorry to be a nerd, Sailor, but your 'Bantam' picture is a BSA C15 250cc four-stroke rather than a two-stroke. My first was a Fanny Barnet at the tender age of 14, which I used whilst an apprentice (so we all swapped bikes almost daily - one being a Bantam another a Tiger Cub) then right up the British bike range via Royal Enfield, AJS, Norton Dominator and Triumph Tiger 100. Saw the light re courting (!) and had a phase 1 Standard Vanguard with column-change therefore bench front seat! Not so easy in our side-valve Ford Pop but that's because by then I was married and had a house!
Nice subject though.

P

[Baxlin]

No photos, but my early years:

16th birthday present from my parents, an Excelsior Consort, 98cc of raw two-stoke power - girder forks, 'hard tail' rear end, so sprung saddle. Early 1950s vintage. This was in 1963.

Lambretta LD150, quickly sold on passing my test, still age 16, to buy a

Norton Model 50 (350cc single), a big (ish) bike but a bit underpowered as it shared the cycle parts with the 500cc ES2 and the 600 (650?) 19s.

Passed my car test soon after 17th b'day, and sort of inherited a 1937 Morris 8 soft-top Tourer, when it failed its MOT. Repaired it, used it for a few months
before buying a 1953 100e Anglia, which used copious amounts of oil....

I was still at school, but running both bike and car, funded by playing drums in a 'group', the then description of a band, and having regular 'bookings' (the word gig not yet having been invented!)

Trouble was, this played havoc with my school work, resulting in disastrous A-level results.......

[john.wigley]

Originally Posted by ITSv40

Does rolling my pedal car at the age of three count? My first motoring accident and still have the scar on my right knee 61 years later.

Talking of pedal cars, this is yours truly (aged 4 1/4) in my Austin Pathfinder decked out for the coronation in 1953. It was a much loved and played with possession, very much second-hand when I got it, and passed on to another young lad shortly afterwards.

I've just checked, and see that they are now making c£5K on ebay (!), more than all three of our present cars would make all together!!!

Regards, John.

[ITSv40]

Originally Posted by john.wigley

Talking of pedal cars, this is yours truly (aged 4 1/4) in my Austin Pathfinder decked out for the coronation in 1953. It was a much loved and played with possession, very much second-hand when I got it, and passed on to another young lad shortly afterwards.

I've just checked, and see that they are now making c£5K on ebay (!), more than all three of our present cars would make all together!!!

Regards, John.

Mine wasn't as smart as that, but I do remember it being made of metal by Triang and red with a chrome grille and bumpers. No idea if it was modelled on an actual car and no doubt it would have been very secondhand.

I still remember the accident: I was out in the farmyard pedalling like mad across the cobbles, took a left turn too sharp and promptly rolled it, resulting in me being tipped out and cutting my knee on the cobbles.

I remember crying and howling whilst having my knee attended too and worrying about the state of the car. Every time I notice the scar, the memories come flooding back.

[Wagon Sailor]

Originally Posted by Triple-S

Sorry to be a nerd, Sailor, but your 'Bantam' picture is a BSA C15 250cc four-stroke rather than a two-stroke. ... (so we all swapped bikes almost daily - one being a Bantam another a Tiger Cub)

You're right, of course. I've never had a Bantam. I have no idea what kind of senior moment made me misname the thing! I did have C15, though, which was traded up for a Tiger Cub:-





The Minx lasted no more than 100 miles before the half-shaft broke. I pushed it into a churchyard and left a note saying it was a present. I replaced it with a £25 wonder, a Standard 8 that ran and ran.






I changed jobs. Like many motorcycle dealers at the time, the place I moved had franchises for 3-wheeler manufacturers. I used to go to Reliant once a week or so, usually to pick up the latest Supervan III. Only twice did I collect a Scimitar GT coupe. Funnily enough, on both occasions I was too late getting back and had to take the car home for the night …

But the real hoot was the Bond 875 with the Imp engine in the back. This example was unsaleable, so was used by apprentices (remember them?) to play with. It had over 65bhp by the time I ran it as a commuter: or about 160bhp/tonne. Honestly, you could get the front wheel off the ground! We ended up having to fit a coal yard weight next to the front axle.









The Standard ran a big-end bearing while on holiday in Dorset. I scrapped it, saved up some pennies and bought a tidy ‘sports saloon’. Fitted with larger twin SUs and a bigger coil, it was (sort of) hot for its day. I’d like another one.





I'd also like another one of these.


Somebody broke the Bond and my boss let me use a car out of his own garage until it was sold. Luckily, he wanted too much for it and it took a while to find a buyer.



And then my girlfriend and her younger brother wanted to learn to drive. The MG went and we bought this between us for pennies. We thought it would last just long enough. It did better than that and we ended up sharing it, 3 months at a time.

[EssexExile]

The Tiger Cub was great for pulling birds.

[Wagon Sailor]

Uncanny! The lady in the sling looks a bit like one of my aunts (who lived in Essex) and the one on the right like my sister!


On with the story:


I used to run a Zephyr like this when it wasn’t my turn with the Austin. It was my girlfriend’s Granny’s. We took it everywhere. It even climbed the Gavia Pass in the days before it was fully paved.






‘Brother’ rolled the Cambridge into an East Anglian irrigation ditch and I needed a car. Triumph Heralds were better than their reputation (and/or were easy to fix …)





Five up to Germany? No trouble! Dad’s first brand new car was an Austin 1300. Why he’d let an idiot like me use it, I can’t say. He did though. A lot.



I used to buy them; mate #1 used to sell them; mate #2 was the tweaker and twiddler. Mate#1 had a bit of a run-in with the tax man and our little part-time business fizzled out before it could get going. But not before I got lucky. We’d run the cars we dealt in on a rota basis. On one of my turns I became the custodian of this for a short while – but not long enough. Naturally, this is another that I wish I’d been able to keep.







Living on the Norfolk marshes for a bit, I sold the Herald and used this instead:-