When did the classic car bug bite?

Around 1963, I was a teenager hitch-hiking, and an elderly gent in an old Aston Martin DB 2 gave me a lift. This elderly gent was so doddery that he seemed to be barely in control of the car and I was fearful for my life for the whole ride. But his enthusiasm and what he told me about the car is probably what started me off.

The date being 28 Jan 2010, "Alistair Ross" decided to write:

My elder brother (by 10 years) had a succession of interesting cars including an MG P and Riley Imp and Sprite. When I was a pre-teenager I would walk two or three miles down the road to meet him coming home from work just for the ride.

About 10 years ago I guess. My mate at the time had a MG Midget, and the idea of having a car to tinker with along with free tax & cheap insurance appealed to me.

I went out in search, found an Austin A40 Farina which made a perfect first resto project, and have been hooked ever since. At one point I had

14 cars round here - now down to just the 10, 7 of which are Mini variants!

I've grown up with them. Ever since I was a nipper, my Dad owned Classic Daimlers, in fact he remembers having to fit curtains into the back of his 1954 Daimler Conquest because my Mother needed to breastfeed me in the back on the long journeys and she was NOT going to have lorry drivers seeing her doing it. That was in 1979.

By the age of 4-5 I was to be found at weekends helping my Dad with repairing/servicing the cars - he had some 6 Daimlers at that time, including a one-off special developed for ITN as an outside camera broadcast vehicle, it looked like a Morris Traveller only about twice the size. If I was ever missing from home when not at school, my parents would go 3 doors down the road to my Grandads house/yard, where he ran a car repair business. Or more than likely ring them up and tell me to come home. At the age of 10 I remember assisting my Dad welding a car floor, and being required to run backwards and forwards to the kitchen with milk bottles full of water to put out the carpet which had caught fire.

By the age of 17 I was learning to drive, and on passing my test couldnt wait to take one of the Conquests out for a drive. Owning a rather decrepit Vauxhall Nova at that time meant that I had plenty of opportunity. If ever the Nova wouldn't start I could simply jump intot the Conquest knowing that it would never let me down. By that time I was also responsible for much of the maintenance, my father being too busy working in the City to do the jobs himself.

At 19 I defied my Dad and bought without his permission my first classic car, a 1965 Series 2 Landrover, the start of my bug for classic landrovers. A situation that has been repeated on two futher occasions with the dicktat "No more landrovers" being ignored. Now he doesnt bother saying no, just swears when I turn up with another car. The landrover bug continues unabated to this day, 12 years later, although any classic car will grab my attention, particularly if I see it being used activly. I hate to see classics sitting in garages for

364 days of the year.

The current fleet between me and my father consists of a S2 Bentley, 3 Series2/3 landrovers, 2 Classic Range Rovers and 5 Vauxhall Senators. The Daimlers having sadly been disposed of a few years ago. However there are enough car parts around here to build at least a couple more vehicles.

Alex

Well, it is unusual to be breastfeeding a 24 year old.

Same here - mine lives outside and is in use near every day. And as such I don't mind making some mods to make it more useable - provided they are easily reversible if needed. This approach gets me some criticism by a few of our club members. The ones who go for the 'best in show' type awards. Who invariably brag about having the fastest model in the range and how much better it is than the others - yet drive it to meetings at 50 mph max. ;-)

Couldn't agree more. All mine live outside and those that are taxed & tested are used as daily drivers. All the more pleasurable on the few occasions they've won awards.

For me as a child in the 50s, but it wasn't classic cars in those days (I don't think the term had been invented), it was vintage and PVT cars that generated the interest. In the early 60s it was still those sort of cars I lusted after but with a driving licence but little money I had to be content with some very dubious machinery. The MOT test had been introduced in 1960 but standards were very low in the early days. Nevertheless scrap yards were filling up with large quantities of cars over 10 years old, some of which didn't deserve to be there. Looking back on that era I find it surprising that neither I nor any of my friends made any attempt to rescue interesting cars we encountered in scrap yards in the course of searching for spares for our much more mundane transport.

In the 1950's I used to visit my uncle and aunt in Radnor Mews, Paddington. They lived opposite a range of garages which maintained /sold mostly pre-war Rolls's. There was, I remember, a Bugatti a few doors up:; I recall it from my I-Spy book which said it could be recognised by the horseshoe radiator and the exhaust note which was said to be like "calico tearing". I've heard this expression used quite often since; I now know what calico is, but I've never heard it tearing....

In about 1961 I had a drive in a 1934 MX4 Morgan. Perfect - water-cooled Matchless engine of just under one litre, the owner told me with huge amusement how he used to blow off Mini Coopers at traffic lights... That, I think, made me think about cars in general - weight? driver aids?

I got involved in "classic" cars in the late sixties, early seventies; I knew a couple of lads who ran a car business dealing in interesting cars, and if they had anything which wasn't quite good enough to be sold on they offered it to me (mug?) but it meant I had quite a lot of fun cars. This included a Ferrari, Astons DB4 & 5, Facel Vega HK500, Jaguars ranging from E-Type (three of them) to Mk 10, plus quite a lot of "lesser" cars - Healey

3000, MGB, Lotus Elan, Spridgets and I really can't remember what else. Rule was you T-Cut and polished them and flogged them before anyting expensive went bang.

I probably lost interest in cars around 1985 or so when I got company cars; some of them were quite good (AlfaSuds 1300GTi, 1500GTi; Giulietta 1750, Opel Manta GT/E ) but none of them really had the fun factor of some of the earlier stuff.

I got invoved with bikes, rather later than I should have done, but included a Moto Guzzi and a Ducati. Then came aeroplanes - Robin DR400 for work, Victa S150 for fun.

Now well into retirement age, I use a 20-year old Pug for transport up to the local village and a 1966 E-Type roadster for enjoyment.

Geoff MacK

"Chris Bolus" wrote

--1984 VW Type 25 camper V8--

I would *love* to see pics of the T25's engine bay!!

and/or pics of the engine conversion!

Do you have any online?

My next door neighbour bought a Morris 8 and took me out for a ride in it. I loved the smell of the leather. I was 16.

Jim

Which reminds me of the old question, why does a woman wearing leather clothes excite men so much? It's because she smells like a new car.

Most new cars smell of adhesive to me. Whatever turns you on.

Try buying a better class of new car?

Hey, it was just a joke, Dave...

It seems today that all you see is violence in movies and sex on t.v.

But where are those good old fashion values On which we used to rely!

Lucky, there's a family guy! Lucky there's a man who, positivly can do, all the things that make us laugh and cry!

He's--A--Fam'ly--Guy!!!

It seems today that all you see is violence in movies and sex on t.v.

But where are those good old fashion values On which we used to rely!

Lucky, there's a family guy! Lucky there's a man who, positivly can do, all the things that make us laugh and cry!

He's--A--Fam'ly--Guy!!!

Fuck off back to your silly amateur web sites, there's a good chap.

OK?

Yup -