"What Was Your First Car. ????

[Denzle]

"What was your first car.    

Now this will sort the oldies from the pack.

Mine was a 1937 Ford 8 side valve, in no other colour than black.   My boss stopped the money from my wages at the garage.   All £5 of it.  I was 16 
On the corners with 4 up the tyres would scrape inside the rear wing.  Them days you could show the canvas through the tread.    No MOTs   Just stick a big patch on it.

But the engine you could hammer with no problems.   

[stupott901]

mine was a e reg mini city 1000 and it was a horrible green/brown colour urghhhhh but at £100 it was great, had some good times in it even though it was a rust bucket

[Denzle]

Ye, I know what you mean Stu.  Rust bucket or not.

I bet you will remember that car for the rest of your life.  The first one you always do.
Forgot about some of the other cracking cars that Ive owned.   I couldnt remember them all to save my life.

[Quarrycars]

Now you have started something   An early '50s Ford Popular van with windows in the side, so rotten mud got on the inside, you had to lift the body to close the rear doors.  Used to carry spare petrol, oil and water, seemed to consume all in equal quantities.  This was followed by a 105E, just as rotten but managed to tweak the engine so that it went fast enough to blow the mirror out of the rotton front wing (why did we put the mirrors out there?).  Not a fan of old cars, glad there are people willing to keep them around to remind us of how bloody awful they were.

[stupott901]

yeah i have loved minis ever since and like ya said will all ways remember it it was cool

[WALNUT]

Myfirst car was a 1934 morris 10, I was 17. It had the accelerator between the break and clutch peddle. I remember it was not a fast car,I once had a policeman chase and catch me after a 1/4 of a mile, which sounds OK. but he was on a bike.

Tony

[WALNUT]

Myfirst car was a 1934 morris 10, I was 17. It had the accelerator between the break and clutch peddle. I remember it was not a fast car,I once had a policeman chase and catch me after a 1/4 of a mile, which sounds OK. but he was on a bike.

Tony

[WALNUT]

That dont mean I had 2 cars the same lol

[Denzle]

Your not gonna lol me now are ya wallnut.   Keep to the car story. "Well" one of them if you can.   

[WALNUT]

OK. Denzle I stick with the first story

Tony

[Denzle]

Now you have started something   An early '50s Ford Popular van with windows in the side, so rotten mud got on the inside, you had to lift the body to close the rear doors.  Used to carry spare petrol, oil and water, seemed to consume all in equal quantities.  This was followed by a 105E, just as rotten but managed to tweak the engine so that it went fast enough to blow the mirror out of the rotton front wing (why did we put the mirrors out there?).  Not a fan of old cars, glad there are people willing to keep them around to remind us of how bloody awful they were.

"No"  I think you just picked a couple of ripe ones.  Thats why there are so many about for us to see.  At least there was a chassis on them, not like today.

[Denzle]

OK. Denzle I stick with the first story

Tony

Go on then......  Is that the one that you had it between your legs.   

The throttle. that is. 

[Quarrycars]

The 105E was one of the first monocoque bodys and the first production car to have Mcpherson struts, been downhill ever since!

['Mendip Wurzel']

Early Morris Minor with split windscreen, softtop and side valve engine. Cost me £6. Probably worth a fortune now.

27bhp and top speed of 64mph.

[Denzle]

The 105E was one of the first monocoque bodys and the first production car to have Mcpherson struts, been downhill ever since!

Well done that man......You remember that.

Question....What was the first car to have 5 gears.
Question....What was the first car to have Hydraulic Brakes.

['Mendip Wurzel']

The 105E was one of the first monocoque bodys and the first production car to have Mcpherson struts, been downhill ever since!

Well done that man......You remember that.

Question....What was the first car to have 5 gears.
Question....What was the first car to have Hydraulic Brakes.

5 Speed box - Lancia 1948 maybe?
Hydraulic Brakes - Duesenburg 1922 maybe? (we saw an SJ version recently at the PistonHeads event in Cheddar).

[Denzle]

Yes...Smack on with that answer.   Well done.

You got me on that one.  I should have said ...What British car.

[Bulldog Bri]

Mini Clubman Estate 

[Quarrycars]

When people express concern over the modern 'brake by wire' elactronic brakes I remind them that the same concerns where voiced regarding hydraulic brakes, 'why would you want to replace nice reliable rods and cables with nasty leaky fluid systems?'
Cheerz

[Quarrycars]

I think the first British car company to fit hydraulic brakes was Morris and the first US was Chrysler.

[Bulldog Bri]

When people express concern over the modern 'brake by wire' elactronic brakes I remind them that the same concerns where voiced regarding hydraulic brakes, 'why would you want to replace nice reliable rods and cables with nasty leaky fluid systems?#039;
Cheerz

The lorries we drive at work have drive by wire throtles and there is a lag from when you put your foot down to getting a response from the engine  This tends to make most drivers rev the nuts of them to pull away. We've even had one truck where the accelerator pedal has snapped!

So with that in mind I'd hate to have brakes working along those lines, what if a fuse goes!  or the ECU packs in  (I've had the ECU go on my Renault, though this was before I was moving!

Give me normal mechanics any day 

[Denzle]

Smack on again quarrycars.  A big gold star for you.   

It was the Morris 8   I think 1939 but not sure.   

Ye, rod brakes were brill, as long as you adjusted them equal.   Nothing to go wrong.

But with the power and speed of todays cars, it would be like Freddy Flintstone putting his feet through the floor.   
=========================
Quite right Bri. 

['The Gaffer']

Mark1 Escort van with a checkered paint job bonnet

Have had a couple of cars since but always come back to vans, apart from Jap import stuff and kitcars that I consider a hobby.

[paintman]

My first car was a van!....1966 grey 850cc Mini van.   Only 4 years old but was caught in floods and had been under water for a week!!!!   

Thought it was a bargain for £250 and a respray chucked in for a pint and 20 Woodbines.........those were the days.

Bloody h*ll i'm getting to sound like Denzle.

[Quarrycars]

My first new car was a 1966 mini van!  I think it cost 550 quid and was that icky green colour.  The van was pretty cool, lighter and more aero than the car with a longer wheelbase.  I worked at Broadspeed at the time so it got some cast off Cooper S wheels and a few other bits.  Learned about 'polar moments of inertia' the hard way when I spun it off a twisty Welsh road with a heavy tool box right in the back behind the rear wheels, a tree stopped me going all the way into the river, there's armco along there now   Lesson: keep the weight within the wheelbase

[YZFMINI]

This is my first car..
Had it for 7years now..

[paintman]

I used to keep a double mattress in my van but still managed to put it on its roof........

[foggy]

My first car was a 850 mini, with a gert long gear stick, cost me £10 quid, a mustard sort of colour. I remember this car very well,at this time I was living in Germany. It was a Censored to start, took it to the garage to get it sorted, went to pick it up, it was parked on a forecourt/showroom, they guy came out and with his broken english and my iffy german, told me to start it up, I leant through the drivers window,turned the key and off it went literally, along side a merc and into the back of another merc, that was the end of the mini. Once things were sorted out, off to the scrap yard it went. Where I found my second car, a VW Beetle with a 6 volt system, but thats another story!

[YellaBelly]

A 1969 Mk1 Escort 1100. My local garage chappie called it the miracle car, apparently it was a miracle it ever went any where

I remember driving from Chester to my parent's place in Gt Yarmouth and for the last 30 miles or so I had to stop every 5-10 mins as the steering would get rather heavy. I would stop, checked everything under the car, found nothing, and after a few minutes it all seemed fine so I would carry on. Some time later it would happen again. I eventually got there and took it to a local garage who checked it over and informed me that I was lucky to get there at all. Apparently, the offside lower balljoint was so worn that it was overheating with the movement and eventually partially seizing in the socket which caused the stiff steering, after it cooled down for a while it would loosen OK. He reckoned that if I had gone on for too much longer there was a risk of the ball jumping out of the socket That would have been 'intresting' to say the least 

[Quarrycars]

Quote from bulldog bri:
'The lorries we drive at work have drive by wire throtles and there is a lag from when you put your foot down to getting a response from the engine'

Seems odd that there would be a problem with electronic fuel feed on the trucks, one of the advantages of electronic controls is the ability to dial in response, should be a lot better than pulling on a length of cable!  A problem we had on Range Rovers was the off road guys wanted a long travel progressive control for rock crawling etc but the on road guys wanted a fast response.  When we changed the linkage to give faster response on road the off road guys complained, fly-by-wire solved the problem by going to a different response map in low range.  Now they have Terrain Response, the driver can dial in the control he needs.
The other advantage of electronics is the ability to build in miltiple fail-safes.

[Pembly Mike]

Oh Dear,
You all making me feel sooooo old.
My first was a 1934 Austin 12 with yes, Rod operated brakes. Two of us shared it, I think it cost £10 between us as apprentices on £3 aweek.
First new car (of only 2) was a 1966 Austin Mini Cooper 998cc.
Cost £487 and £11 pounds extra for the heater!!!!
Present car SAAB 9000 2.3 LPT with 150,000 miles and no MOT failures in the 10 years I have owned it.
Still working on my Morgan 3 wheel lookalike, 91% done now with only 89% to do !
Mike.

[Daley Down Under]

There's a Mini theme emerging.  My first car was a road rally prepared 1967 (E) Mini 1000 bought for £500.  I eventually built most of the parts into a new shell and then promptly rolled the new car into a ditch (on its second outing).  Must have learned my lesson as I've never rolled a car since (touch wood).  Interesting dilemma - how do you get out of full harness seatbelts when the car is on its roof without landing on your head?