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  • HI folks the server that hosts the site completely died including the Hdd's and backups.
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old car snaps

We went to Tinturn Abbey and there were 9 Bugatties on the car park the rest of them are out of the photo to the right the right it was the Bugatti club they were the real thing, one of them out of the photo was a Royal the most expensive car ever ti sell at auction reaching $8.7 million in 1987. i will put a photo on of it.
 
My old MG magnet. one of the best cars I have ever driven , it saved my life, one very dark & windy night going home from Ice Hockey practice (12-00am) up the Coventy Road ,just droped one of my buddies off, when out of nowere came a 10 ton oil tanker totally righting of that fantasic car . We were so lucky it being a very sturdy car! but for a small cut,my passenger John Morris & I came out OK .
I missed that car so.
Photo taken on Marine Drive WOOLACOMBE
 
A few days back, I found my self driving behind a Ford Anglia, the type with the opposed angle back window. I was really suprised how narrow it looked. It was being driven , I assume, by a female with a considerable ammount of hair and I joke not, her hair took half the width of the car.

This is not the first time that I have noticed how relativly small cars of the past were, even what we considered to be medium sized saloons seem small when compared with the modern day counter parts.

One of my favourites from the 50s era was the Riley Pathfinder. A large four door saloon with a right hand gear shift, allowing a bench seat across the front and still retaining a floor mounted gear lever. Apparently the early versions had a rear suspension design that tended to f ail at the worst possible time and they were given the unnoficial title of "Ditchfinders".

Of course I was only a small child when these things were about and no doublt the Corgi Toys version achieved production figures that BMC could only dream about. I seem to remember the local green Grocer had what was effectivly the Pathfinder replacement, still a Riley but marketed as a number rather than a name, something like 6/90 or something to that effect ie 6 cylinder 90bhp. Or maybe a 90/6. Im sure you know what I mean.
The Greencrocer car was in a silver/blue, probably metallic and I think it had a larger rear window but still had the classic pre farina styling that I still think looks really attractive.

https://www.motorbase.com/profiles/vehicle/picture.ehtml?i=705;p=1187274580
 
humber.jpg
I hadone of these but I will admit that perhaps mine did not look quite as good as this one.
 
One sunny Saturday in the good old 1950's three of us went to Southampton in one of these, a Triumph Roadster open top with bench seat.
Nice lunch in Cheltenham, 70mph across the Salisbury Plains, Guy Mitchell's latest hit on the radio, such happy days, just look at the boot with 'dickie seats'...:)
Triumph Roadster.jpg
 
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Great memories eh oldMowhawk, those times and experiences are never coming back.
 
My Dad's first car was made by Ford, it was really a van but had side windows in the back which I vaguely remember caused some problems with the car tax people. It had a vacuum operated windsreen wiper which stopped when the van accelerated. It's already in the 'Cars in the postwar' thread so I can easily drive it to here...:)
 

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