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Worst car of the 1960's

Rotary engines have to burn oil as a design feature. Oil needs to be added to make up for this loss. Possibly the only way to lubricate it's version of piston rings in proper/normal engine design. This is the achiles heel of rotaries and probably the reason that they have never realy taken off. Oh, and the rings have to have a much smaller area of contact with the anulus and this also adds to the ring wear.
 
Interesting reading all the latest comments about Hillman Imps.
I posted in #31 about mine and there is a photo of it (looking good) in another thread here.
https://forum.birminghamhistory.co.uk/showthread.php?t=36033.
Happy memories of it now fading slightly, but one that comes to mind, is in 1966 driving back from Borth, listening to England v Portugal and nearly driving into a hedge when Bobby Charlton scored, and I started to feel that we could win the World Cup.
oldmohawk...:)
 
Bill Parker said:
NSU did produce one really unusual car in the shape of thier RO- 80 this was the first production car to feature a Wankel rotaty engine. Unfortunately the rotor oil seal failure cuased heavy oil consumption and compression loss but it was a brave move all the same. Ibelieve NSU were absorbed by Audi. Unless they were already part of it.
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There had been a short run production of a rotary engined car before the 1967 Ro-80, the NSU 'Wankelspider' of 1964.
Yes rotor seal failure was the bane of the rotary engines, even ceramic ones didn't last long (30,000 miles). The common "cure" for an ailing rotary engine was to simply swap it for a Ford V4 "Essex" engine (as found in Mk1 Transits) since it was one of the few engines compact enough to fit in the Ro80's engine bay. Thus in an ironic twist, one of the smoothest engines in the world was replaced by one of the roughest!
Here is a history of NSU, and their subsequent takeover by Volkswagen and merger with Auto-Union and DKW into Audi, which was originally Horsch, and here a page about the Audi group's 100th birthday in 2009, with pictures of the constituent companies' car models.
 
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A young lady I met had a Fiat 500 back in 1967, lovely lady but not a very good car. She had bought it from a dealer on the Lichfield road but the exhaust fell to bits shortly after. I fixed the car for her (paid by the dealer who was a friend of mine) and spent many happy times with her after.
 
I had a MK11 low line zodiac two tone Green and white it never let me down and was a lovely car to drive and had a deep glove box I loved that car
 
Just a quick one on the NSU mentioned earlier, the place to find these is Denmark, whilst driving round scananavia a few years ago I was amazed at the number of old NSU Prinz's on the roads there, and most in almost new condition including the clear plastic still on the seating.
paul
 
whalleypaul said:
I had a MK11 low line zodiac two tone Green and white it never let me down and was a lovely car to drive and had a deep glove box I loved that car
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I think most men treated their old cars with more affection than present day ones
dont you? In fact a lot of my friends showed their motors more affection than their wifes!(but thats another story) Bernard
 
My old Zodiac was serviced regularly by me and washed and waxed every 2 weeks That car took me all over the country and never failed me it was a 2553cc str8 6engine and was simplicity itself to maintain. None of this modern electronic ECUs just change plugs points and condenser also oil and air filter and the engine just purred along
 
I was in Leipzig a couple of years ago, and there were still plenty of Trabants on the roads. A lot of them were painted black and white, like a Jersey cow! It had a 600cc two-stroke engine and a body made of plastic resin reinforced with cotton. There was a joke about the Trabi's heated rear-screen - it was to keep your hands warm when you pushed it in the winter.

Big Gee
 
whalleypaul said:
My old Zodiac was serviced regularly by me and washed and waxed every 2 weeks That car took me all over the country and never failed me it was a 2553cc str8 6engine and was simplicity itself to maintain. None of this modern electronic ECUs just change plugs points and condenser also oil and air filter and the engine just purred along
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Arnt you on the wrong thread? Your motor should be on the Best Car in the 60s, not the worst!!!
Bernard
 
A bit off-thread, but my father-in-law had a Morgan 3-wheeler in the early 60's, and when it gave up the ghost he sawed it into little pieces and dropped them into the local canal...the 2-cylinder air-cooled engine went to a scrap-man. I wonder what it'd be worth if he had it now, in running nick or not?

Big Gee
 
There are no cars that are bad...even the Bond minicar had charm. When I was a kid a ride on anything that was not public transport...even a ride on dump trucks going to the dump, with a load of bombed building bricks, was a joy. My dad only had a second hand push bike to ride...ever. But I suppose he had Ansells.
 
same here rupert my dad could never afforded a car with 3 kids to feed, never even had a push bike and some years by thursday night never even had enough for the bus fare but would walk from brum centre home to weoley castle,
 
A couple of times when I was a boy, I got to ride on the cross bar of my dads bike...when he happened to pass me on the way home. Funny, just thinking now of all of those years ago, the sensation returns of doing that and feeling the strength of my dads body peddling us both up the hill. I have all the cars anyone would ever want now but what I would not give to do that one more time.
 
this is going off thread rupert, but the feeling of running up to my dad when he walked up our street from work and that fresh cold smell of him his strong arms lifting me up and then tapping my head with his rolled up newspaper, great memories never to be relived.paul
 
Maybe not the 60's but the worst car I owned was a Ford sierra. When I bought the car second hand I noticed the carpets where wet. The seller said he had just washed them and I took his word for it. About a week later I was driving in the rain and the carpets started to float. The car was riddled with rust. That taught me a lesson, to check a car properly before buying:rolleyes:
 
I had a Sierra as a company car in 1982, put about 160000 on the clock then bought it and sold it to my father-in-law who put another big mileage on it. Eventually the front door pillars rotted and it failed the MoT, but mechanically it was perfect. I think you had a Friday afternoon 'dog' there, Frothy.

Big Gee
 
Big Gee said:
I had a Sierra as a company car in 1982, put about 160000 on the clock then bought it and sold it to my father-in-law who put another big mileage on it. Eventually the front door pillars rotted and it failed the MoT, but mechanically it was perfect. I think you had a Friday afternoon 'dog' there, Frothy.

Big Gee
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Mechanically it was fine big gee and it pulled my caravan with ease, just falling to bits around me:D
 
The worst rot-box I ever saw was my mate's Alfa, a ponced-up Fiat 127 I think they were. He got pulled over by the police because the boot and bonnet were obviously held shut by string, as all the catches had rusted. Miraculously it had an MoT (think they might have been every 3 years in those days), but my mate took the hint and scrapped it. Just about every part of that car was rotten. Good engine, though.

Big Gee
 
A long time replying but I think the next line on the Renault Dauphine Ad was
"The built in heater couldn`t be neater........The Renault Dauphine. Ah......and...see how she holds the road,simply to get the attention dum dum dum dum The Renault Dauphine
 
Seen on a Pennsylvania number plate in 2001 ... On a quiet night you can hear a Ford rust

Maurice :friendly_wink:
 
I remember the advert for the Renault Dauphine on TV too. It used to be a jingle singing 'A penny farthing a mile, and you travel in style...dum dum Renault Dauphine.
 
Due to my age I don't really remember the 60s so well.But can remember from the 70s on.
Anything that came out of BL,even a new Morris Marina from 1977 was useless.Add to that a new Hillman Hunter in 1974,useless again.
Wasn't until we got Vauxhalls in the 1980s did things improve.Every time I went back to Rover things went downhill again...I did hear that pre BL cars before 1968 were good though.
 
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It's funny how we view cars differently, I had a Morris Marina 1.3 coupe 1976, I took this car around Europe, France, Switzerland, Italy, back though Austria, Germany, Belgium, never missed a beat and sweet as nut, sold it 18 mth's later with 36000 miles, for £500 less than I bought it. I had a Hillman Estate 1.6 which was a complete dog.
paul
 
Mayfield said:
Interesting reading, I have just read the AOL motoring page on-line and it lists the ten worst cars of the 1960's. I would love to state that I knew each of the makes of car, but unfortunately I can only recall half of them?

Is there anyone that owned one of these problem cars???? :redface:

They are:

1) Simca 1000 (1965)
2) Humber Snipe (1967)
3) Vauhall Ventura (1968)
4) Hino Contessa (1966)
5) Peel Trident (1964)
6) Renault Dauphine (1965)
7) MGA Twin Cam (1960)
8) VW 411 (1968)
9) Saab Sonett II (1966)
10) Ford Tanus 12M (1962)

keith
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Glad to see my 1966 Singer Vogue isn't on the list
 
Yeah. I thought that the Morris Marina was not a bad little car. Traditional north south arrangement of drive line...which the transverse engine was supposed to spell the death nell of. I suppose it did more or less eventually but at that point seemed to have hit a bit of a bump...hence the Marina I think. Anyway it was not a speed and (corner on your earhole) kind of car but decent enough. Rented one on a visit for two weeks and we loved it....once I remembered to stay away from the curb.
 
First pic is a Peel Trident, Second pic is a Hino Contessa. Should'nt No 10 on cregoe kids list read Ford Taurus?
red_trident.jpgdownload.jpg
 
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