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When did you first take an interest.
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clan chieftain



Joined: 05 Apr 2008
Posts: 2041
Location: Motherwell

PostPosted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 12:55 am    Post subject: When did you first take an interest. Reply with quote

In older cars.
I really only became interested about 15 years ago when a pal of mine turned up at my door driving a 1949 Ford Pilot and he spoke about going to Doune on the following Sunday and I tagged along. There were all sorts of older cars there and I more or less became hooked. A neighbour up the road from me Harry Law was into Austin 7s but that was way outside my price range..........Hence the marinas and I have stuck with them ever since. I now have the one I want ..a "J" plate marina only one of 4 left on the road....not many peoples idea of a classic but I am happy with it because it took me years to get one.
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Bengt Axel



Joined: 07 Sep 2008
Posts: 267
Location: Cheshire

PostPosted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 1:39 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Apparently I was car-mad as soon as I was old enough to push Matchbox cars around the living room carpet (still happens on occasion ....), but my 'convertion' to old cars can be traced to one day in June 1976 when my dad took me (aged 9) and a pal to the VSCC Richard Seaman meeting at Oulton Park. I was captivated by it, and still am - indeed in a couple of weeks time I'm moving house to within a stones-throw of Lodge Corner.
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Keith D



Joined: 16 Oct 2008
Posts: 1127
Location: Upper Swan, Western Australia

PostPosted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 3:17 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

It was that dammed film "Genevieve"! It's got a lot to answer for! I first saw it as a kid in the fifties and I've never looked back. I first owned old cars because I couldn't afford newer ones until later in life. My first road car was a 1946 Austin 10 that my uncle gave me. (This was in 1960) Since my retirement, I don't need to go anywhere in a hurry so I can really enjoy them now!

Incidently, I've seen "Genevieve" about a thousand times and I think I'll put the video on again tonight!

Keith
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Rick
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Joined: 27 Apr 2005
Posts: 22429
Location: UK

PostPosted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 9:34 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

When I was a nipper I used to like fiddling with old bakelite telephones, then moved into bicycles, resurrecting an old Raleigh Chopper that a mate was about to chuck in the skip. This was followed by an old Raleigh Runabout, a moped powered by a 50cc motobecane engine. The Raleigh was swapped for an early Honda 50 moped, which I could never get to run sadly.

I started driving (away from public roads) when I was about 15, which was roughly the time that dad acquired a derelict Mk3 Spitfire. I ended up tinkering with this at about the time I was at school doing my O levels. Mum inherited the Mk1 A40 in about 1988, passing it to me shortly afterwards as she didn't much like it. The Spit hit the road in 1989, sharing duties with the A40, and its been downhill ever since Smile

R
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peppiB



Joined: 30 Jun 2008
Posts: 686
Location: Newcastle upon Tyne

PostPosted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 9:50 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

1956 My dad bought a 1938 Austin 10 Cambridge and although only 9 I was the one to help keep the thing going. My Christmas present that year was a spare engine for it (in case it was ever needed) and I used to strip and reassemble that in the garden shed. He then got a Moggy, which I learned to drive on and eventually owned. I find older cars far more reliable - no 'sensors' to fail leaving the machinery useless.

Interested to read there are now only 4 J reg Marinas left. When they were launched (Coupe launched first) each dealership had 1 car. My family had a dealership and hence a car. It was different to production models in that the front wings were bolted on instead of being welded. I owned it from 1973 til it fell apart through rust in 1979. I had already replaced both sills, rear wheel arches and the 2 doors Shocked
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clan chieftain



Joined: 05 Apr 2008
Posts: 2041
Location: Motherwell

PostPosted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 11:51 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

You should have kept the Chopper Rick................they are making as much as the marina now Shocked Shocked
Any photos of the marina launch from your family dealership Peppi that you can post on. Iwasnt aware the dealership ones had bolt on wings as there is not much room on the front panel.......interesting.
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roverdriver



Joined: 18 Oct 2008
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Location: 100 miles from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

PostPosted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 11:59 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

I was somewhat interested before 1955 because of a general interest in all historic transport-sailing ships, railways etc., however after seeing the film 'Genevieve' my interest really took off.

I read all that I could on the subject of early motoring and even named my billy-cart Genevieve. Eventually I bought a 1918 TT one ton truck in about 1960.
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peppiB



Joined: 30 Jun 2008
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Location: Newcastle upon Tyne

PostPosted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 2:17 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

71marina wrote:
You should have kept the Chopper Rick................they are making as much as the marina now Shocked Shocked
Any photos of the marina launch from your family dealership Peppi that you can post on. Iwasnt aware the dealership ones had bolt on wings as there is not much room on the front panel.......interesting.


Sadly in those days the launch was not the hype it is now. the only photo I know I have of the car, it is parked on my front lawn, laden with snow, taken in January 1979 a few months before i passed it on. Have experienced 5 Marinas in total and that launch model was the only one with bolted wings. Shame I didn't still have it - the different construction would have been a talking point at shows!
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peter scott



Joined: 18 Dec 2007
Posts: 7113
Location: Edinburgh

PostPosted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 2:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I can't really remember what sparked my interest. Certainly racing Dinky toys across the school playground helped. A very nice cut-away chassis of an Austin A40 Devon in the Royal Scottish Museum also helped. Sitting in my father's lap steering his car also helped and later Raymond Baxter's television account of driving Sunbeam Rapiers in the Monte Carlo Rally also did. Perhaps building soap box guiders also helped. The atmosphere of our local garage was a big factor too. http://www.oldclassiccar.co.uk/forum/phpbb/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=5756&highlight=bells+garage

Peter
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Jim.Walker



Joined: 27 Dec 2008
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Location: Chesterfield

PostPosted: Wed Jan 06, 2010 6:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Coming from a family which (commercially) ran lots of pre-war cars when I was little I have always had some interest, but it seems my "interest" stalled when I first started driving. Concentrating on cars and motorbikes from that era. Consequently I do not have any pre-war vehicles, but I do have a selection of two cars and three motorbikes dating from 1951 to 1959. I had quite a lot of experience repairing and driving cars etc. dating from 1927 on, but I have never desired to own one. I don't think I could face regularly greasing a 1927 Silver Ghost with 100+ screw-on grease nipples (each with a dust cap) as a pastime!
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Keith D



Joined: 16 Oct 2008
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Location: Upper Swan, Western Australia

PostPosted: Thu Jan 07, 2010 9:22 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Jim - You really would enjoy greasing an RR Silver Ghost if you owned one, It's called foreplay!

Keith
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Ashley



Joined: 02 Jan 2008
Posts: 1426
Location: Near Stroud, Glos

PostPosted: Thu Jan 07, 2010 11:26 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

My family were always car mad, my Great Grandfather was one of the first Doctors in England to use a car for his rounds. He bought a Stanley Steamer in 1902 and joined the Cambridge and Isle of Ely Motors Club. Here's a photo of him a few years later at a club meet in 1908. He's the one on the right side at the end



When I was a kid I had an uncle who painted portraits and he did one of the third Lady Astor which made him famous and rich, so he bought a new Alvis Grey Lady DHC which was a beauty. In those days, lots of people ran the grand old pre war cars instead of buying new ones, so there were always old Rolls and the odd Bentley around and even scruffy, they looked wonderful.

I loved the mechanical side of things and used to spend hours talking to Mr Evans in our local garage who had some magnificent old Austins that my mum sometimes hired to collect us from school. They looked lovely and they made lovely noises and smells too and compared to modern mass produced cars, they had real character. Later on when I learned to drive, I had no option but to maintain my cars, including rebuilding engines, simply because I couldn't earn enough to pay anyone else.

One day shortly after I'd started school I was walking through Stroud, our local town in 1950 and amongst all the old cars of the day and the odd new one was a gleaming MKVI Bentley and it looked extraordinary and so beautiful that I was completely smitten. That same car stayed with its owner and around Stroud until he died in the nineteen seventies, so in a way it had been part of my life for over twenty years and I vowed to own one myself one day if I could ever afford it. It took till 1998 and I bought a frightful heap, but now I've almost completely rebuilt it and it's very good indeed, I've driven it all over France and the UK in it and I've even done a Louis Vuitton. Although it was a very modest car compared to the others, The American Ambassador to Brussells, for instance, was there with his Cadillac V16 Golfers Coupe. I knew it would be like that, but it was a chance of a lifetime and I took it.

I love all old cars and would buy more if I had somewhere to put them, but I don't. I can't complain though because I have a 400 Bristol and my MKVI.




I have websites for my cars that might interest some of you:

www.kda132.com and www.jel450.com

I think the thing that that has meant most to me from this obsession is the friends I've made. Old car people are lovely and always such good company. Mt company makes hi fi and some enthusiasts for that just fight all the time, but not old car people, they really enjoy life IMO.

Ash
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First Bedford



Joined: 11 Dec 2009
Posts: 107
Location: Darlington, Durham

PostPosted: Thu Jan 07, 2010 12:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ashley - your write up about sums it up.
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Bengt Axel



Joined: 07 Sep 2008
Posts: 267
Location: Cheshire

PostPosted: Thu Jan 07, 2010 12:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I'm green with envy - a Bristol 400 and a Bentley MKV1! - 2 of my favorite cars (though any Bristol would do for me).

Great websites Ashley.
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Ashley



Joined: 02 Jan 2008
Posts: 1426
Location: Near Stroud, Glos

PostPosted: Thu Jan 07, 2010 1:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

You wouldn't be if you were sat here looking at the pile of Bills!

The Bentley is a far better car and I think one of the greatest classics of all time. They are regarded as the second and last time that R-R made the best car in the world and I think that is fair.

The Bristol is more amateurish and required a degree of modification to make it drive acceptably that the Bentley didn't. It is standard. On the Bristol, I've fitted a brake servo, an anti-roll bar, a later gearbox and an overdrive, but it is still noisy and bumpy and has a similar performance to the Bentley, ie, not much different from an MGB.

The Bentley has a high axle ratio, a Continental exhaust system and slightly different jetting, so is noticeably faster than a standard car and cruises comfortably (and silently) in the seventies. The Bristol does seventy acceptably and sounds as though you're standing under the exhaust outlets of a Merlin at anything above! It really is an old racing car!
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