Classic cars forum & vehicle restoration.

[Rick]

Continuing with the youth/pre-driving years, what car journey(s) stand out in your memories, from your formative years on this planet?

RJ
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[Ellis]

The one that stands out and the most memorable car ride of my youth was being taken out for a drive in a 1965 Cortina Lotus.

It belonged to a family friend who was at that time (1965) the Town Clerk of Betws y Coed UDC as it was then.
He, Mr Humphreys, had bought it new in May 1965, DCA **C, I cannot remember the numbers which is surprising for me.
White, of course, with a green side stripe, it was only a week old when I climbed eagerly into the rear seat. I still remember the smell, plasticky and rubbery quite unlike a BMC car.

The engine growled and with that throaty roar, the carbs spluttered until the engine warmed up.
When the driver floored the accelerator you could feel yourself being pushed into the seat and I watched, fascinated, at the rev counter and the speedo approaching 80mph at which point Mr Humphreys backed off.

He kept it for two years often complaining that it was difficult to keep tuned and he eventually sold it via the Autocar and bought a new Saab 96 in 1967.
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Starting Handle Expert

1964 Jaguar Mark 2 3.4 litre
1962 Land Rover Series 2a 88"
2002 BMW M3 E46 Cabriolet

[peter scott]

My first memorable ride was in an XK120 at about aged 14.

The second driven by the same enthusiastic (ex-M/C racer) in a Mini.

The third was being taken round the block by a wealthy boy friend of my big sister. He had borrowed his father's Jensen CV8 and demonstrated its acceleration from a standing start up a reasonably steep hill and reaching 100 mph at the top about a quarter of a mile from the start (or so it seemed). This was in a quiet four lane section of the A1 but it was a 40 mph limit!

In recent times (I'm still a youth. Well mentally.) being driven in Sylva J15.

Peter
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1939 SS Jaguar 2 1/2 litre saloon

[lowdrag]

Hitchhiking on the A4 out of London in 1964 and being given a ride in an E-type FHC. First time I went over a ton in a car.

[Old Wrench]

Aged about eight, driving to Cornwall, through the night in my late Father's Alvis Speed 25 DHC with the huge Lucas P100s blazing a path through the dark!

We also had to stop in the early hours as dawn was breaking, to have a puncture repaired: in the rear seats...............

Connolly Hide and Dunlop inner-tubes and my elder Bro and I, replete in our brand new Ladybird holiday shorts, bumping about on our sore little bums on the thick chunk of wood over the rear axle!

Circa 1954, in Dad's newish Jaguar MK VII, me in front seat as we howled through the night across Bodmin Moor, me fascinated by the Jaeger le Coutre speedo and rev counter etc, glowing bright white thanks to blue background lighting and Dad nudging me to look at the speedo when I had dozed off and he said "Look! We're "doing the magic ton!".

If 19 counts, 1960 when I was working as a trainee commercial vehicle salesman and tasked to demo a used Martin Walter Dormobile to a "Firm in Essex based at Hanningfield..; ask for Mr X."

Duly arrived and Mr X called another guy who was working under a tractor; emerged, his dirty overalls covered in oil, wiped his hands, jumped in the Bedford and took me for a ride of death through the narrow country lanes. he was a tall, lugubrious monosyllabic Scot and we bounced off hedges, proceeded mainly sideways with me being convinced my last moments had come or the damned Bedford would topple over!

(I'd been in one driven by a young friend a couple of years before, who organised an evening ride out with another chum, to pump the family cabin cruiser out and make sure all was OK; and at about 9.00 PM he managed to place it nicely, on its side in a drainage ditch whereupon it stopped, suddenly, as it collided with a huge oak tree at the side! It was his father's work van and he needed it at about 4.00AM the next morning!)

Anyway, I digress: the Scottish lunatic swept into the yard, scattering gravel; and Mr X asked him "Is it OK?" Scot answered "Seems fine." and immediately jumped under the tractor he was disemboweling.

When I returned to base, still quivering somewhat, the Sales Manager asked how I got on. I explained my concerns and said "The man was a complete raving lunatic I thought my last moment had come!"

He grinned, sneakily, and said, "Well the guy you went to see is John Ogier; you visited Essex Racing Stables and "that lunatic" is one of the drivers of their Aston Martin at this years Le Mans 24 Hours. They wanted to look at the Dormobile as a potential support vehicle for the race!".

The manager was a member of Thurrock Motor Club; other members then were a certain J Brabham, John Whitmore, Tony Maggs and a few other notables!
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Well, apart from that, did you enjoy the play, Mrs Lincoln?

[Peter_L]

During the Suez crisis. 1956/57. Petrol in the UK was rationed.

My father had a business, so we probably got more coupons and he stockpiled some petrol in 10 gallon steels drums.

Christmas 1956, we travelled to my uncle's in Southampton, a fair drive from South Yorkshire, especially in a WWII Morris "tilley".

My responsibility, in the back, was to keep the 30 gallons of petrol company, and make sure the washing lines holding them together did their job.

[Minxy]

Memorable rides (plural) for me has to be myself and my two sisters on the front bench seat of my fathers MklV zephyr and how we had to hang on for dear life on corners - how we loved it though.

[badhuis]

My uncle, who lived in the same town as we did, owned a liquor store. My father helped him out by driving boxes of wine and beer to remote customers. Often my 1 year older brother and me were allowed to ride along - in the back of course, we were not allowed in the fron with our age (8/9 years). My father was (still is) quite a spirited driver and knew we liked it so he pushed it a bit more on the narrow bends and not so smooth lanes in the countryside.
We had to sit onto the steel wheelarches in the back of the Citroën 2CV Van. No side windows so we never knew a bend was coming. Being a 2CV the car tiltled a lot in the corners and we had lots of fun being thrown around.

I still think of that whenever I see boys of the same age as we then strapped securely in their belts of the rear seats of modern cars. Much safer of course but no fun!
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a car stops being fun when it becomes an investment

[bob2]

Well I remember the good old days too when my uncle had a transit in pick up form and me and my cousins, roughly same age used to travel in the back especially in summer wind in hair and doing all sorts of faces to motorists passing by or some sort of other games whilst going to the sea!!
Not possible now, you would surely get pulled over and a hefty fine issued!!

I also remember when before the transit, he had a vw type 3 variant and we used to sit on the back seat. At the same time he had a big german shepherd who used to travel in the back which however used to get pretty hot having the air cooled engine beneath its paws and we'd have to sit on the edge of the back seat since dear old Rusty would come almost on top of us trying to find somewhere cooler to rest his bottom with his saliva nicely drippling on our clothes!!! Yuukk!!

[Rick]

A couple that spring to mind, both involve speed. The first was a ride in my uncle's GTM, a Mini-based kit car of the 1970s. On a trip to Devon I remember going at a very rapid pace indeed on a deserted M5, certainly the quickest I'd been in any car by that time. This would have been in the late 1970s I think.

Maybe ten years later, a friend of a neighbour offered to take me for a spin in his Caterham 7. At the time we lived in a sleepy cul-de-sac of about 40 homes. By the half-way mark we'd hit 70mph which was insane, and I remember feeling quite pleased to exit that particular car in one piece.

RJ
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[Keith D]

In 1950 not many people owned a car. We were lucky!! Dad having the farm in a then sleepy part of Essex, meant that we had to have our own transport. Dad owned a couple of greengrocery rounds in nearby Rayleigh.

He bought an ex-Western Desert Commer utility. This was a sort of miniature army truck, complete with canvas canopy based on a pre-war Hillman Minx.

During the week the vehicle had shelves fitted and the canvas sides and back rolled up to display the fruit and vegies for sale. At the weekends the shelves came out, the sides rolled back down and it became the family hack. We did all our travelling in this machine. All around South East Essex and into West London where most of our rellies lived, plus the occasional run farther afield.

Dad drove, mum was up front with him and my brother had one wheel arch in the back to sit on and I had the other. We were wrapped in blankets and thoroughly enjoyed hanging out the back, held in by only our own little fists gripping the hood frames! What a great time we both had. We never as much as cut a finger!

And now my grandkids are not even allowed in the front of a car until they are seven years old! Shame!

Keith

[baconsdozen]

Earliest memory was a ride on the pillion of an old BSA,I can't remember the model but it was solid rear (no suspension) .A later memory is of my dads Austin 16 and being fascinated by the blind on the back window,I also remember my sister as a toddler falling out of a car ,maybe the same Austin,happily the cars following avoided her and apart from some scratches she was OK.
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Thirty years selling imperial hand tools for old machinery(Now happily retired).

[peppiB]

First journey in father's 1938 Austin 10 Cambridge bought by him in 1956.

It was wet, brother and I were in the back. First puddle he drove through the water washed up past the batteries under the front seats and our feet were soaked. After that every time he approached standing water he yelled so that we could lift our feet to safety

[roverdriver]

Guy Fawkes night 1949, rode on the upper deck of a London trolley bus and could see bonfires and fireworks in various places. I think we must have been doing the rounds of our relatives to say 'goodbye' before leaving for Australia. At about the same time, rode in a London taxi and fascinated by the fold-out seats.

About six months later and half a world away, rode in the back of a Vauxhall utility through Melbourne city and about 50 miles the other side to see a property that my father bought soon after.

Dane.
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Dane- roverdriver but not a Viking.

[Rusty]

One of my most memorable "rides" was in my primary school teachers pre war Ford prefect going on a nature walk. I went to a small country one teacher school with only about 20 primary school age students and on several occasions the entire school got in and on Lizzy and travelled about 5 miles to a patch of bush to go bird watching. There were kids in the back in the front in the boot on the running board hanging out the windows and crammed in anywhere you could get with me and another boy sitting on the front wings hanging on to the headlights. We ground slowly along without ever getting into top gear until we arrived and then after two hours of bush walking proceeded to repeat the procedure on the way back.

I recon if a teacher did that now he would be inside for quite while contemplating why it wasn't a good idea but its one of my most treasured childhood memories !

Very different times !