What was your first car?

[POMMReg]

Anyone start off with a Minor LCV?

Compiling a list of regn numbers of past & present vehicles...

[palacebear]

PM sent. Maybe of use to you

[POMMReg]

Thanks, aim for 20% of production before I'm just a puff of smoke drifting in the wind!!

[StillGotMy1stCar]

My first car was/is a 1970 Austin badged pickup which I customised a bit. All standard mechanicals, just fancy paint job with a Healey 3000 front bumper, sadly not a Big Healey behind the bumper. Insurance was £37 third party fire and theft in late 1982 as a named driver on my dads policy.
I can remember wanting my dad to get it MOTed before my driving test in case it need work done, he refused saying it's got more chance of passing an MOT than I have of passing my driving test.
Anyhow I passed, a few days later I took it for an MOT and it failed.
Can remember my first drive in it as if it was yesterday, got a telling off by my dad for taking it out with trade plates on, I was getting petrol ready for it's MOT the next day.

I still own this pickup although it hasn't seen Tarmac for years.
Regards John

[StillGotMy1stCar]

Chris PM sent

[GBond]

General Motors certainly know how to confuse. Just googled '98 Chevy Monza ... definitely Corsa-related but with a boot/trunk. Also found an earlier Chevy Monza (built Canada and Brazil apparently), which looks like a close relative of the Opel Ascona/Vauxhall Cavalier AND of the Opel/Vauxhall Vectra! The only Monza I really remember is the 3-litre V6 Opel version (1978-86) and its British counterpart the Vauxhall Royale Coupe.

Yes, mine's the Corsa with a trunk. 1.6l 8V engine that I believe wasn't so widely used in Europe (Latin American market cars usually come with larger, simpler engines than over there). Still gets frequent use, here's a picture along with my latest project!

2017-07-27 18.26.34.jpg (219.29 KiB) Viewed 3684 times

[palacebear]

Nice looking bike

[Mark Wilson]

Very nice indeed, Gabriel. B31? I had a couple of C15s before I got my first car in 1970, a 1957 four door Moggie, which cost £40 and lasted a year of long distance student commuting before going to the scrapyard. I rather like the fact that I was driving a Minor when my current Traveller was registered in July 1971!

[GBond]

Yes, it's a 1955 B31 my father bought as scrap many, many years ago; probably around the early 80's.
I've only been about since 82 so I like to think my Moggie was already waiting for me somewhere
Also in the picture behind the other motorcycle (old Zundapp 2 stroke) is a very sorry looking 1st generation Honda Civic which is very probably the first vehicle I ever rode in so I'm hoping to be able to restore it some day but compared with the Moggie getting parts is extremely hard.

[midget]

Oh, if we're into bikes as well--mine was a BSA M20 ex WD 500 sidevalve, at 11 yrs old. Rode it around our large garden and bit later on the aforementioned airfield. Thought I was flying along well, until an older chap ran along side me with an A7 shooting star and found my speed at 55 mph!
All came to an end when the local bobby(on an LE Velocette) saw me riding it back home and had words with my Father.

[kennatt]

1949 Alvis ta 14,grey with grey leather interior,swapped it for a Renault Dauphine ,which needed a sack of sand in the boot to stop the front lifting at speed. Wish I still had the Alvis,there's one on classic cars for 25k.

[palacebear]

Had to google the Alvis. Handsome-looking car I'd have a Dauphine too, so long as I had a climate-controlled environment... to stop it crumbling away!

[BaldyTone]

My first car was an Ford Anglia, the same as the Prefect sit up and beg, the water got into the electrics which ran under the windscreen and burnt the loom out! Had to walk 5 miles home, not in the AA then.

[geoberni]

My first car was a 1969 Mk1 Ford Escort. I brought it in '75 and it was already a wreck in terns of bodywork and other bits.
Although only 6 years old, it had started life as an 1100 Cross Flow, but the previous owner had put an old 1500 engine from a Ford Cortina into it. I changed it for a 1300 Cross Flow, net result of that was that I had impressive acceleration for about the first 5 seconds, but then it was more sluggish than a 'standard' 1300.
The wheel arches were already rotting and there was a small hole in the drivers floor pan.
Another things with it when I brought it was that it has a Triumph Herald Fuel for some reason, so the fuel gauge didn't work. If you ran out because you'd miscalculated when you needed to top up, it luckily had a 'reserve' feature involving a small tap on the tank, which gave access to the final gallon. Again, I fitted an Escort tank as soon as I could get one!

So getting the Moggie recently has returned me to my origins of car maintenance technology levels, since there's not really much difference between 50s and 60s.

[pgp001]

My first car was an ex MOD Mini Van, that was when i was a student back in the early seventies. I paid £130 for it at the time and sold it after about five years for the same money to buy a mk1 Ford Escort. I regretted buying the Escort and after a couple of years sold it and bought a Rover 3500S, I eventually got a company van with my job and sold the Rover for peanuts as nobody wanted gas guzzlers in the early 80's. I wish I still had it today.









Phil

[palacebear]

Has that Mini van got a Hornet/Elf bonnet attached ???

[pgp001]

It sure has, if you squint after a good few beers it sort of looks a bit Rolls Royce ish, it also had the leather seats out of the Hornet as well.

I also reversed the air vent on the roof, I think I was kidding myself that acted like an air brake which was an advantage as the drum brakes were not up to much

I once entered a night time twelve car rally in it and came 5th, I seem to remember discovering what brake fade was on that night.

Phil

[Corn22]

Mine was a 1971 Morris LCV



I owned it for 23 years only selling it a few years ago, which I still regret.

Have got back into minors by buying a traveller last year.

[burnham28]

Not my first but not my last

[sid]

motorcycles? as a life-long biker,my first was a Matchless G80 combo in the early '70's,followed by a Matchless G9,many BSA's,A10s,M21,M33
Ariels,Norton M50,Commandos etc etc...presently running an old Harley Ironhead,and an AJS twin,which i am fitting a box sidecar to