Lude Generation

A couple of years, I set up a thread on the ATR forum, outlining the vehicles I’ve had or run over the years. I tried to list them in the order I had them. This was confused by having more than one at a time. There were a lot of years to recall ...

Not all of them were actually mine. Some were shared; some belonged to the company I was working for at the time; some belonged to friends or family. But in all cases, I was either the principal driver or I used them and looked after them enough for them to feel like they were mine.

The list has actually grown since that thread. Apart from the fact that I’ve bought two more cars since, I’ve also had my memory refreshed by finding some old stuff.

Most of the pictures I’m putting up aren’t of the actual vehicles. It’s proving to be a pain to dig out old photos which I’m not sure I even have any more. So I've lifted most the majority from the web. Some source pictures were better than others, which is why I've levelled them out a bit by posting them as monochrome. Well, it is how it was in the old days ..

Here’s how it all started.

My first vehicle. Not what I wanted, but it did represent a kind of freedom.



The very first car I tried to drive belonged to my uncle in Germany.



The scooter wasn't all that reliable, so I ran a mate's spare bike when I needed it.



17th birthday. Dad picked me up from school with my provisional licence in his pocket. I learned to drive in one of these.



The licence was a godsend. I could get sent out of the office to deliver contracts. This was the company's pool car.



My first car! bum droppings, but mine! Bought off a pal for £10 (£2 down and the rest over 4 months), it lasted 100 miles before the half-shaft broke.



The Minx being broken, I pushed it into a churchyard and left a note saying it was a present. Another pal bailed me out by lending me his spare bike for a while.



At last, a reliable car. It cost me 3 weeks wages but often did hundreds of miles a week.




To be continued ...

£2 down and the rest over 4 months lol

Fantastic shots Sailor and thank God I now know there is someone as old* as me on this site.
*(mature and wise)

Was that "tried to drive" with permission, or on the QT...

Also what on earth was a church meant to do with a broken Hilman Minx?

wurlycorner wrote:Was that "tried to drive" with permission, or on the QT...

I blame my cousin. He could drive a bit and thought I should have a go. Clutches are baffling, aren't they?

wurlycorner wrote:Also what on earth was a church meant to do with a broken Hilman Minx?

I'm sure they receive all sorts of donations ...

Normally ones that fit in the bowl they pass around though?

Like many motorcycle dealers at the time, the place I worked had franchises for 3-wheeler manufacturers. I used to go to Reliant once a week or so, usually to pick up the latest Supervan III. Only twice did I collect a Scimitar GT coupe. Funnily enough, on both occasions I was too late getting back and had to take the car home for the night …

But the real hoot was the Bond 875 with the Imp engine in the back. This example was unsaleable, so was used by apprentices (remember them?) to play with. It had over 65bhp by the time I ran it as a commuter: or about 160bhp/tonne. Honestly, you could get the front wheel off the ground! We ended up having to fit a coal yard weight next to the front axle.




The Standard ran a big-end bearing while on holiday in Dorset. I scrapped it, saved up some pennies and bought a tidy ‘sports saloon’. With larger twin SUs and a bigger coil, it was (sort of) the ATR of its day. I’d like another one.



Somebody broke the Bond and my boss let me use a car out of his garage until it was sold. Luckily, he wanted too much for it and it took a while to find a buyer.



My girlfriend and her younger brother wanted to learn to drive. The MG went and we bought this between us for pennies. We thought it would last just long enough. It did better than that and we ended up sharing it, 3 months at a time.



I used to run this when it wasn’t my turn with the Austin. It was my girlfriend’s Granny’s. We took it everywhere. It even climbed the Gavia Pass in the days before it was fully paved.



‘Brother’ rolled the Cambridge into an East Anglian irrigation ditch and I needed a car. These were better than their reputation (and/or were easy to fix …)

Five up to Germany? No trouble! This was dad’s first brand new car. Why he’d let an idiot like me use it, I can’t say. He did though. A lot.




I used to buy them; mate #1 used to sell them; mate #2 was the tweaker and twiddler. Mate#1 had a bit of a run-in with the tax man and our little part-time business fizzled out before it could get going. But not before I got lucky. We’d run the cars we dealt in on a rota basis. On one of my turns I became the custodian of this for a short while – but not long enough.
Naturally, this is another that I wish I’d been able to keep.

^^^ Very nice.

Still a few years to go, I reckon. Keep 'em coming

With 5 kids, this was my dad's transport of choice.
Our last one had 'hippy' flower stickers plastered all over it.