Your First Car Thread - Pic and Story or it Didn't Happen...........

[Goldstar]

Beetle, I'm afraid. UDH379K Bought for my 16th Birthday for the princely sum of £210 (we weren't rich, I had won an RAF scholarship that paid out a little cash). Passed test a year later, first outing on the road the same afternoon I nearly took out all the pumps at my local petrol station - still learning to judge distances!! Happy days in the 6th form with my mates (heater was so savage it melted a mate's new Patrick trainer on his foot) and I once parked up near our local chippy after Rugby training and forgot to put the handbrake on - car had rolled backwards into the middle of the main road while I was getting my cod and chips. Luckily no damage to anything. Sold for £200 and replaced with a Brown 69 Triumph Saloon. I honestly can't remember if it was a 1300 or a 2000 but I do remember lovely wood veneer and cup holder indents in the glove box door. Happy days.

I'm still looking for pics but it looked like this except my Dad had a metal finishing business and he powder coated the bumpers black!
1972%20vw%20beetle%201200.jpg

[Kevin Garrod]

It was a Jade green Vauxhall Chevette hatchback, AKN492T, bought for £1100 ,an unusual choice most of my friends had Mk1 Escorts.
Sadly it didn't last long, I crashed it into a lampost when another car pulled out in front. Excessive speed and lack of experience on my part didn't help.
Followed by a Viva HC estate GOV***N, £50
Cortina MK4 2.0s DDJ683T, £700
Astra Mk1 GTE A290WGO, £5000 (started proper job!)
Opel Manta HBY3V, £1600 (guess what happened to the Astra!)
Various other Fords and Vauxhalls but I won't bore any more.

Happy memories of Imps and Wolsely 18/85s, as mentioned above, which my friends had and I got to drive and fix, which happened quite a lot!

No pics of any of my old cars.

[V Mad]

Mine was a blue Citroen Light 15 (Traction Avant) small boot model with Bugatti wheels, not quite as early as this one though, I think mine was late 40s. The boot was so rusty it dropped when you opened it, and you had to heave it up to close it. Cornering was fantastic though, no need to slow down with Michelin Xs on.

39-Citroen-Light-15-DV-09_LD_01.jpg

[davidf]

Grey mini-van - LTF 737C
Turquoise mini-estate - EAP 383C
Before that expired, doubled up with Mk3 Spitfire SWP 35F
then kids arrived, so 2 more mini-estates, then a Viva HC estate, then 2 Chrysler (Talbot) Alpines, back to 2 cars by adding a mini saloon
then finally my first Stag added to the fleet in '83
I moved on to company cars - a Montego, Cavaliers, Lagunas, a Jag X-type estate
Wife's car went from Alpine to Maestro, Peugeot 309, Astra, and Focus
finally back to not having comapny car, and now I have an '08 Laguna (Mk 3) - seems to be rarer than a Stag!

[vanman2004]

My fist car was a 1950 Vauxhall L type Velox similar to photo but red which I never drove on the road,my Dad drove it home for me as I was 17 and hadn't passed my test. The day I bought it (£25) I drove it through my Dads garage and wrote it off,(and the garage) First car on the road was a 1946 Austin 8 which I paid £15 for and had it for 3 years. Great little car
Image01.jpgImage02.jpg

[Rincewind]

Good grief, a couple of the earlier posts sound familiar, first car was a Heinkel bubble car, for my 15th Birthday, all done up and running for my 16th, straight out on the road with my provisional bike license!! Those where the days!!! followed by an Anglia 105e, Viva HB SL90, Austin Healey Sprite, mk 1 Cortina, then another 80 odd and assorted vehicles to the present Rover 75 Tourer {probably one of the best!).

Keith

[Guest]

This was mine - 1948 Morris 8. Fairly rotten, but got me up and down to Scotland from Manchester. 35 mph all the way. No motorways in those days. Bought for £5 and sold for £10, having changed just about everything. Some people I know would not even get into it. One girl asked to be dropped off at the edge of own and preferred to walk in!



I have just had a closer look at the photo and it seems that there is a piece of string holding the bonnet closed.

[flying farmer]

1st car was a mallard 4 door Toledo, given to me by my grandfather when he decided he was too old to drive. 9 years old and only 18400 miles.
Put a rod through the block on the motorway so dad fitted a 1500 dolly engine while I was at college (first thing he could find). The extra power showed the terrifying suspension deficiencies so fitted dolly sprint alloys and full Triumphtune suspension kit, could then go everywhere flat out.
Needed more power so fitted a Rover V8 as I found the insurance cost less than half of what was quoted for a Sprint engine (a situation virtualy identical today with my V8 and Sprint engined Toledo's)
Unsurprisingly rolled it a week after leaving college, so reshelled it using an 1850 Dolomite, ended up with a 280bhp 3.9 in it, appeared in Fast Car Magazine some time during the 80's, got a copy somewhere around the house
Neil

[DaveB]

First car was a green 1974 Escort 1.3L that I had for a few months before a big-end let go in a spectacular way doing 70, scary !!; sadly no pics of the car, just some of the bits I collected off the road afterwards !!


IMG_2529 Escort Big End.jpg

next car was much better, 1980 Ascona B 1.6.


Ascona80.jpg

Dave

[aerosilver]

My first car in 1980 was a £50 1967 HB Viva - so rusty I could see the road through the floor. Had to scrap it after a year as there was no way it would make another MOT. I had to replace the bonnet with the red one because the hinges rusted out of the original one and the bonnet literally fell off!



My second was a vast improvement - 1972 Hillman Hunter 1725 Super, a great car. Lovely colour - Phantom Mist it was called...



after that...

1973 Toyota Corolla 1200 SL coupe - fantastic car - had 2 stonking great carbs sat on top of a 1200cc engine, so took off like a bat out of hell, but through a 4 speed box it was doing 4000 rpm at 60 mph!

Then followed company cars, mainly Fords, then I had a Volvo fixation for a few years, another Ford, and now I'm on a Skoda!

Bob
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[aerosilver]

Here's a pic of the Toyota - it really was a great car.

corolla.jpg

[martin]

First car was a green 1974 Escort 1.3L that I had for a few months before a big-end let go in a spectacular way doing 70, scary !!; sadly no pics of the car, just some of the bits I collected off the road afterwards !!


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next car was much better, 1980 Ascona B 1.6.


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Dave

Now that's a determined attempt to break out