Driving, Cars, Motorways and Autobahns

Good god. The worst I had was a '65 Corvair hardtop, and that wasn’t too bad.

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Think it was a 66 Corvair droptop I owned back in early 2000’s.
And yes it was not that bad…at least you could fix it with a screwdriver, vice grips and hammer :grin:

Not when the single unified fan belt broke in the dead of night in a deserted car park when it was -8 F outside. After that I carried a spare fan belt.

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Rumor had it a pair of ladies tights would get it going again…not that I knew any ladies who would ride in the darn thing :grin:

Hmm, a lot of car talk here.

Maybe this thread should be merged with this one. -

:grimacing:

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Well the title does include the word cars so I think it is just fine.
Of course the creator of the thread may agree with you so will leave it up to them :+1:

Just a lame joke reflecting on the sh*t storm over how this thread was created.

Apologies. :laughing:

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Ah I c… said the blind man.
My apologies for being a little slow there.
Humour is not always immediately apparent in these environments.
:roll_eyes:

I was told one must always use an emoticon when making a joke, lest somone not get it.

Ha,ha. You mean by this person?

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I guess you could wait until someone doesn’t get it, then post the “dumb ass” emoji. :thinking:

My first car was an Austin Allegro. It was my dad’s and he gave it to me. He couldn’t really afford to buy cars so he bought the ones at the auction that no one else bid on🤣.
It had no engine mount rubber left so idling was like a fairground ride. If stuck in traffic you had to put the heater in full blast or it would overheat.
One day I was driving along and the entire nearside front wheel suspension collapsed having rusted through.
God I hated it, but it was free :slightly_smiling_face:

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The Allegro was a veritable crime against the state. I hypothesise that the designers decided on the quartic steering wheel so that disgruntled owners would have a much harder time trying to shove it where it rightfully belonged after their car had inevitably expired by the side of the North Circular.

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That’s where mine died !!!

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Pure coincidence… I had no idea even if you had posted on it previously.

It was a deliciously serendipitous prophecy though, don’t you think? :rofl: :laughing:

To be fair, pretty much the entire British automotive industry during the 70’s has very little to be proud of. It would be hard to point a bigger finger at anyone else other than British Leyland though. The Marina was pretty awful as was the Princess, but the Allegro was a truly hateful manifestation of everything that ailed industrial progress and aspirational design during those dark days.

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My brother repaired TVs for Rumbelows and had a company marina estate. I used to ride in the load area in the back and when it went round corners as the rear door wasn’t recessed it would open up a gap as the car flexed.

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During the 80’s, a friend had an old Marina that we used to go everywhere in as a crew. It had a couple of interesting quirks. The best one only became apparent after the car was not where she had left it on the street in Morden, South London. She was designated driver and we piled out of a pub ready to head elsewhere only to find this empty space where the odious faded gold/yellow monstrosity had been left; without missing a beat she pointed up the main road to a junction and said “The car was facing that way, it will be up there on that side road or just past the next set of lights”. Sure enough, we came round the corner and it was abandoned about 30 yards up from the junction with the near-side wheel up on a grass verge at an angle suggesting it wasn’t a considered parking attempt.

It transpired that the gearstick needed to be pushed down firmly towards floor and held in place when in second gear, otherwise it would jump out of the selector mechanism under partial acceleration loads. If you accelerated a bit harder it would create enough tension to stop the selector spitting the gearstick out if you weren’t pushing down on it. Once “pinged”, the gearstick would limply flop about on the transmission tunnel, in its tasteful vinyl gaiter, until expertly repositioned and pushed into the selector mechanism once more. One needed fairly intimate knowledge of exactly where to relocate the gearstick otherwise you would not be going anywhere for a while. Only happened in second, not in any other gear.

That reminds me.
He was out Christmas Eve doing swap overs so people had a replacement TV on Christmas Day. Snow on the ground miserable job lugging those monster TVs about.
Did the last job shut the boot and the car proceeded majestically downhill as the handbrake wouldn’t hold it. He watched helpless as it gathered pace then mounted the curb. The front went over, the rear due to the weight of the TVs just ripped the back axle off.

Christmas Eve “ermmm boss, funny thing happened…”

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My marina estate was, fortunately, written off by the garage technician that was road testing it after a repair, my next car was a VW Golf Mk1 :pray:t4:

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Gawd…brings back memories…or nightmares :grin:
Had them all unfortunately at one time or another.
Allegro, Marina, Maxi, Austin 1100, MG Metro, Maestro and Montego.
Yep I sure was a glutton for punishment.

A few highlights though.
Ford Capri 3.0 GT with 4 speed, wrapped that one round a lampost after a " night out" driving back from Chesterfield.
Definitely full definition of Found On Road Dead after that episode.

Ford Escort 1600 GT…blew the motor in Cornwall, got the train back.

So much fun.:roll_eyes:

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