A different life Jim.
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Remember us all having to push my dadās Landover defender (1970s model) on a regular basis. It was only possible when it was a downhill run 
(Living in the Welsh Valleys it was 50/50)
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thatās a gorgeous car. And a 390 with 4 bbl. Wow. Dangerous for a 16 year old (or 30 year old!). I got my first speeding ticket within 30 minutes of getting my drivers license. Best (worst) for me was in my 73 MG Midget, getting two speeding tickets within 15 minutes. Had to go to court for that to keep from losing my license. Somehow a few years later, I could go 30 years with no tickets.
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The day I turned 16, the driverās license office was closed in my home town. So, I got my mom to take me to Charlotte, NC for my driverās test. On the way home, in that Ford, I got stopped for speeding. My mom talked the highway patrolman out of giving me a ticket. Funny thing, I got stopped in front of a house on the highway that, a week later, I had a blind date with the girl who lived there. Sheās now my wife of 54 years. Even crazier, my dad delivered her when she was born.
PS: Thatās the same house where my 99 year-old MIL lives who we visit every 6 weeks or so and I use my āportableā Roon setup and tons of Verizon hotspot data.
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Yes I had to get up early every morning to push start my dadās car for about six months until he could afford to get it fixed. He parked on a slope at work for the return 
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now that thatās amazing. great story.
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Itās all that high speed in an open topped car thatās affected your hearing Jim 
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Yep they would do it!!
From now on, Iāll think of @Jim_F when playing Thunder Road.
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I managed to lose my license before I even had oneš
The judge was not amused at my seemingly lack of understanding or caring of the fine points of driving.
Minor details to myself at the time.
Insuranceā¦nope
MoTā¦nope
Licenseā¦well nope
Bald tireāsā¦Yesā¦got those.
Think it totalled 14 points so no license for me until 18ā¹ļø
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@Jim_F, my dad bought (brand new) a ā71 Ford Galaxy, 390 4 barrel. In spite of its size, that car really got up and moved. The only cool car he ever bought.
As for derelict cars, theyāre not all English. My favorite girlfriend had a Porsche 914, painted āSafety Color Orangeā. Vapor lock was a common occurrence, usually on a long bridge with no breakdown lane.
She traded the 914 in for a Mazda RX-7. Faster, slicker, but not as much fun.
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I think a 914 is a Volkswagen, more or less, isnāt it?
Well, not really a Porsche, but VW? Not as reliable.
This is another great thread with some amazing tales. I am enjoying all the historical motoring anecdotes immensely. Please keep them coming.
Itās clear that British humour extended to the production of our cars too. Apparently, we thought it was a hilarious practical joke to play on the wider world in unleashing such automotive dross. āItāll be character-building for them!ā.
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Given all the tales of terrible British Leyland cars, some of those on here may remember this:
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Ouch, I worked for Rover Cars in Swindon from when I left school in 1986 to when I emigrated to Australia in 2002. I did my Toolmaking Apprenticeship there and had a mighty fine career until I spoiled it and moved to Oz 
.
My Dad, worked there, my brother was a highly skilled Pattern Maker in the Pattern Shop (until BMW bought us and closed the Pattern Shop and Toolrooms.
My uncle was a line foreman in the press shops and my sister even did her clerical training there until she moved onto bigger and better things.
My first car was a Red Mk2 Ford Escort, it cost $450 and I hated it, I started to learn to drive in it at 16 then was so put off that I did not bother to drive and pass my license until I was 21. Instead I passed my motorbike license and went straight to a Kawasaki ZZR600, that I absolutely loved until I wrote it off (but thatās another story).
The first car I had after the Escort was a Rover 116 (remodelled Metro), it was a great little car but I only kept it for a year before getting a Rover 216Si. Then onto the MG ZR200.
I thought that Austin Rover/Rover cars massively improved with the around the time of Montego (lets face it they couldnāt get worse). And when the company dropped the Austin and just became MG Rover, the new models of the 200, 400, 600 and 800 were fine motoring vehicles, it was most definitely helped by the fact that BMW bought us.
I still love this car from my youth and it brings back a lot of fond memories:
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When an allegro breaks itās a blessing if it never gets on the rd again.
I had a reliant scimitar in my youth
You might to google reliant scimitar as itās not a very common car. My dad got another one after I bought his. Mine was a GTE 5a his was GTE 6SE iirc
Princess Anne had one too
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Love your story, thank you!
I agree with cars turning a corner with the adoption of the Rover name and the mid-eighties to early nineties did produce some decent output. I remember the TV ad for the Rover 827 Fastback (I think) with the German actors playing execs looking at of the office window to the car park and seeing a colleague get into the 827 and asking each other āWarum? Wann e hƤtte haben kƶnnenā¦ā (āWhy? When he could have hadā¦ā), implying the guy had looked past all of the German marques. Wasnāt a bad looking car back in its day.
I know that a lot of the British industry moving and shaking was just rearranging the furniture through take-overs (usually through financial necessity or government interference: British Leyland, Morris, Austin etc), but Rover had a badge history from beautifully worked models such as the P5 and P6, but the SD1 was a little questionable The Rover brand was not as sullied as others so the re-use of the brand to perform some sort of uplift in the psyche of the buying public did work somewhat.
Itās puzzling, because the British have an amazing history of coachwork and I know weāre not comparing eggs with eggs here, but looking back at premium marques, the interior finishing and the panel work was phenomenal at times; again, think Rover, Jaguar and the super premiums of RR, Bentley, Aston Martin. It just seemed that translating craftsmanship into mass-production eluded us Brits.
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Iām on episode four - the rest will have to wait until after work - but itās been really interesting so far. Iād definitely recommend you watch it.