Classic Cars

[computedshorty]

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[Pickle]

Hi Computedshorty,

My father has always been an avid classic cars fan. When I was young he had a Ford 10, which we used to go to car rallies in (very uncomfortable journeys! 3 kids on the back seat, hot summer days in New Zealand, no air con!). These days he collects Jaguars and uses them to run a tourism/wedding business in NZ, his oldest is a 1960 Mark IX, he also has a 1964 Mark X, a 1965 S Type (my favourite), and a selection of 420G's (67, 69 and 1970). He shows a lot of them in Jaguar rallies and "Best of British" rallies which he organises in New Zealand.

[woofmarkthedog]

computedshorty Wrote:

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> Classic Cars.

> I had mostly Austin 1300 Automatic or the Van Dem

> Plas in the 70s, I wonder if there are anybody

> here who had any of these?

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Computedshorty

These were both "Classically rubbish " cars usually supplied in Brown with a tan cloth & leatherette interior, driven by men in brown clothes, who smoked a brown pipe & who lived in a dull brown pebble dashed house on "Chantry Grove" or "Ivy Way" or even "Cherry Walk".

Men who on any given Sunday meandered the B roads of Dorking & Epsom at sub-20mph pointing out nothing whilst talking drivel to their long suffering wives, surrounded by a haze of their own steamed up fug. Ironically driving the drivers of real "Classics" like the "Daimler Dart" or the "Sunbeam Tiger" completely bloody mad, as they built up a procession behind them.

The supposedly superior but equally dreadful "Vanden Plas" was an Austin's marketing mans dream. A piece of post war committee driven design paired with laudably average British engineering, this too was also upholstered in swingingly dull brown.

It's point of difference was the V.P moniker which harked back to the once great Belgian coach builder "Vanden Plas" though now sadly fobbed off with a touch of brown walnut veneer. Thus rendering the dreary interior more mind numbing in its Brown & Tan palette.

Think Vesta curry & beef rissoles, polyester trousers and Watney's red barrel & Sunday opening hours of days gone by.

It the "VanDen Plas of the 70s" had more style in common with the telephone table, the 50's cocktail cabinet and the caravan in Pagham than of the fine coaches & cars of the past it alluded to. It was in short the equivalent to the long service carriage clock. It marked the beginning of the end,in short something that said "This is it"

"Classic Cars" are Jaguars, the D types & E types ,Mk 2's of the sixties. Cars that were engineering masterpieces with aluminum engines, cars that broke the mould not your spirit. Cars we dreamed about not dreaded and if through nostalgic rose tinted specks. We see still see brown ?

Then wake up & pass the travel sweets, pop open the thermos & keep heading for Eastbourne

W**F

[PeckhamRose]

LostThePlot photos and writes about Classic Cars for a living, I think.

A regular-ish on here.

[woofmarkthedog]

P.S

How is the cat ?

W**F

[SteveT]

Computedshorty wrote:- A piece of post war committee driven design paired with laudably average British engineering,

Well it might have been average reliability in engineering terms,

but the 'hydrolastic supension' where the car rested on a bed of oil, was unique and original, and gave a very weird feeling of sliding back down the hill when you applied the hand-brake on the junction of a steep hill.

It tried to keep the car level at all times.

[jaybee82]

My dad had an Allegro Vanden Plas with the bizarre 'Quartic' steering wheel for a while...was always overheating and breaking down! Was exactly the same colour as what you'd expect to see in a chemical toilet at Glastonbury.

[computedshorty]

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[woofmarkthedog]

It's Knorr

Not Knicked you Kprick

[woofmarkthedog]

computedshorty Wrote:

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> I dont remeber writing that.

> I only mentioned the 1300 as I had so many at any

> one time about twelve if I remember corectly of

> course I have owned many other cars.

> I designed the website for them and ran it as well

> as writing the monthly newletter booklets.

> Its strange that some of those members who would

> spend hours into the night finnalising a certain

> refurbishment would not find time to contribute to

> the news.

> When I reached seventy I had to give up the cars

> as I could not bend to work under the bonet or

> underneath the car.

> Having no cars and unable to get to the shows I

> signed over the web to a member who said he wes

> sompetant, but watched as he deleted the content

> and added nothing, so it folded.

> I resigned but was made a life member.

> I do have some of the pictures of the shows still

> but most I just left when I changed to a new

> computor.

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So WT Flip do you remember, other than the distant imaginary past ?

Oh & the selfish cat

This is so " Wallace & Grommet "

Or am I imag....

Hmm

W**F

[computedshorty]

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[computedshorty]

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