Dad’s Cars

[Joker 1299]

Just watched last night’s episode of Top Gear (told you I was bored) and the feature on what was your dad’s car brought back loads of memories for me. Not the ones after you had left home, but the one(s) where you have memories of being picked up from the scouts or guides (etc.). Mine was a Wolseley 1500 in two tone green and I can still remember the registration number - 480 DTJ. what was yours?

 

[Swiss Cheese]

Green Ford Cortina Mk3 reg. PEL 359R

 

[WelshGas]

Just watched last night’s episode of Top Gear (told you I was bored) and the feature on what was your dad’s car brought back loads of memories for me. Not the ones after you had left home, but the one(s) where you have memories of being picked up from the scouts or guides (etc.). Mine was a Wolseley 1500 in two tone green and I can still remember the registration number - 480 DTJ. what was yours?

Hillman Minx, 2 tone green/white.
Can't remember the reg unfortunately.

 

[Joker 1299]

Hillman Minx, 2 tone green/white.
Can't remember the reg unfortunately.

Dad had a Hillman Minx in black reg no MLT 578 two cars before the Wolseley. Intermediate car was a Hillman Minx Californian which (sadly) was stolen before I had chance to memorise the number

 

[Joker 1299]

Green Ford Cortina Mk3 reg. PEL 359R

I learned to drive in dad’s mk 2 Cortina estate RUM 355G

 

[Swiss Cheese]

Funny how one can remember a car reg from decades ago, but today forget what it was you wanted when you arrive at a room in your house!

 

[Joker 1299]

Funny how one can remember a car reg from decades ago, but today forget what it was you wanted when you arrive at a room in your house!

Exactly. Sadly, I have no photos of these cars except the ones in my head.

 

[GrannyJen]

My Dad always rode scooters, he never had a car.

Well, he did eventually, but thankfully I was living away from home by then.

Reliant Robin.

(edited).

 

[WelshGas]

My Dad always rode scooters, he never had a car.

Well, he did eventually, but thankfully I was living away from home by then.

Robin Reliant.

 

[Joker 1299]

My Dad always rode scooters, he never had a car.

Well, he did eventually, but thankfully I was living away from home by then.

Robin Reliant.

Sorry to correct but it’s a Reliant Robin, not the other way round.

 

[66tim99]

Silver Saab 900 Turbo - ARN 727Y.

I remember him telling me (aged 8) and my mate to "put yer seatbelts on" in the back (I guess we didn't always?!) as he booted it to Oxenholme station to catch a train. Silence in the car, great fun.

 

[Velma's Dad]

My dad was very into his cars, although had conservative tastes (nothing foreign, you can't get the parts you know). He could fix anything, rebuilt engine and gearboxes, and because he worked as a coach painter the bodywork and paint finishing on his own cars was always immaculate. Proper dad stuff.

First car I was driven in was apparently an Austin 7 that took 12 hours to drive from west London to visit the in-laws in South Wales.

First ones I actually remember myself were a 1950s Vauxhall Wyvern and then he switched to Ford Zephyrs, the V4 and V6 and a Zodiac. Bench seats in front and I sat on his lap helped and steered them on the beach at Pendine.

On a dual carriageway somewhere I got a rebuke for my language one day by remarking: "Dad, we're doing bloody ninety!".

 

[GrannyJen]

Sorry to correct but it’s a Reliant Robin, not the other way round.

Thank you. Corrected.

As I tried my best to never go near the thing my memory is a bit hazy. My Dad's driving was simply awful. If Mum and Dad ever came visiting it would take my Mum about 3 days before she could talk, teeth welded together through fear

 

[jMacdent]

Sorry to correct but it’s a Reliant Robin, not the other way round.

Everyone used to call them a Robin Reliant though, easy mistake to make.

Robin Reliant – the car that doesn’t exist.

 

[EddieEagle]

NOU 859

 

[Joker 1299]

NOU 859
View attachment 75124

That’s the same model

 

[Mickyb123]

Not his first but my dad bought 3 written off fiats 600s
Spent a weekend making one decent car from the 3, lifting engines gear boxes etc, his lifting gear was a pulley system made from para cord. At the time my dad was 61, this bloke was 5.1 and about 8 st soaking wet through.
Once he had his car built, he took it for a test drive, A1 to Edinburgh, then Glasgow, m6 to Manchester, then over the Pennines back to Yorkshire.

This is the same bloke who took the family on holiday from York’s to Newquay my mum and dad, me my brother and sister towing a caravan! The car Mini 850

 

[EddieEagle]

That’s the same model

Ours was Grey . A lot like the ‘50’s ...

 

[jts46]

Standard Ensign

 

[Velma's Dad]

That’s the same model

Looks like a Mark V or VI Minx. A 37 bhp sidevalve throbbing under that bonnet, top speed 68mph. Got people where they wanted to go.

 

[subthree]

The car I can remember as a young child was a yellow Ford Cortina estate. I always remember my legs sticking to the brown plastic seats in hot weather!

 

[Velma's Dad]

The car I can remember as a young child was a yellow Ford Cortina estate. I always remember my legs sticking to the brown plastic seats in hot weather!

I learnt to drive in a Mark 3 like that one although it was a different colour, my dad wouldn't have had any truck with a yellow car, he wasn't a hippy. Mark 3 was coolest of all the Cortinas though, IMO. Unless you had the 1.3L version in which case better rip the badge off the back.

 

[Jabberwocky]

Here is "my" list.
Hillman Minx - Black
Hillman Minx - Green & Cream
Ford Consul - Mid Blue
Bedford CA "Dormabile" Martin Walter Converted Campervan x 2
Vauxhall Viva x 2

This is us in Dads first Campervan.

 

[Eber123]

Good morning,

My father was trained as a car mechanic in a Mercedes workshop in Büdingen / Hessen. So he felt most comfortable with Mercedes cars.

The first car I can remember was a Mercedes 180:


(This is not ours, just an example)

I can remember that there was always problems with the diesel pump and that the car burnt twice . Even though a lot of work was put in, my father never found out why.

After that we got the Mercedes 200:


(This is not ours, just an example)

That was a brilliant car. As far as I can remember there was never any problems with it. And the build quality! I can remember that once we had a rear-end collision in a car park in a shopping centre. The car that drove into us was a Karman Ghia. His bumper was damaged and needed to be replaced. On our car there was not even a scratch on the chrome of the bumper! I wish that my California would have been build in the same quality.

Happy California,
Eberhard

 

[Velma's Dad]

The car that drove into us was a Karman Ghia.

Ah, I so very nearly bought one of those (second hand) while I was stationed in Germany in the army. Not sure why I didn't, but later I always wished I had. Absolutely beautiful cars, prettier than a Porsche 356 and on par with an Alfa Giulietta. They were commonplace in Germany in the late seventies and eighties, I haven't seen one out and about in Britain for very many years but when they come up for sale they are sensibly priced versus other classics. I'd have one if I had garage space.

A picture is worth many more words than mine: