What car do you first remember your father owning?

[Gary MacKenzie]

Hillman minx , and then a Singer Gazelle

[stillp]

My Dad never owned a car. He had an arrangement with an ex-army mate who owned a sit-up-and-beg Ford Popular, Dad paid for the insurance in exchange for the loan of the Poplar for a week's holiday in the summer. Dad cycled to work, but he was killed in 1957 when a milk float knocked him and his bike under a truck. The first car in the family was my older brother's Riley Pathfinder, which he replaced with a Ford Thames van to carry his band's gear about. For a few years he was the family's driver, until Mum bought a Singer Chamois, which I hated at first, but later passed my test in it then bought it from her.
Pete

[minitnkr]

My 74 4spd Corvette was still fun to drive, but the maintenance began to be a PITA, so the 6spd std LT1 Camaro was purchased. Get in, hit the button & go very quickly with little effort & the dealer does routine maint. It is much faster, corners better, stops way faster & is much more comfortable than the vette. Many smiles per mile.

[colin m]

I seem to remember my paternal grandfather owning a Heinkel bubble car

I read a story about on of these once. A couple of RAF chaps in uniform were at a bus stop one night returning from the pub. WW2 had been over for a few years but was still fresh in everyone's minds. Then, a noise came down the street. It was a Heinkel bubble car. One of the RAF lads, assumed the position of a gunner, and with his imaginary guns fired at the Heinkel. The driver of the Heinkel saw this, proceeded to swerve down the road, on and off the throttle simulating a hit. It seems everyone at the bus stop cheered.

[colin m]

A Viva HA, This isn't it, but ours did have the red interior. This car died and sat at the side of our house for a while, probably waiting for the scrap man. I wonder how many imaginary drives I went for in this car ?
This was actually his first car having been a motor bike person before, but the birth of my older sister put an end to bike ownership.

[tr1ckey66]

Not a first car, but I distinctly remember a blue Vauxhall Victor. For some reason the last part of the registration has stuck in my mind, not so sure about the first three letters (BRM (?) 851 B).
It seemed huge to me, though I was a fair bit smaller then. It had a bench seat in front too.

The first car I remember was a black Ford Prefect.

There's no way that these were bought new and I have vague memories of the Prefect being unreliable and requiring attention from one of my uncles who, allegedly, knew about cars (he was an electrician at the Cowley factory so he certainly saw a lot of cars!)

My father left us in the Sixties when I was about eight or nine years old but my mother says that he never seemed to have the same car for more than a few months. She said that he had owned about forty cars over the years as well as a few motorbikes. I found out that he spent a few years in Pentonville nick for cutting and shutting stolen cars! As a result, I can't recall the first car he had although it might have been an old Fifties black Ford Popular which could never get up Bread and Cheese Hill!

This is one of my favourite Dad's cars, a Ford Consul when we were camping in Cornwall in the mid-Sixties:


My Grandad's Ford Popular "POO 14" by his caravan in Clacton. My Dad's Zephyr 4 is alongside:


The only other cars that I can recall my father having, were a Vauxhall Victor FB and an earlier model of Ford Consul. The latter car is memorable because once, on our return from Heathrow Airport, there was a police chase going on and the baddies' car ran a red light and t-boned our car as we crossed a junction.

Dave

My Grandad had a Vauxhall Victor. If memory serves it had a bench seat in the front?

[tr1ckey66]

I have fond memories of the Vauxhall Victor which seemed a very big car to me. The first cars I remember my Dad owning were: A mk1 Transit van, a Hillman Imp, a Ford Anglian and a an Escort Mk1 (Which I remember being in a traffic accident in - total right off. I was in the front seat with no seatbelt with my dad trying to grap me with his left hand as I shot into the footwell and the engine coming to meet me in the opposite direction (different world back then!) We also had a Vauxhall Cavalier (Opel Manta equivalent)

[Guest]

WOW Mike it sounds like you married Matron lol

I think it is Matrons sister, the roads are a lot safer now she has had her knees done, but I keep the plumbers bung in the car just in case she starts....

[Guest]

It's quite funny really, as a lifetime Formula 1 and general motorsport fan, I dreamt of driving but never have. I'm disabled and have a sight problem in one eye so I never could learn to drive. I will always feel like I've missed out on something amazing!

as for how I get around, the answer is I rarely go out, I'm mostly housebound but when I do go out I use a taxi service. I'm jealous of you drivers mate, very jealous haha!

Believe me, after 30 years as a truck driver covering Europe and the old Eastern Bloc countries, and since I retired being the free taxi service to the council dump I sometimes wish I had never started. And the standard of some drivers today leaves a lot to be desired with just watching them trying to park, and then the illegal 'scramble' bike riders....

[Guest]

You haven’t missed out on much Steve. The roads in the uk are so crowded and in such poor condition that driving is more a chore than a pleasure. It’s just a tool to get from one place to another, so if you can do that by other means you’ve got it cracked :thumb2: Personally I can’t wait for self drive cars to take over……

But think of the argument when two of them crash....

[Guest]

I vaguely remember my grandad having an Austin A30. That was black too. This would have been in the early '60s and I suspect that the car was older than me at the time!

It's funny what you remember. It had trafficators which popped out, much to my delight, and my grandad used to put special parking lights on it overnight.

Yes, the red and white light clipped over the drivers window and plugged into the cigarette lighter or connected to the battery.

[Guest]

Where we live I can get away without driving for most, everyday journeys. Most shops we use are within walking distance, However both the wife and I drive and as rural Shropshire public transport is hopeless it is pretty well essential.
if I won the lottery my one indulgence would be a Rolls Royce and a chauffeur :smiling:

Yours would be big, blonde and two enormous headlights, and your wifes would be all muscle and a six pack like a cattle grid....

[Guest]

My 74 4spd Corvette was still fun to drive, but the maintenance began to be a PITA, so the 6spd std LT1 Camaro was purchased. Get in, hit the button & go very quickly with little effort & the dealer does routine maint. It is much faster, corners better, stops way faster & is much more comfortable than the vette. Many smiles per mile.

Shelby 427cu Cobra for me, but the lottery never gets nearer and the dream stays the same....

[stona]

Yes, the red and white light clipped over the drivers window and plugged into the cigarette lighter or connected to the battery.

That was it! I don't remember where it plugged in, but I think inside the car so maybe a cigarette lighter.
The car was parked 'on street' and I think this was probably a legal requirement, even though it was lit and a 30mph limit (typical residential street in other words). Grandad was ex-Army, senior NCO, and would have been a bit of a stickler for rules like that :smiling3:

I've just checked and....drum roll....

[HEADING=2]Rule 249[/HEADING]
All vehicles MUST display parking lights when parked on a road or a lay-by on a road with a speed limit greater than 30 mph (48 km/h).

Law RVLR reg 24

Yet another rule largely ignored!
Despite this, my car does have parking lights (as opposed to sidelights) that can be turned on using the indicator stalk with the ignition off. I've never used them!

[boatman]

That was it! I don't remember where it plugged in, but I think inside the car so maybe a cigarette lighter.
The car was parked 'on street' and I think this was probably a legal requirement, even though it was lit and a 30mph limit (typical residential street in other words). Grandad was ex-Army, senior NCO, and would have been a bit of a stickler for rules like that :smiling3:

I've just checked and....drum roll....

[HEADING=2]Rule 249[/HEADING]
All vehicles MUST display parking lights when parked on a road or a lay-by on a road with a speed limit greater than 30 mph (48 km/h).

Law RVLR reg 24

Yet another rule largely ignored!
Despite this, my car does have parking lights (as opposed to sidelights) that can be turned on using the indicator stalk with the ignition off. I've never used them!

i have used them when parkin on side of rd as my car has these lights on the indicater stem with the ignitaion off an can be switched to left an right so just one side front an rear lights show an very handy to so not a great drain on the battery
chrisb