Lion in Winter

Speaking of France, one of the families I was shipped out to during my teens to learn French still drove one of these babies. Not sure of its year, but it looked pretty much like this.



Also spent a fair bit of time in these. Happy days.

robin1234

When my wife & I moved to England in 1981, our first car was one of these - Ami 8 Estate. Same thing as a 2CV, with a different body. I really liked the gear shift on those.

mikelincs

My first car, when I was 21, was a Hillman Imp, FBC 253C. It was dark blue, got it via an uncle who owned a garage. Never drove it abroad though.

SultanOfSwing

Mine was a Vauxhall Corsa, when I was 22. Not quite as exciting but I got it up to what the speedometer claimed was 110 once but it was probably more like 90

Jerseygirl

My first car was a purple mini, red interior. Reg. SFM 83K.

Our family car was a black Morris Minor. Split window screen, arm indicators. It didn’t have a heater, dad made one using hot water from somewhere from under the bonnet. Reg. URB 139. We had our URB for almost 20 years.

BristolUK

First family car I remember was blue and grey...there was a dark green one, a beige one, very dark blue almost black and the last I knew of was yellow.

They all had four wheels, five if you counted the steering wheel.

Do I know a lot about cars?

caretaker

Well, you got the steering wheel... These days the acronyms alone are a bit challenging and there are a lot of different cars on the road, many of them nearly identical at a glance.

dakota44

My first car was one of these

1950 Ford flathead v8. I was stationed at Guantanamo Bay. The car had broken motor mounts, broken left bank water pump. Had to put water in the rad every time I wanted to run it. Would keep a case of oil and jug of water in the trunk....as I would get hammered at the enlisted mens club and then not put any water in the rad when leaving, drive all over the base burning every drop of oil out of the car...park behind the barracks and next day pop the trunk, put oil in and water and it would start right up and off I would go. Flathead V8's refused to die. Did that for a year and it still ran and I tossed the keys to the new guy in the barracks. Loved that car. The car after that was a 57 MGA, loved MGA's and had a total of 3 over the years, 3rd car was a TR4A. In terms of French cars, a friend from France that I knew in Peru told me..."We have a saying in France. You can buy a good car or a French car, but you can't buy both.

Lion in Winter

That's how much I know about football.

Don't know much about cars either of course.

Lion in Winter

Very nice. Doubtless used to impress girls, etc.

dakota44

The MGA is my absolute favorite car. So fun to drive and, yes, the girls loved it. The TR4A was nice, 5mph faster and had roll up windows instead of side curtains. I bought the Triumph from another Navy guy. He was being transferred overseas. The car was $1,500, a good 300 below book at the time and I jumped at it. After I had given him the cash and he had signed the title he said..."Now, there is just one thing wrong with it." I'm ready to punch his lights out if he had screwed me...keep in mind that northern Florida, Pensacola, it gets cold in the winter. He said "When it's really cold out the clutch is really stiff. I need to push it down with both feet. After it warms up it's fine." I'm like, what? I knew the car had a hydraulic clutch. Then he says "I cannot figure out what the problem is. I do what it says, I put Castor Oil in the Hydraulic clutch reservoir" I said...I'm sorry, you put WHAT in the clutch? I laughed my arse off and said...it's Castrol...Not Castor Oil. I grabbed the keys and the title and laughed my arse off all the way to the car. I took it to a Triumph dealer, we all had a great laugh, they flushed out reservoir and lines and put in Castrol. The girls loved that car too. I did prefer the MGA. Classier looking and more fun to drive. I later had 2 red ones. My goal is to have another before I croak. Where to get the $30 to $35k to pay for it is another thing. To think that I paid $400 for the '57 and only $250 for the two 60's.

mikelincs

During WW2 the British built a few dummy aemy camps complete with blow up tanks etc. The Germans decided to do the same, this time with wooden tanks, armaments barracks etc. The day after it was finished Britain sent over a simgle bomber and dropped a wooden bomb on it. I really hope this is a true story and not just apochryphal.

Lion in Winter

I know nothing about cars, but I do appreciate a machine with nice lines. Some of them seem to run a lot higher than 35k.

https://classiccars.com/listings/find/all-years/mg/mga

I once went out for a ride in a tiny Triumph ( not me driving), don't remember the model, but we went out on the highway and it felt like being in a toy car - very fast, but way smaller than everything else. We could have driven under the semis.

Lion in Winter

Oh that all wars were fought that way

spouse of scouse

An old advert that always makes me chuckle.