Youth of yesteryear

Ha!!!! Memories... just passed me test, old man off on hols, me off out in his brand new Opel Monza 3.0L..... Man I thought I was soooooo cool in that car, at night used to drive round with the fogs, rear heated window, rear wiper on etc etc just so the dash would be lit up like a xmas tree

 

didn't take with out him knowing but when I passed my test I got insured on my dads sierra. 7 days later was taking my best mate into town for his driving test, screaming round like an idiot trying to find a parking space. eventually found one and reversed into the space at about 80 mph only to find there was a lamp post in the way took the post down and caved the rear quarter.

poor mate had to go take his test all shaken up and with wip lash and he failed!

 

nah just did one asap

 

MB500....you were in posh part of town

didn't start driving till i was 23 and only then cos i got a comp car

 

spent all my teens sorting all the girlfriends out of lads who was to busy posing round in daddies cars

 

betcha picked the ladies up outside chippies, comparing steak and kidney pies....

I digress....chippies remind me of Ford Escorts MkI and Mk II....bizarre I know, but there you have it

 

not even guna give this the time of day

 

im helpless in this attack!!

sending some boys down to av your wheels, wheel nuts, and carbon mirrors

 

I wasn't allowed to drive my Dad's car, and still not!

But in 1977 he did get me a 1969 fiat 850 from a scrap yard for me to rebuild and learn to drive in.

The engine was seized but I soon got it going, poured wd40 in the bores and pushed it down the drive in 4th gear.

2 weeks after passing my test I went to Silverstone with my mates, 1600e, Capri mk1 1600 gxl and my car with its 520x12 x ply tyres. Following a TVR Tasmin turbo round Becketts I rolled it, over on the roof and back on to its wheels. With all 4 wheels buckled and roof crushed down, no front or rear screen I drove off the circuit (very shaken).
A picture of the roll was taken by a marshal and is in the club house!

The marshal (who filled me full of whisky to calm me down) told me to push the car into a ditch and report it stolen, but i didn’t a friend drove it home and it was rebuilt. I sprayed it ford sapphire metallic blue, fitted an Abarth fiat 124 engine in the boot and minilite mag wheels.

It was so quick it wheelied! However I changed the fuel pump to an electric one off a mini and the damn car blew up.

Beat that!!

 

promise you'll not laugh at me?

Rear engined car with side pipes and front air scoop..
I did used to take it on the Chelsea cruise, it had the furry dice, chain door handles.
Here is a scan from a photo at some point in its evolution. Notice the rear screen sticker Fiat Esprit, that added a few extra bhp as did the go faster stripes and front screen sun visor
I still have a bit of its cylinder head in a display cabinet.. with twin valve springs!!
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It was mad, we spent a fortune on Abarth bits, but so was I (got into loads of driving related trouble), my next car was a mkIII spitfire with a 2l 6 cyl vitesse engine in, that was mad. great in a straight line suicidal round corners. the speedo went up faster than the rev counter I also had a sunbeam imp sport which had a stage 2 enjgine, as I remember the cylinder head used O rings instead of a gasket. I left that over xmas at my folks house with out anti freeze and the block split in two.

Mod'd cars of the past with photos would make an interesting thread..