Aston Martin, Bentley, Rolls Royce, Jaguar... some of the most beautiful and iconic cars of all time have come from the UK.
Nature however always enforces a balance...
10 Of The Worst Cars Ever Made In The UK (https://www.carthrottle.com/post/10-of-the-worst-british-cars-ever-made/)
I'm pretty sure another forum I'm on has people with versions of at least six of those! Some of them aren't that bad.
Vectras are still utterly wank mind.
"Vauxhall Viva's covered in rust,
but you can't f#ck ya bird on a 29 bus"
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2LrDzOwuOU
Back in the day...
A Triumph GT6 pulled alongside a Rolls-Royce at a traffic light.
"Do you have a car phone?" its driver asked the man in the Rolls.
"Of course I do," was the haughty reply.
"Do you have a fax machine?"
The Rolls driver sighed. "I have that too."
"Do you have a double bed in the back?" the GT6driver wanted to know.
Ashen-faced, the Rolls driver sped off.
That afternoon, he had a mechanic install a double bed in his car.
A week later, the Rolls driver passed the same GT6,parked on the side of the road with its back windows fogged up and steam pouring out.
The arrogant driver pulled over, got out of the Rolls and banged on the GT6's rear window. "I want you to know that I've had a double bed installed," bragged the Rolls driver.
The GT6 driver rolled his window down and frowned at the Rolls driver. "You got me out of the shower to tell me that?"
early 70s i worked in AMI dealership. Aust. Motor Industries. Toyota, Triumph & Rambler. Triumph Stag had v8 motor, wrecked timing chains in no time, overheated in no time. End result was before they were sold NEW, we had to replace Triumph motors with Rover 3.5 motors. They came strapped to a pallett, all adapters supplied, was a set time to do this, wrty before sold. Not many got sold but amazed an 18 yr old me.
Awful cars, yes, but I must admit I enjoyed my 1.8 Marina, in fact I liked it so much I traded it in for a top spec :lol: Ital 1.8HLX, the updated and face lifted Marina.
I commuted to work for around 10 years in them, they weren't worth anything so carefree motoring for peanuts.
When the the Ital broke it's back axle, it ended up with one out of the van variant, which had a lower ratio giving acceleration to pick up enough speed to challenge it's marginal brakes after a couple of corners of spirited driving, and the easy tail out drifting through corners on skinny (155 section?) tyres was always a hoot.
Dusty, i worked at a place in Brisbane 1975. We had the last 100 Marinas made in Oz. 2.6 litre 6 cyl motors. 3 speed on the floor. Sold with skinny little cross ply tyres. Such fun on a damp road. Just a dangerous car. Very bad quality, Could do 160 ks at redline in 3 rd. Everything on them just broke. We had 3 stripped for parts in first few weeks.
I remember my work mate getting his first car in the 80s,it was a orange marina,he duly went down the garage to fill it up with fuel ,when he left the garage it's a very steep uphill climb where he lost almost every bit of petrol he'd put in due to a massive corroded hole in the rear of the tank,
Quote from: grog on Thursday, 10 January 2019, 08:51 PM
2.6 litre 6 cyl motors. 3 speed on the floor. Sold with skinny little cross ply tyres. Such fun on a damp road.
2.6 Litre Oh yes... :cool:
The other absolutely brilliant thing I remember about Marinas was the radio, angled away from the driver.
https://goo.gl/images/giEXL9
Austin Princess & Maxi failed to make the list!!!!
My father always had Hillmans - who can remember them? The last ones he had were a Hunter, his only new car in 1973, then an Avenger, a truly awful car - 1300cc, no acceleration and the needle on the speedo wobbled from side to side that much that you never knew what speed you were really doing. I managed to get him to buy a Ford Cortina when his beloved Hillmans became defunct but he then swapped that for a Vauxhall Cavalier. I think I preferred the Hillmans to Vauxhalls. I gave up with him and cars after that.
Leyland P76, Austin Kimberly, add those two to the list. I was doing rust repairs on Rover 200's before the were sold as new.
One of the best cars, and l had two of them was the old Austin Cambridge.......the 9 seater. Well thats how many of us got around in it on my stag night. Just put gas in, never changed the oil. It did that itself.
The Austang :worshippy:
This was my first car donated by my Boss at the time to errr get me off motorbikes !!!
Quote from: MarkN on Friday, 11 January 2019, 02:42 AM
My father always had Hillmans - who can remember them? The last ones he had were a Hunter,
I used to have a Corgi model of the rally Hunter, blue and white (I think, might have been blue with black bonnet) with a tool box and spare wheels on the roof. Not sure why Corgi made this version, did it win a championship or something?
My first car was a mini van with a 1275 motor in it a great little car and my second car was a marina van and then a mk3 escort van .... i worked as a forester and chainsaw operator for 20 years so vans were a must !
Quote from: Dusty ST on Friday, 11 January 2019, 07:42 PM
Quote from: MarkN on Friday, 11 January 2019, 02:42 AM
I used to have a Corgi model of the rally Hunter, blue and white (I think, might have been blue with black bonnet) with a tool box and spare wheels on the roof. Not sure why Corgi made this version, did it win a championship or something?
If its the one I think it is, Rootes group won the 68 London to Sydney Marathon in a Hillman Hunter.
Quote from: Taniwha on Friday, 11 January 2019, 10:34 PM
Quote from: Dusty ST on Friday, 11 January 2019, 07:42 PM
Quote from: MarkN on Friday, 11 January 2019, 02:42 AM
I used to have a Corgi model of the rally Hunter, blue and white (I think, might have been blue with black bonnet) with a tool box and spare wheels on the roof. Not sure why Corgi made this version, did it win a championship or something?
If its the one I think it is, Rootes group won the 68 London to Sydney Marathon in a Hillman Hunter.
That's the one, I'd forgotten that name. My Dad's Hunter was the 1500cc model not the better 1750 version in a colour called Prairie Wind which in reality was dog shit beige!
Top of the class Taniwha well done.
Hard to believe a Hillman Hunter got that far.
Quote from: Dusty ST on Friday, 11 January 2019, 07:42 PM
Quote from: MarkN on Friday, 11 January 2019, 02:42 AM
My father always had Hillmans - who can remember them? The last ones he had were a Hunter,
I used to have a Corgi model of the rally Hunter, blue and white (I think, might have been blue with black bonnet) with a tool box and spare wheels on the roof. Not sure why Corgi made this version, did it win a championship or something?
One of my first cars was a Hillman HUnter 1725cc - loved the car but a real rust bucket! But yes, the Hunter did win the London to Sydney rally in 1968 using a Coventry Climax engine and driven by Andrew Cowan - and again in 2000, victors Freddie and Janet Giles drove a Hillman Hunter of similar spec to the 1968 London-Sydney winner, finishing 26min ahead of Nigel and Paula Broderick's Mercedes 250SL in the world's longest rally ever, completing the 21,000-mile "Around the World in 80 Days" event in July of that year. The rally took competitors through Istanbul, Azerbaijan, Samarkand and the Gobi desert across China, before jumping to Alaska, Canada, and New York. An Antonov air-freighter carried cars and crews to Morocco for the last leg north.
So did it win a championship or something - errrr, yes!
Quote from: Kiwifruit on Saturday, 12 January 2019, 02:38 AM
Top of the class Taniwha well done.
Hard to believe a Hillman Hunter got that far.
Don't tell anyone, but I had a '72 Holbay Hunter when I first got my licence. Was good for 100mph. Handled acceptabley too.
Austin 1300GT's.
A truely awful car and I loved them. Hydro-spastic suspension, bodywork that rotted at an alarming rate, a true old mans embarrassing car.
But...... the twin carb 1300cc BMC A-Series engine dropped straight into an old Mini 850 or 1000 and made them a much more interesting drive, especially when your 850 had drum brakes all round.
My first car was 1955 Hillman Minx. Cost $60. It was unreal car. Lime green and called Herbie. First ohv model. 1974 we drove a 1960 Minx from Dampier to Mt Tom Price, WA, temps up in 40s. Never missed a beat. It broke down near Dampier later on, left for a few days, the local indiginous had stripped when we went back to get it. Lovely seats for sitting around camp fire i guess.
Never owned a British car only had a Vauxhall.
My first car was a Hillman Avenger. 1500cc, blue with white vinyl seats & trim. Mrs (at the time) was sick of going out on the bike, freezing & getting all 'messed up' when we were going out somewhere. Sold me bike & brought a car - should of kept the bike & got rid of her, ya live n learn though.
I started riding licenced motorcycles on the road in 1976, I didn't get my car licence until 1985 bought a Vauxhall and gave it to my girlfriend to take me to and home from the pub.
Quote from: KiwiCol on Sunday, 13 January 2019, 06:35 AM
My first car was a Hillman Avenger. 1500cc, blue with white vinyl seats & trim. Mrs (at the time) was sick of going out on the bike, freezing & getting all 'messed up' when we were going out somewhere. Sold me bike & brought a car - should of kept the bike & got rid of her, ya live n learn though.
So the blue and white fetish started some years ago Col........ :facepalm:
My first was a mini in 1969 - had 10 there after including Coopers and Ss' Great fun! bombing around the Black Mountains in Wales! Drove the piss out of them. Graduated to MGCs had 8 of them still have 3 and the first one I bought in '74 - she's in the garage resting right now! Love that 6 cylinder!
My first car was a mini which I bought in the spring of 1977, all my "expert" mates suggested I spent a bit of time on it in the summer months to do it up a little so it's ready for winter as I still had my bike for transport. So I started but when I removed bits to clean up I found more behind it so all I eventually did was strip it, and scrap it. I then bought a Ford Zodiac Mk3 which I had for two years, it was a brilliant car but bloody thirsty.
"When i were a lad....."
850 out, 1300GT in....
(https://gsx1400owners.org/forum/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi67.tinypic.com%2F9zylgm.jpg&hash=2d8b3448e2d6b6fc29a39a045ebd54469592c38d)
Yeah Tony - did a few of those swaps myself easy car to transplant!