Six Cylinders Motoring Notes - Winter is coming!

[Guest Hooli]

I used to be forced to drive one for a job, I hated the awful thing. The worst thing was the pedal positions that killed my knee & made me limp after 10miles.

[hairnet]

oh merde

 

https://www.leboncoin.fr/voitures/1498314630.htm/

 

chris claire are you about

 

also did you see what was in the recommended pile?? *evil grin

[Six-cylinder]

https://www.leboncoin.fr/vi/1455996671.htm/

[hairnet]

oh my

 

*waves wallet

 

havent we been here before

 

[Six-cylinder]

What French paperwork do we need for a Nova?

 

If you want it we can take a trailer over and get it, only 22 km from Calais.

[Mrs6C]

What French paperwork do we need for a Visa?

 

If you want it we can take a trailer over and get it, only 22 km from Calais.

FTFY...

[hairnet]

What French paperwork do we need for a Nova?

 

If you want it we can take the 17RD over and fetch it it's 12 miles from Calais.

[Six-cylinder]

Metro shopping this morning.

[Tadhg Tiogar]

Metro shopping this morning.

Should park that outside Metro Bank.

[Six-cylinder]

Should park that outside Metro Bank.

 

Or the Metro Station!

[SiC]

Or the Metrobus! (All the way in Bristol mind).

[Six-cylinder]

Nothing very exciting has happened car wise but stuff still happens.

 

My Vitesse has been in use last weekend, but now put away in storage.

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The E30 BMW 325i is a delight to use since its replacement HT leads, smooth and powerful and still out and about.

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Mercedes 200TE back in use with a fresh MOT, but still a heater that is either off or on max.

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The 156 is now on station duty with Mrs6C. New wipers and a check this morning revealed it needed ½ litre of oil and a litre of antifreeze water, not too bad as I can't remember when it was last checked. I topped the windscreen washers that had been missing its top for sometime and found a bottle top to replace it.

 

Our 156 job list has become large and expensive with anti-roll bar bushes, cam belt, exhaust, ABS light on and service needed for MOT 6^th Dec. After some discussion about how the bill was likely to be more than the value we decided to keep the car going and this morning I have booked it into the Northampton Alfa specialist 13^th Nov. I hope the cam belt holds on as we have been playing cambelt roulette for some time now.

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The Berlingo has been making a squeaking noise when the lights are put on, the alternator belt was changed as it needed it anyway but still squeaking, idlers and alternator were checked and nothing found. Answer - drivers headlight leveling is struggling and squeaking.  

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ZX has gone for MOT, I know most would get an instant result but the way it works for me is I drop it at my favourite garage they check it over, do any work and take it for MOT. The deal is it is not booked for any particular day and will get done when they are ready.

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I bought a new Suaoki mini Jumper/power bank.

 

The first time I used it, it took 3 attempts at connection/disconnection before it would jump, but then started the ZX TD with enthusiasm. I have not had a flat battery to try it again.

 

I then placed it on the kitchen table and found the red flashing light had come on and the switch would not turn it off. I plugged in the mains charger and the flashing light went out. It has not come on, on its own again, but now if you switch on the flashing light it will not go out with plugging in the mains charger.

 

It was from Hong Kong to save £4 over British ones of the same brand, via ebay meant I have had the minimum of trouble to get a full refund and the seller does not want it returned.

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I was planning to take the Metro to a small local car gathering tomorrow, but the weather forecast is poor so I may give it a miss.

[Six-cylinder]

My First Car

 

I cannot remember when I was not interested in cars. My father did his own repairs and maintenance, I used to watch him from a toddler and moved on to passing wrong spanners, to helping him. When I was about fourteen he had a 1965 Jaguar 3.8 S type and asked me to refit the alloy rocker covers. I used a ½ inch drive ratchet and had soon cracked them! Ouch, all his life he told the story, but my retort was always I never broke any of mine.

 

In 1975 I had a Puch MS50D Moped and intended replacing it with a Yamaha RD 250 Motorbike. My farther never said no but if I owned a car he could help me and he new nothing about motorbikes. So with family pressure I learnt to drive. My first lesson was in a driving school Mini and then I continued and passed my test in a school Triumph Toledo. Driving practice was done in my fathers 1973 Citroen GS 1220cc Club and after I had passed my test it was the first car I drove myself on the road in.

 

Prior to passing my test I had bought my first car a 1968 Hillman Imp Californian Coupe, the boss of the engineering factory I worked in part time had started to do it up for his wife when she declared she did not like it. It was a very worn gearbox, but the head gasket had just been done. It certainly made me know how to fix cars, gearbox twice as the recon unit was rubbish, drive shaft doughnuts, exhaust, throttle cable, radiator, king pins, brakes and various other things. That was all in one year and I don’t really have any fond memories of that car in spite of it being my first.

[richardmorris]

My First Car

 

I cannot remember when I was not interested in cars. My father did his own repairs and maintenance, I used to watch him from a toddler and moved on to passing wrong spanners, to helping him. When I was about fourteen he had a 1965 Jaguar 3.8 S type and asked me to refit the alloy rocker covers. I used a ½ inch drive ratchet and had soon cracked them! Ouch, all his life he told the story, but my retort was always I never broke any of mine.

 

In 1975 I had a Puch MS50D Moped and intended replacing it with a Yamaha RD 250 Motorbike. My farther never said no but if I owned a car he could help me and he new nothing about motorbikes. So with family pressure I learnt to drive. My first lesson was in a driving school Mini and then I continued and passed my test in a school Triumph Toledo. Driving practice was done in my fathers 1973 Citroen GS 1220cc Club and after I had passed my test it was the first car I drove myself on the road in.

 

Prior to passing my test I had bought my first car a 1968 Hillman Imp Californian Coupe, the boss of the engineering factory I worked in part time had started to do it up for his wife when she declared she did not like it. It was a very worn gearbox, but the head gasket had just been done. It certainly made me know how to fix cars, gearbox twice as the recon unit was rubbish, drive shaft doughnuts, exhaust, throttle cable, radiator, king pins, brakes and various other things. That was all in one year and I don’t really have any fond memories of that car in spite of it being my first.

 

One of those imps was the first car I drove- I think I was 14 and it was Being pushed from the driveway of a friend of my parents onto the trailer from my dad’s school. It was orange, and hadn’t run for years.

[Six-cylinder]

One of those imps was the first car I drove- I think I was 14 and it was Being pushed from the driveway of a friend of my parents onto the trailer from my dad’s school. It was orange, and hadn’t run for years.

 

I remember being pushed round the parking area at my Austria’s Grandmothers flat in one of these dead Fiat 500s by my mother (left), Grandmother (with cat), a neighbour (3^rd from left) and my brother on the right.

 

I can’t remember the year but take a guess at my brothers age and I am a year older.

[hairnet]

71 or 72?

[hairnet]

oh and wheres pic of you as callow yoof??

[Six-cylinder]

oh and wheres pic of you as callow yoof??

 

I chopped it out of the car picture!

 

Mrs6C thinks my brother looks 10, so that makes it 1969/70

[Six-cylinder]

My Second Car and Fifth Cars plus a couple of false starts!

 

I was aware of Triumph Vitesses, one of the senior engineers in the factory I had my part time job had one and the desire was high. In those days we searched Exchange & Mart and the local papers for our dreams and I had concluded they were too expensive for me as mostly I was a poor student.

 

After a year of Hillman Imp ownership, I was watching for a friend to arrive at collage and a fellow student did the same, I recognised him as the owner of a 1968 Triumph Vitesse 2 LTR Mk1 saloon in Valencia blue so engaged him in conversation, “it’s for sale” I thought I will never be able to afford this, but the price came at half what I expected! It had been on its side, very light damage I had not even noticed when I had seen it in the car park. The insurance was outrageous group 5 out of 7 in those days and it cost more than the car, my mother said I was stupid to want to buy it. I needed family help to cashflow the immediate purchase before I sold my Imp and my father recognised it was a good buy and helped me as he would countless time for several years.

 

The Vitesse was a great car and I did not borrow my fathers GS so much as I preferred my own car, but after a year the thorny issue of insurance came up and in spite of a clean driving record the cost was still unbearably high so I changed it for a green 1968 Cortina MK2 1600 2 door super made to look like a GT. (the photo is a spiting image with my reg as I never took a photo of the actual car) I had it for just 7 weeks and did not really take to it.

 

Now I needed a car in a hurry, if I was to take my girlfriend to Cornwall to meet her parents on holiday and a rush purchase just 4 days after I sold the Cortina was a 1968 Rover 2000 TC in grey with cream leather. Not a bad car but just not the right thing for a 19 year old student. I guess the fact that my dad liked to borrow it was a clue! I never took a photo of the Rover.

 

After just 2 months of Rover ownership I spotted a 1969 Vitesse 2 LTR MK2, with sunroof and overdrive in Valencia blue I liked the look of, to hell with the insurance cost if my dad would cashflow me I wanted it. Sure enough he came through and so did the insurance who let me cover the two cars for 2 months until the Rover was sold. It felt like coming home with another Vitesse.

[Six-cylinder]

My Car History, Cars 6-12 and I still have number no. 12, 36 years later!

 

I finished my student days with the Valencia Vitesse MK2 and started to commute into London daily with it, it was not long before at 750 miles a week my shoestring run student car needs lots of work so I bought royal blue Vitesse MK2 (RON 629G) in very good condition and hammers the life out of that doing 12,000 miles in 4 months.

 

Time for something newer so I took out a bank loan to buy a Dolomite 1850 but was offered a 5 year old 50k VW Passat TS and took that instead. Not a great success and I only had it for 15 months because it kept breaking, burn inlet valve, cracked wishbone, broken camshaft plus others. My high mileage continued and I had to repair RON and did many more miles in the Vitesse than in the Passat.

 

I now rented a storage barn and had a whole variety of broken Triumphs that never went back on the road.

 

Working in Slough I was offered a MGC GT manual with sunroof in grey by a work college who was fed up with it as he had had the engine rebuild and it started to breath heavy with fumes entering the car and also it had been scraped on a rear wing while parked. I put a pipe on the breather and found it did not use much oil and now the fumes did not enter the cabin I could use it just fine. Unfortunately after only a few months a Cortina MK3 turned across me at zero notice while I was doing 50 mph and that was the end of that. (I can’t find a picture)

 

Running the MGC GT with both the Vitesse and Passat broken I bought a Royal Blue Herald 13/60 saloon for something more economical to drive and split my mileage that was still 20k+ a year.

 

A girl in my regular pub was a car broker and offered me a red 3 year old 36k Granada 2.3 GL manual MK2 saloon at well below retail price and I took it. That was a lovely car with no faults, Yes a future Autoshiter with a fault free car! Before too long I had to sell it to buy my first house. I also had to give up my storage unit as I had a mortgage to pay and sold off my non running Vitesses and GT6.

 

Don’t worry I had not gone completely domestic and as I got ready to move into my new house I spent all the money I had reserved to furnish it on a restoration project 1966 Jaguar E-Type 4.2 FHC!

Glamorous isn't it E Type ownership!

 

[hairnet]

Nutter

[Six-cylinder]

Driving for 9 year and 17 cars

 

 

Now driving a 1976 Citroen GS Pallas bought from my father that had been his work car, it was 7 years old and as the average life of a GS was 8 years, it was good I now lived a mile from work and although I did go back to working in London it was by train.

 

My driving was now leisure and the initial shock of paying a mortgage after living with my parents for a nominal amount was lessening so it was time to upgrade the GS for a 1972 Reliant Scimitar 5a manual in Highland Purple. It was a great looking car that had only done 60k in spite of being 12 years old and I bought it with a knock from the engine. A friend rebuilt the engine and says he never altered it, but it went like a scalded cat and wore the brand new rear Avon tyres out in 4500 miles.

 

The problem with the Scimitar was it gave me backache and when a work college said I could buy his dark blue 1978 Granada 2.8 GL with a bad Auto gearbox oil leak for half price if I could come up with the money today I phoned my dad who had to drive to his bank. I had a recon Autobox fitted and it was a good car even if I was now driving a 6 year old Granada when I had had a 3 year old, the difference now was I had a project E-Type under way and a house as well!

 

A friend handed me a 1979 Opel Kadett C Caravan that he had been hit up the back in while the insurance was settled, he had previously demolished a road sign with the front and while it looked tatty it drove very nicely, I drove it for nearly a year while the insurance was sorted out and in the end I bought it, took the worst dents out of it and sold it on. If you notice the X reg it was because my friend’s brother had bought it new in Germany as an Armed Forces purchase, RHD KM speedo and when the car came to the UK it was given a plate that dated the UK entry not build.   

 

A hiccup as I was made redundant when the company I worked for went under made me sell the Granada and buy another end of life GS from my father, The GS was a 1978 X2 my father had from 18 months old and 10k miles. Now although 7 years old, it was in good shape as it had always been garaged and well looked after. With the concern of being out of work I never really worked out how much I liked that X2 at the time.

[hairnet]

granny botherer

 

we had one of those - great car

[AnthonyG]

Lord that E-type looks crusty - how old was it when you got it? 15 years old?

 

Edit - it was 17 years old if you got it in 1983? (Assuming you bought the 7 year old GS in the same year)

[Six-cylinder]

16 years old when I got it registered March 1966 in Belfast and I bought it May 1982. It had been off the road rotted out since 1977 11 years old, the inner sills and other placed had already been plated up by then.

 

This is how it looked in 1977, when I got it the bonnet had been replaced with a reasonable second-hand one, but I managed to buy one of the last factory bonnets that arrived in a wooden create at my work.

[Six-cylinder]

A few more

 

Late 1985 and I went to work for a Volvo dealer and my company car was a 340GL 1.7 5door in Ocean blue Met so I sold the GS X2 a decision I regret to this day. I will cover my 11 years of motor trade company cars in a separate post later, lots of repeats!

 

With my transport needs met and the project E-Type still ongoing I kept seeing a Triumph Herald 13/60 convertible parked outside a house not far from me and put a note though the door to say if it ever comes up for sale I was interested. A few weeks later I got a call and a deal was struck for the Herald with rusty holes in the bonnet, doors and boot. I went to collect it and the lady said I had another note put though my door, my heart sunk waiting for “so I sold it for more”, but no this one was offering panels and did I want the note. I called and sure enough he had a rust free bonnet, boot and doors but in green. I hesitated and he said my mate will spray the whole car for you for £100. I ended up with a smart looking good running Herald for a very good price.

 

The Herald had woken the Vitesse desire in me and it was not long before I bought a Damson Vitesse Mk2 convertible that had been off the road a while but was basically a good car that needed recommissioning with flat paint and a green bonnet. Working for a garage my boss let me drive it 50 miles home on trade plates and then I had it repainted and did the mech work myself in the bodyshop premises. When the car was nearly finished I got a call to say could I come and remove my car as the end gable of the workshop was rocking in the wind. Half an hour after I had removed it and helped removed other cars the wall came down!

 

The madness had started to bite hard and I bought a car just because I wanted it for a show. My plan was to take my damson Vitesse convertible to a Triumph show but the week before it had slit its head between valves. It was a strange day, I had resigned at work and Saturday afternoon still at work was looking at the Thames Valley Trader I saw a white 1965 Vitesse 1600 saloon with a sunroof and wire wheels for sale, I could still go to the ball if I bought this! So after I closed the garage I drove the 30 miles to find the car was not as good as described, the desire to own it was still there in spite of knowing it was not that great I offered money and to my surprise it was accepted. Now to find a friend who would take me to collect it at 9 pm on a Saturday evening so I could take it the show Sunday morning. Everything went to plan and it even passed its next MOT without too much welding!

 

In June 1988 I found the damson Vitesse convertible was not really very good as a family classic and bought a 1975 dark blue Jaguar XJ6C to replace it. What a lovely car and I had it for 12 years.

[Six-cylinder]

Last few before my car history gets more complicated!

 

I drove a Mini for a year! Well I raced one, a full race Mini Miglia, what a wake up call that was as no ARDS, just pay your entry, medical, scrutineer the car and race! At the time I regularly drove all sorts of GTi, XR, and 16v cars. I had only got 2 laps on test day before the car broke so the fact that this Mini on sticky slicks that only started getting heat into the tyres at speeds that the hot hatches would be falling off the road was a learning curve in itself. Strapped into a 550kg car with 100bhp from its 998cc engine that could lap Castle Coombe faster than a road going 911 turbo of its day was a very alien environment.

 

My first race was at Thruxton, both mini classes practised together so 41 Minis came past me including most of the 850cc ones as well. The result was as the Mini grid was over subscribed I was bumped out of the Mini race. To give all enterers a race the bumped Minis were put in to race with Special saloons, things like a piece of fibreglass shaped like a Skoda Rapide with a space frame and 911 engine. The result was predictable and I was nearly lapped twice in 10 laps! However as there was only 2 Mini Miglias in the race I got second in class and that is printed in Autosport!

 

I was used to seeing blue flags waved to indicate I was being passed and as usual I saw one being waved at Cadwell Park, where is that car passing me, light bulb moment its being waved because I am overtaking for a place. I was just beginning to get a feel for it after a year, but the friend I was doing it with run out of money and the car was sold.

 

1990 after a long gap from my MGC GT I bought a 1972 MGB GT, it was a PX at work and my boss showed me how much better it would look with the black part of the rostyle wheels painted in on one wheel, by the end of the day he had painted them all! A tired old car but I enjoyed it never the less.

 

Another Herald 13/60 saloon came to me from a friend who didn’t want it any more! It had a name Boris, that was because it was made up of several Heralds. The holes in the footwells scooped up water in very wet conditions but it was fun. When asked for a name in pub or café for my order I sometimes use Boris instead of my own boring name, which was great until some noisy politician called Boris popped up!

 

A friend said he had met a lady at a car boot selling a Triumph GT6 and Bond Equipe convertible and did I want the Bond! We collected it from Slough and met the lady who told us they were her son’s, but he was in prison! We did always wonder for how long and would he come looking for his cars. The cars were wrecks but I just had to get mine back on the road and did. 

[MorrisItalSLX]

Which bus manufacturer did the MGB GT upholstery! Very colourful!

[Spottedlaurel]

Good reading and great to see the old photos.

 

I wish I knew what became of my grandfather's E-Type, but as yet no photos have surfaced showing its registration. It was the usual tatty heap in the late '70s, I remember him taking hay in it down to their horses.

[Six-cylinder]

I think my fish likes Fiats a bit too much!