What shite would you be driving in 1979?

[Eyersey1234]

Just for fun, what was the equivalent of your current car(s) 40 years ago? For me the direct ancestor of the Focus is the Mk2 Escort, although the Mk4 Cortina is probably closer in size. 

[Six-cylinder]

In 1979 I was driving this 1969 Triumph Vitesse 2.0 MK2 Saloon!

I should add the L plates were for my girlfriend and I had been driving for 3 years. Starting with a Hillman Imp Californian, Vitese MK1 2.0 saloon, Cortina MK2 1600 super 2 door, Rover 2000TC and this Vitesse MK2 I bought 3rd Sep 1978.

[Timewaster]

Probably a Lotus Cortina, Zephyr estate, Peugeot 104. Series 3 LandRover.

 

(Sapphire Cosworth, MK2 Galaxy, 206, Ford Ranger)

[LightBulbFun]

23 minutes ago, Eyersey1234 said:

Just for fun, what was the equivalent of your current car(s) 40 years ago? For me the direct ancestor of the Focus is the Mk2 Escort, although the Mk4 Cortina is probably closer in size. 

 

[sierraman]

A 1959 Consul. 

[Eyersey1234]

21 minutes ago, Six-cylinder said:

In 1979 I was driving a 1968 Triumph Vitesse 2.0 MK2 Saloon!

Looks a nice car

[Maurice Marina]

I was riding one of only two bikes I’d bought new. A T reg Kawasaki KE175 B3. Moved on to a 1969 Morris Mini Cooper in Tartan red which I still have.

[Maurice Marina]

But the equivalent of my current car is probably a Capri 2 litre. 

[Maurice Marina]

Ok. 1.6 Kent. 

[Tadhg Tiogar]

If I had been driving in 1979, the equivalent to my current "shite show" car would have been a Series 1 CX. Daily would probably have been a Mk.1 Golf (no Jetta until 1980).

In reality, the oul man was driving an ex-police Mk.3 Ford Cortina 1600 L Decor.

[wuvvum]

In 1979 my dad was driving a Renault 6, much as I (occasionally) do today.  I suppose the closest equivalent then to my R6 now (40-something-year-old smoll Renault) would be a Juvaquatre.

The closest equivalent to my 16-year-old Rover 75 Tourer daily would probably be an Austin Cambridge estate.

[Spiny Norman]

So in 1979, a 25 year old Peugeot saloon would have been one of these. Hell I'd happily drive this now. ?

[robinmasters]

A 17-year old small Citroen?

 

[PhilA]

Going by mathematics alone, a 1919 Oakland.

 

I could deal with that. Much more likely would be a mk1 Escort or Fez. They were shite by a couple years old.

 

Phil

[New POD]

5 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

 

You'd need to fake a disability.  Or in 1979 speak pretend to be a "spacka" 

Our family woukd be driving a Vauxhall cresta, 1100 clubman, spitfire mk1, and a vitess 1600, shevette  

Omega, Bini Cooper, mk1 mx5, Juke Tekna. Mk4 astra. 

 

[Tetleysmooth]

I was driving either a Mk 1 or Mk 2 Triumph 2000, a Wolseley 6 landcrab, Austin 1100 or something entirely different.

[LightBulbFun]

45 minutes ago, New POD said:

You'd need to fake a disability.  Or in 1979 speak pretend to be a "spacka" 

 

 

surely actually having a disability that means your housebound for the most part otherwise would be good cause to qualify for an Invacar back then?

(well according to the last government assessment I went to they, well the private company they farm these things out to, said I was 100% healthy, but my mandatory reconsideration notice says otherwise, but they have conveniently eaten that and never got back to me, im just waiting to get some more phone credit so I can give them an earful and hopefully get my ESA back!)

 

[busmansholiday]

I was driving then and I had a Sunbeam Rapier in brown with black plastic interior. Reg was, IIRC, GNU167H. Somewhere I have a pic of it being stripped as I reshelled it in about 1981 (it was rotten as fuck) and the Sheffield branch of the DVLA issued me with a new reg (the engine had gone bang before that and I had fitted an H120 motor), IIRC was FWB673H. Some twat drove into it whilst parked outside my house in about 1986.

Bus wise, the Derbyshire independents I drove part time for had 1950's or early 60's heaps, Bedfords with Chinese boxes (ie the gears were not in the conventional pattern), ex Sheffield and East Midlands Leyland  Leopards with manual boxes (crash on first) and no power steering, Bristol FLF deckers for schools. The NBC firm had a mix of AEC Reliances from 1970 to brand new, and a few Leopards were starting to be allocated to us.

I was involved in the restoration of ex Sheffield Regent V Alexander 874 (still around), and would shortly be purchasing the first of four Plaxton bodied Reliances I would own. This one, ex SUT 322 was finally finished by the South Yorkshire Transport Museum (who now own it) last year.

[busmansholiday]

1 hour ago, LightBulbFun said:

surely actually having a disability that means your housebound for the most part otherwise would be good cause to qualify for an Invacar back then?

(well according to the last government assessment I went to they, well the private company they farm these things out to, said I was 100% healthy, but my mandatory reconsideration notice says otherwise, but they have conveniently eaten that and never got back to me, im just waiting to get some more phone credit so I can give them an earful and hopefully get my ESA back!)

 

They did that to my mother. She was deemed fit and able by some 12 year old who assessed her ability to walk. Her doctor wrote a rather stinging letter to them pointing out she needed a wheelchair to travel any distance. They quietly gave her back her blue badge and such without any form of apologies.

[Asimo]

I'm driving a nineteen year old 2 seat Honda now. In 1979 I could have been driving a fifteen year old 2 seat Honda S600. 

(Something I had considered but they were very rare, very expensive, very broken and very rusty.

So I was driving a Minor and a Beetle. Common, cheap, fixable and very rusty)

 

[Tamworthbay]

Capri, ideally a 3 litre but more likely pinto powered. But as I wasn’t 17 yet then it would be a Raleigh Grifter.

 

[LightBulbFun]

14 minutes ago, busmansholiday said:

They did that to my mother. She was deemed fit and able by some 12 year old who assessed her ability to walk. Her doctor wrote a rather stinging letter to them pointing out she needed a wheelchair to travel any distance. They quietly gave her back her blue badge and such without any form of apologies.

from what iv read on here alone, this scenario is all far too common sadly  

[lesapandre]

I was driving a Sunbeam Alpine - 1964 vintage. Was a Mk3 GT - gold with a removable hard-top but no convertible roof. Nice walnut dash. Overdrive and a Holbay engine. Cost me £75 and extensive welding. I once took it down the Newmarket bypass at over 100 mph and my friend Geoff's dad banned him from travelling with me again when he heard, as he was a passenger, I was 20yo.

Geoff died of cancer in 2016 - so it was not my driving which did for him in the end alas. RIP.

[sierraman]

31 minutes ago, busmansholiday said:

I was driving then and I had a Sunbeam Rapier in brown with black plastic interior. Reg was, IIRC, GNU167H. Somewhere I have a pic of it being stripped as I reshelled it in about 1981 (it was rotten as fuck) and the Sheffield branch of the DVLA issued me with a new reg (the engine had gone bang before that and I had fitted an H120 motor), IIRC was FWB673H. Some twat drove into it whilst parked outside my house in about 1986.

Bus wise, the Derbyshire independents I drove part time for had 1950's or early 60's heaps, Bedfords with Chinese boxes (ie the gears were not in the conventional pattern), ex Sheffield and East Midlands Leyland  Leopards with manual boxes (crash on first) and no power steering, Bristol FLF deckers for schools. The NBC firm had a mix of AEC Reliances from 1970 to brand new, and a few Leopards were starting to be allocated to us.

I was involved in the restoration of ex Sheffield Regent V Alexander 874 (still around), and would shortly be purchasing the first of four Plaxton bodied Reliances I would own. This one, ex SUT 322 was finally finished by the South Yorkshire Transport Museum (who now own it) last year.

About the mid 90’s we went on a trip with the bus garage to Manchester on the tin front AEC Regent I think it was. My old man knew a guy that worked at Greenland Road depot that acted as the sort of custodian of it after it had been restored. I don’t know if he was supposed to be taking it out or what but a group of folks went with him to a Bus Rally in Heaton Park.

[busmansholiday]

6 minutes ago, sierraman said:

About the mid 90’s we went on a trip with the bus garage to Manchester on the tin front AEC Regent I think it was. My old man knew a guy that worked at Greenland Road depot that acted as the sort of custodian of it after it had been restored. I don’t know if he was supposed to be taking it out or what but a group of folks went with him to a Bus Rally in Heaton Park.

If it was a Regent then it would be either 874 or 1330. Mentioning Greenland makes me think it may have been one of the Titans, 1156 or 904 which were kept there for a time.

[sierraman]

1156 seems to ring a bell. A guy called Dougie was something to do with it. 

Did any of the recovery wagons survive?

[eddyramrod]

I would have been driving either a grey Mini 850, BAJ 364B, or a white Anglia 1200 Super, ETB 988E.  The equivalents to my current fleet would have been a 1933 Cadillac, a 1965 Citroen (probably an Ami) and a brand new Japanese automatic.  There being no crossovers and barely any Suzuki, I think I have to go Toyota Carina.

[Sigmund Fraud]

My daily would have been an aging, Japanese faux-off-roader... Something like the Hope(less)Star ON360 :

Family car duties would have been entrusted to a crusty old Mercedes estate :

[I_am_Diesel]

I was Ford mad in 1979 so I reckon it would have been a Mk2  Escort, probably an estate as my daily is a Focus estate.

My Land Rover would be a Series 3, my Golf would be a Mk1 but not a GTi.

[Amishtat]

1979 was the year before I was born but if I'd been driving I suspect I'd be trying to to buy as many £10-20 Westminsters, P5s, Zodiacs Jags and Crestas as I could lay my hands on. Not sure what the alternative to my current 30 year old daily would be, the UK didn't get Volvos in 1949 did we?