Cars, Lasses and Lads - A Photo Sharing Thread

[New POD]

3 hours ago, Metal Guru said:

My Dad “specialised” in late Cortinas. 

Mk 3 1976 Mk4 1979 Mk 5 1982.

Company cars. Just coincided with when they were due for replacement.

Mine had a mk2, mk3, mk4 estate, mk5 estate (I conceed that those on the cortina spectrum call it the mk5, when it was just a minor facelift). He cried when the Sierra came out, had a dangling mirror estate a sapphire and then a late 2.0 ghia estate. He cried again when he ended his career with a mondeo.  

3 focus estates in retirement. 

I digress. Let's agree it's a mk5 series 80. 

[Joey spud]

Good looking van the CF. Why don't modern vans have sliding doors I always thought they were a great idea ?

[Metal Guru]

18 minutes ago, Joey spud said:

Good looking van the CF. Why don't modern vans have sliding doors I always thought they were a great idea ?

Continuing a theme, my Dad also bought a Bedford CA in 1969, a few weeks before the CF was launched. I think he was probably after the large discounts on offer for outgoing models.

[egg]

Green Park, London, 1953

[Wibble]

Mum, with Dad’s Chevy Bel Air

[Dick Cheeseburger]

7 minutes ago, Wibble said:

Mum, with Dad’s Chevy Bel Air

That's a cracking photo. Wow. Tell us more!

[Wibble]

41 minutes ago, Dick Longbridge said:

That's a cracking photo. Wow. Tell us more!

Thanks! Mum, from County Donegal, had just left the convent, from being a nun, when she met Dad, a Dubliner who ran away from home and, after a while, being bored of driving taxis and flipping burgers, joined the US Air Force. They ended up in Tennessee for a while. I could go on for pages but this isn’t the thread for this. Happy to tell more of their early years story elsewhere, if anyone is interested. Their early lives were quite astonishing and a bit of a scandal in Mum’s home town😆

[Dick Cheeseburger]

23 minutes ago, Wibble said:

Thanks! Mum, from County Donegal, had just left the convent, from being a nun, when she met Dad, a Dubliner who ran away from home and, after a while, being bored of driving taxis and flipping burgers, joined the US Air Force. They ended up in Tennessee for a while. I could go on for pages but this isn’t the thread for this. Happy to tell more of their early years story elsewhere, if anyone is interested. Their early lives were quite astonishing and a bit of a scandal in Mum’s home town😆

Yes please! Sounds fascinating already...

[Yoss]

9 hours ago, Joey spud said:

Good looking van the CF. Why don't modern vans have sliding doors I always thought they were a great idea ?

Safety mostly. When I first became a postie, in 1990, all our Sherpas had sliding doors. And when it was nice day you would leave the doors open. And because you're doing deliveries you wouldn't put your seat belt on. You can see where this is going can't you? Nothing ever happened at our office but some posties died or got seriously injured. Of course even with the door shut and your seat belt on you might not have survived, they were Sherpas after all, but Royal Mail had to be seen to be doing something.

It is a shame, they were handy and much easier to get in and out of than standard doors. They'd be very useful today too as the parking in our yard is so tight. 

[myglaren]

[Wibble]

55 minutes ago, Dick Longbridge said:

Yes please! Sounds fascinating already...

Ok, glad your interested but I’ll post more on my wibble’s wittering thread.

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, Wibble said:

from County Donegal

Colour me interested too. Wife's mum came from there, she took me back a while ago. Fair way from her Dad's Mayo roots.

[Wibble]

Just now, High Jetter said:

Colour me interested too. Wife's mum came from there, she took me back a while ago. Fair way from her Dad's Mayo roots.

Amazing, where in Donegal?

[High Jetter]

1 hour ago, Wibble said:

Amazing, where in Donegal?

Clonmany. Popped into a pub, barman knew her relative and gave directions - otherwise we'd never have found them. #remote

[Wibble]

20 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Clonmany. Popped into a pub, barman knew her relative and gave directions - otherwise we'd never have found them. #remote

Brilliant, sounds about right though, every time we go to Bundoran, there’s whispering and pointing at us. My Mum’s family contributed a lot to that town and there’s still a few who know who we are.

[High Jetter]

2 minutes ago, Wibble said:

whispering and pointing at us.

Yea, I expect that. Until you make a connection, a local one, then it's moar food and drink that you can cope with.

[Wibble]

20 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Yea, I expect that. Until you make a connection, a local one, then it's moar food and drink that you can cope with.

Yep, I stayed at my Grandmother’s old pub when I went to her funeral. Some locals were taking the piss at the English guy asking for a pint of Guinness, when the owner chastised them. “You mightn’t know who this fella is, but I do and his Granny used to own this place, so show some respect, it’s her funeral tomorrow.”

Didn’t pay for another drink all night🙂

[Metal Guru]

2 hours ago, Yoss said:

Safety mostly. When I first became a postie, in 1990, all our Sherpas had sliding doors. And when it was nice day you would leave the doors open. And because you're doing deliveries you wouldn't put your seat belt on. You can see where this is going can't you? Nothing ever happened at our office but some posties died or got seriously injured. Of course even with the door shut and your seat belt on you might not have survived, they were Sherpas after all, but Royal Mail had to be seen to be doing something.

It is a shame, they were handy and much easier to get in and out of than standard doors. They'd be very useful today too as the parking in our yard is so tight. 

I remember the Scouts I went to had an old CA minibus. They used to drive round all the time with the doors open, no seat belts , with kids in there, probably 3 on the front double seat. As far as I can remember, no one fell out but that was probably down to luck more than anything.

For modern vans , I would have thought  they could have some sort of mechanism where the engine wouldn’t start with the door open. Probably as simple as a switch activated by the door closing.

[Three Speed]

7 hours ago, Metal Guru said:

 

10 hours ago, Yoss said:

Safety mostly. When I first became a postie, in 1990, all our Sherpas had sliding doors. And when it was nice day you would leave the doors open. And because you're doing deliveries you wouldn't put your seat belt on. You can see where this is going can't you? Nothing ever happened at our office but some posties died or got seriously injured. Of course even with the door shut and your seat belt on you might not have survived, they were Sherpas after all, but Royal Mail had to be seen to be doing something.

It is a shame, they were handy and much easier to get in and out of than standard doors. They'd be very useful today too as the parking in our yard is so tight. 

Expand  

I remember the Scouts I went to had an old CA minibus

 

The scouts my brother and I went to had one. One day when he was in it the drivers door fell off. Don’t know if it slid off or jumped off. The scouts were amused. Scout leader not.

[egg]

Calais.

[egg]

Calais, encore une fois

[MiniMinorMk3]

On 27/10/2024 at 01:44, adw1977 said:

Well the Mark 5 was marketed as "Cortina 80" but that's just the usual practice of having a "model year" that starts sometime in the second half of the previous year.

The Mark 5 was indeed launched in August 1979 and went on sale in October 1979.

Corkscrew Hill. I remember riding up that on my bike a couple of times and took the 119 up it on many a trip to Croydon.

Balaams is next door to the Rugby Club that I played at once when a mate asked me to fill in because I played for my school team at the time.

 

Here's Balaams today

[DSdriver]

10 hours ago, MiniMinorMk3 said:

Corkscrew Hill. I remember riding up that on my bike a couple of times and took the 119 up it on many a trip to Croydon.

Balaams is next door to the Rugby Club that I played at once when a mate asked me to fill in because I played for my school team at the time.

 

Here's Balaams today

Corkscrew Hill: My granny told me that when she was courting she was pillion on her boyfriends motorcycle as he rode down Corkscrew Hill steering with his feet on the handlebars. It must have been just a dirt road back then. Kids today tsk wrapped up in cottonwool.

Just worked it out, must have been late 1920s/early 1930s cos my mum was born in 1932.

[High Jetter]

33 minutes ago, DSdriver said:

Corkscrew Hill: My granny told me that when she was courting she was pillion on her boyfriends motorcycle as he rode down Corkscrew Hill steering with his feet on the handlebars. It must have been just a dirt road back then. Kids today tsk wrapped up in cottonwool.

Just worked it out, must have been late 1920s/early 1930s cos my mum was born in 1932.

Ding ding ding! Dad b1930 lived in Links Rd, WW with his mum and 2 brothers. Mum b1929 lived in Pickhurst Lane Hayes, her dad bought as a new build (still have the invoice, somewhere). Direct route, even in a feeble Riley 2 str

[DSdriver]

25 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Ding ding ding! Dad b1930 lived in Links Rd, WW with his mum and 2 brothers. Mum b1929 lived in Pickhurst Lane Hayes, her dad bought as a new build (still have the invoice, somewhere). Direct route, even in a feeble Riley 2 str

I know the area well, I went to the Pickhurst Primary and Junior schools. We lived in The Crescent off Goodhart Way.

I have the badge of the Eden Park 100 Motor Club on my DS. Unfortunately the club was disbanded in the late 1960s. A bunch of ex members still get together three or four times a year for a lunch meeting although I think I am the only one still interested in cars of the era.

[High Jetter]

Parents moved from a Forest Hill flat  to Coney Hall semi. I went to juniors there before they whisked us sarf to Heathfield. Remember the toy shop bottom of Hayes high st and bakers halfway up same side?

 

[egg]

[Austat]

[Austat]

[Austat]