Bad Car Club

[Negative Creep]

Well until September 82 I was being carried around in the womb and then a mk.1 Astra

[reallyloud]

Ah '82. Halycon days. I was 9 and very preoccupied with my lego and toy cars at that age. Dad used to get me car magazines from work, envitably I ended up cutting them up or modifying them in biro. I also used to cut out the square 1" x 1" classified car ads from the local paper and group them on mums coffee table for no apparent reason. Things were so much simpler then.

[Negative Creep]

I used to love cutting out pictures from car magazines and brochures as well. My Dad took me to a few motor shows where I had a tonne of literature to re arrange. Of course, I wish I'd kept them now

[pogweasel]

1982.

I would have been "rolling" my post-office van. Push with your feet but actual steering. GR8 4 driving round the garden.

 

I think at that time my folks would have had a disgustingly decrepit Rover P6. I can still remember the strip-speedo and massive steering wheel with 2000 in the middle. And the smell of it. Proper oily old-car-smell, even though it was probably not even that old (strip speedo dates it to pre 70 though?). I do not know whether the fuel gauge on it was incredibly inaccurate or my father was incredibly inaccurate at adding fuel to it (suspect the latter!), but in my memory it broke down and ran out of petrol alot. And was covered in bad plod-repairs. And had to have constant 'saturday surgery' to bandage the exhaust back together.

 

It must have been 1982 when we went on a holiday to Devon, stopping in a dead manky caravan, my brother was a babe in arms, so can't have been any later. For some reason (possibly due to fuel issues mentioned above) we went on this jaunt in a late Mk2 Escort, probably rented, but I recall my dad cutting holes in the boot floor of this wonder-mobile (i.e. reliable!) to mount kiddie seats. I think Avis would object to that these days...

[scaryoldcortina]

Um, 1982? Lets see. I was 11, off to secondary school for the first time and about to find out how deeply uncool my parent's ancient lada 1200 was. Everyone else's parents had cortinas or cavaliers, even the kid whose dad drove an ambassador took the piss (so I pulled the AM and R off so he had a bassado) My personal wheels at the time was a blue raleigh grifter (just when BMX became big.. grifter nt gr8 4 stuntz...) but I had a trump card.. we had a zx81! (ok a year later they all got spectrums and I got laughed at again, sigh....)

 

Hey, the 80's sucked. lol

[Spottedlaurel]

If it was 1982 I think I'd seek out an Austin Cambridge Diesel.

One of the cars mentioned! I've managed to find three of the four 1982/83 issues, just scanning as we speak and hoping my 192kpbs connection holds out...

[Spottedlaurel]

 

 

[Albert Ross]

Mentioning the "Blivot" ( I go the numbers wrong though) and the Wartburg in one go!! I was right!!!!

[Richard]

Must have been an old sticker in that Wartburg, they were making the Mk2 Cavalier by 1982.

[r.welfare]

I wonder if that's the same Peter Nunn who later did road tests from Japan for Autocar.

 

Is Mike McCarthy still around, I wonder? He did some wonderfully irreverant road tests for Old Motor and C&SC in the early days, then a back page column in later years.

 

My dad would have been driving his Princess 2 1700L in '82, and my mum had a wonderful* Lada 1200 estate. Hot vinyl seats in both. I was 5, so GR8 4 BURNT LEGS.

[GJR 11L]

.....it was probably not even that old (strip speedo dates it to pre 70 though?)......

'scuse the o/t but was the strip speedo not kept for the SC cars and the one with the bigger, round clocks used on TCs and 6Bs? That may not be right, but I know that the distinction isn't a chronological one.

 

I've just dug out my collection of Joypal, off for a read in the bath.

[Angrydicky]

I was -9. My parents had a metallic blue HB Viva with black bonnet and a "trendy" sunstrip. EUR 429G was the reg. Apparantly the sills were mostly constructed from cornflake packets and fibreglass.

[barrett]

Nice one SL, I only have the one with the Wartburg in it so it's good to see the others... Thanks for taking the time to scan them in!

[Vin]

Can anyone make out the reg number on the Austin

 

Would be interesting to know if a mongrel like that has survived....

[Spottedlaurel]

I’ll try and look at the originals tonight. Bonus Borgward content is for the benefit of Seth, not to imply that they’re bad cars...

 

Well remembered on the Blivot thing Albert!

 

RW, I’d imagine that it is the same Peter Nunn, interesting to see him earlier in his career in what I’d imagine to be a relatively junior role.

 

It was great to have a flick through these old copies of C&SC again. I was first reading them at that very formative age when everything soaks in - it was all so familiar and last night I enjoyed reading some articles like one in issue #1 on an HRG. This was sufficiently memorable from first reading it back in the ‘80s that eventually my son would get these as his initials.

 

They were covering a remarkable range of cars, some of them not really that old, and I always felt that they knew what they were talking about. Re-reading a few bits last night didn’t sway my opinion on that.

 

Regarding family cars, dad had a black Alfa Guilietta 1.8 company car (VGV272X) and mum had a Mini 1000 (PGV169M). My Laurel was only two years old and would have been in use in and around Deal in Kent with its one and only previous owner.

 

Magazine-wise, later in 1982 I would also start getting Street Machine and Auto Performance every month (the latter probably my favourite ever, even beating Joypal).

[Guest]

1982 - I was at school (aged 13) Reading street machine magazine and riding everywhere I could on my pushbike. I had a Triumph Tigeress Scooter I was given and got it running (UUT412). When I got bored of it I sold it to a number plate dealer for £15 . Dad had an Allegro (SAY637M) And my stepmum had a Singer Vogue estate (SJF119G).

[whitevanman]

Can I just point out how feckin old this thresd makes me feel

[sporty-shite]

Can I just point out how feckin old this thresd makes me feel

+1 I feel even older when people are quoting "negative" ages for 1982!

 

1982 saw me progress to secondary school, buy my first BMX, and vociferously read Street Machine, BMX Weekly and BMX Action Bike.

 

Dad was driving an Oldsmobile Starfire BTJ 963X, and mum had a Mini Clubman auto, SMB 470J.

 

Like SOC said, though, the 80's were shit really.

[MK5 Escort]

I would have been -3!

 

My dad by that time would have probably just bought his 1977 dark blue Morris Marina 1.8. I don't remember the registration number unfortunately (there are pictures of it somewhere...) but I remember it ending '5S'. I know it was dead by the very late eighties though. I have vague memories of sitting on the rear armrest in it when I was little, as a 'makeshift' child’s seat . If he didn't have the Marina by 1982, he would have still had a 'J' reg mk1 Escort two door in silver at that time.

 

My mum doesn't drive so that rules her out.

 

My granddad would have been ten years into his 24 year ownership of his Vauxhall Firenza, MXD 689K, which my grandma always claimed (and still does...) that it's vinal seats were 'real leather'...

[boobydoo]

Bollocks....am I the oldest fart on here? I was 19 and at Uni.

 

I drove one of these......

 

 

Yup! Even then I was into utter shite....the reg no was HFB 633N sadly now scrapped.

 

My parents drove a metallic brown Cortina 1.6L which kinda pissed me off cos they went to test drive a Solara which I was desperate for them to have but the local Talbot dealer didnt offer as much for their T plate Marina in p-ex.

 

It's funny how things stick in your mind ...I remember watching Top Of The Pops in the University common room when Boy George first appeared. A lot of the students were quite shocked at his image ...no-one had seen anything like it before...(it was in North Wales, so maybe not the most forward thinking of places!!)

 

Also, Kim Carnes released her "Voyeur" album which was an absolute flop but is my favourite ever album still to this day!!!

 

[DCLane]

In 1982 I was 12 ... and had a Raleigh.

 

Parents had Mk2 Escort and Mk1 Escort, both 2dr. Both cars are long dead.

[barrett]

Bollocks....am I the oldest fart on here?

Possibly, but you also own the best cars, so don't worry about it!

 

Also, Kim Carnes released her "Voyeur" album which was an absolute flop but is my favourite ever album still to this day!!!

Bonus fun-fact, that I like to bring up anytime anyone mentions the lovely ms. Carnes, she sang the song in the closing credits to the film Vanishing Point, way back in 1971! (''Nobody Knows'' credited to 'Kim & Dave', to confuse people)

[seth]

Aged 8. Possibly driving a Bigtrak. Or at least chasing it down the stairs if I'd told it to go right instead of left.

[boobydoo]

Aged 8. Possibly driving a Bigtrak. Or at least chasing it down the stairs if I'd told it to go right instead of left.

God! You forget about something for donkeys years and then someone mentions it and the memories come flooding back. State of the art in 1982!!!

 

[FredTransit]

1982. I hadn't learned to drive, though had a transit (Mk1 LWB) for a year. It wasn't on the road. Legally. it was by the time I passed me test. The rest is history.....

[meggersdog]

1982 I left school to go to technical college.My ride was a Honda CB50J in white reg number BAV 8T.My mother had an N.reg Renault 5 TL also in white and my father had a company van, a small Dodge box van with the Simca 1301 type front end.

[ChinaTom]

At 10 years old, I would have been driving a rear mounted 4 cylinder boxer engined car with red reclining seats and visible rack and pinion steering. Model 8860 I think. A silver Grifter in the garage next to Mum's Fiat 127 1050CL. Dad's beige R18 TS parked outside on the drive. I lived with relatives for much of that year as old man was working in the Azores. Said relative had a silver Daimler Sovereign FLE3T, and a small village garage selling Zastavas and Dacias.

 

1982 was a good year.

[Negative Creep]

Aaah, this thread makes me feel so much younger

[STUNO]

In 1982 when I was 35 years old ... oh sh.t I can't remember, must go and have a nap.

 

EDIT.

That was a good sleep

 

I had a Daimler v8 and a 1973 Holden Kingswood

Dad got a new Toyota Cressida and Mum got a new Corolla 1600 which I thought went well after her 1300 auto

[MrRegieRitmo]

I was born in December that year.

 

AFAIK mum would have had a brown Rover 2000 P6, think it was a 72 K reg. Dad had a 78 Fiat 127 in white, not certain if it was an early MkII or a late MkI but I have an inkling it was a late MkI which would have been cooler in my book

 

As for BigTrak, my primary school had one which we got to play with in pairs during lesson time once in a blue moon if we had been good. It's the only place I'd seen or experienced one until this day so I always assumed it was an educational toy that was only available to schools, I never realised it was actually 'a toy' that anyone could purchase from the shops! I presume it must have been quite a fancy & expensive toy in 1982! I doubt it's something I'd have ever been bought!