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My first car, a black Mk.I Austin A40 was purchased in 1968 for the princely sum of £120 when I finished at College and needed to learn to drive so that I could get to work; I later sold it for £90 so it didn't owe me anything. Those were the days of "real" motoring when you carried a spare can of petrol in the boot and during winter the engine would cut out owing to carburettor icing - engine adjustments were made with a screwdriver unlike these days when a laptop computer is required. When calculating a 0 - 60 mph time a calendar was useful, unlike my present car.
After selling the A40, in 1970 I bought the first of three Opel Kadetts ; I note with interest that the first Kadett cost £906-5 shillings and 9 pence. I was able to negotiate a discount reducing the price to £860 !! I stretched my budget to the limit by having a radio fitted (Blaupunkt Sandringham) for the sum of £43-18s-3d and filling the tank with 7 gallons of petrol cost a further £2-4s-4d (in new money that's 32p per gallon). It was an exciting period waiting for the delivery of my first new car but an industrial dispute meant that I had to be very patient. The planned delivery date was August 1st to coincide with the issue of the new ("J") registration but a dockworker's strike meant that at that particular time my car was sat on a quay side in Belgium not arriving in the UK until September. In 1996 I made a quantum leap purchasing the first of three Volvo 440's - fuel injection, electronic ignition, air con etc. all of which definitely saw the end of home servicing! The final model was the T4 variant of the 440 - let me just say that anyone who thought a Volvo was a boring ride quickly changed their mind after a short trip. One of the motoring correspondents wrote in his review that "the performance of the T4 is manic!" - I wouldn't disagree.
I made a brief foray into the world of kit cars, taking over a
Dutton Melos from Jonathan who by now was too involved in medical training to
find any time for tinkering with cars. This model was originally assembled
in 1984 based on a MkI Escort 1300XF and really was the forerunner of all Lotus
7-type cars. It had the sort of engine I understood and the
intention was to make the restoration a retirement project but after making some
progress a cold garage and restricted workspace convinced me that it wasn't such
a good idea and I decided to sell it.
Coincidentally it was purchased by another junior doctor and his brother.
All my life I have wanted a sports car but family responsibilities dictated that I should be "sensible" and so when I retired I decided that now was the time "to do it" so I purchased a Honda S2000GT with half of my pension lump sum.
Photographed on delivery day with Carsington Water as a backdrop
Day out in Yorkshire Dales with Jonathan in his Elise
Page updated : 25 Mai 2008
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