Bought a 1975 copy of Cars and Car Conversions off eBay. I wish we could buy tuning parts for the prices they paid back then; less than a tenner for an alloy wheel (Cosmic or Revolution? Hmm, tough choice).

There's an immaculate Lotus Cortina in the for Sale sectionfor £325

But then again, I suppose wages were only 10 and sixpence a year

Suprising how many companies are still around 30 years on...

 

The prices look good now but in their day they were just as expensive. I bought my first car, a Ford Anglia, in about 1980 (for £85) and wanted to make it look cool but, the only things I could afford to do to it were to remove the hub caps and spray the steel rims with 'chrome' spray paint and add a ridiculously long bendy aerial thing that was considered to be a bit cool back then

 

I've got a copy of Autocar from the 1920's, some of the ads & letters are fantastic. One letter dismisses car racing as being fanciful & far removed from resembling road conditions. The recommendation: the even numbers start clockwise & the odds anticlockwise.
I'd be tempted to watch F1 if they adopted that policy.

D

 

Signed Yours faithfully, Paddy O'Shea, Dublin?

You have to admit though, that would make it a lot more like road conditions. Would they want a woman with a pram walking into the road on a bend, as well?

 

How much were a pair of new DCOE's back then??

 

There wasn't such a thing as cool back then - The long bendy aerial was ESSENTIAL .

So my Dad tells me

ps Happy Birthday

 

Lol Thanks, that makes me feel much older and it was bad enough waking up this morning to find I'd aged another year

 

Really? Happy birthday Sal. Appropriate thread to hijack

(I had a whip arial on my Dutton - took me ages to find one still for sale in 1988. Suited the car though...)

 

Yes, today I'm only 42 Thanks Brendan

I wish I had a photo of my Anglia with it's lovely aerial and silver sprayed wheels but I don't think cameras had been invented back then

 

Happy Birthday Sal.

And I used to have a bendy aeriel as well, only it was on my Hillman Imp (first car).

Not long 'til I hit 44 now though... WRGB starts on my birthday.

 

Maybe I was lieing about my Dad - The aerial could have been mine .

8 years til you're 50.

Am I making things any better .

 

Ah, CCC, required reading in my yuf.
In those days you could have a tuned 998 Cooper, as I did at 21, and get it insured without having to declare what you'd done!
But no ECUs to make it work, hot cams and manual chokes, twin carbs to balance, winter starting was fun as was slow traffic.
Not to forget CVJs on Minis, Hardy Spicers and kingpin bushes on Imps and steering trunnions on Spitfires.
You were always mending something!
I think I prefer today's cars.

 

Don't forget that when you drove for any length of time (say more than 30 seconds) all your clothes smelt of petrol / oil .

 

Kingpin bushes on Imps - Ah! I remember those. Had to change mine. And the steering column/dashboard/clutch release bearing/etc etc. And welding. When was the last time a modern car needed welding doing to it?

 

40's are £30 each, 45's are £32 each plus £11 for the inlet manifold. From Kerr's Kar Parts (Your Midland Speedcentre)

 

On the other hand it was soooo easy to whip the engine out of an Imp on your own.

 

My Lotus Cortina cost me £400 and it was a cracker. Wish I still had it.

Les

 

old cars rule

 

...Phone Stoke 3636

 

Crikey that's inflation for you A 45 today is £240 each plus the dreaded VAT with another £50 for your linkage and fueling bits and another £100odd for your manifold From Aldon - they were probably just starting out back then