Turbo2

I know we all like to moan about our cars, but they're a hell of a lot easier to live with than when I was starting out driving (1980's). We did without so many things that we now take for granted on our cars: e.g. power steering, fuel injection, electronic ignition, ECU's, electric windows, air-conditioning, air-bags, ABS, traction control and countless sensors.

In fact my first car had dreadful un-servoed drum brakes all round (), manual-choke carb with mechanical fuel pump, Medium Wave radio (no cassette) and even a slot in the bumper for a starting-handle! Yet I never crashed it and according to the DVLA it is still on the road somewhere today.

It hated starting in the winter, so we used to put a blanket on the engine overnight. and regularly spray the distributor cap with WD40 or other damp-remover. Every trip had an element of anxiety about it: will it start, will it get me there, will it get me back? No reasonable journey would be embarked upon without a box of tools, Haynes manual and a few choice spares parts in the boot. As for worrying about rust...

Despite all its foibles though, even a simpleton could do a lot of servicing tasks. I changed the brake shoes, radiator, exhaust, countless batteries & dizzy caps/rotor arms and converted it from single to twin carbs. These day I daren't do more than top up the oil level or tyre pressures on my modern car. I don't even polish it as that gets done at service.

dpb

Starting handle


, it must have been 'serveral years' old even so ... Morris ?



I remember cussing at the time and both it reqiured to 'tune' the distributor / rota
spare sandpaper almost every morining

Turbo2

December 1975 Hillman Imp: if you look closely at the bottom photo, the black dot in the centre of the rear bumper is the starting handle slot, which fed the handle through a tube in the rear valance to the crank pulley behind.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

I think all new drivers should learn to drive in a car with no power steering and non assisted brakes. Just so they realise the forces at play when driving a car day to day.

Can you imagine a teenager in this day and age trying to reverse park or do a three point turn in a car with no PAS?

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

I think all new drivers should learn to drive in a car with no power steering and non assisted brakes. Just so they realise the forces at play when driving a car day to day.

Can you imagine a teenager in this day and age trying to reverse park or do a three point turn in a car with no PAS?

The Zohan

That would be because your condensor was on the way out - **** me i remember changing points and condensors and setting the dwell angle rather than using a feeler guage to get the best performance

Gregsti01

iTrader: (1)

I started my love of wheels on a Ford Pop side valve,as time went by my knowledge grew with the tech,in my younger days you had to make your own mods no shops with shiny exhausts in racks.When we needed a straight thro exhaust Massey tractor ones did the job.Beetle rims reversed gave us track,still on drum brakes! Now I have STI 320bhp but still mod it,I like these cars because I can still run and repair

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

It a doddle

Bought a 1984 VW polo as a daily work hack. Ran like pants. Thankfully MKII Polo was probably the last of old school tech cars....so...

New plug leads and rotor arm, and gave the dwell and timing a tweek (with a proper dwell meter, not by feel ), riched up the carb a tad and it was soon blasting down the motorway with the speedometer going off the scale (I purchased a cheap non-Bosch rotor arm that didn't have the rev limiter spring, bloke at the parts factors said I'd doubt you'd get it past 6000rpm anyway LOL).

My mate owes me half a tank of fuel after messing with the dwell adjuster on my Land Rover; Christ, stuck somewhere in Herefordshire, crawling up hills not able to go beyond 3,000rpm and doing about 5mpg in the process.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

Talking of tune ups; we had one of these in some months back :



Car was a load of shyte (suspension was well kanckered), but driving position was spot on, engine had some torque and beacuse it weighed next to nothing it was a hell of alot more gutsy amd lively than anything modern.

Goes to show, even the most s**tist of 70's "sports" (I use the term sports loosely) car is more interetsing to drive than most modern crap. Which although fast, has zero sensation and engines with absolutely no low down grunt whatsoever (present Golf R32 excepted) due to the chassis weighing nearly 1.5tons and an already torquless engine tuned not to do anything until its past 3000rpm for economy/emissions reasons.

Hysteria1983

I agree, but only because thats what i did! Gawd knows why though.

Turbo2

My Dad had 3 of those. Red S-reg Auto (), brown T-reg 5-speed () and finally a gold X reg 5-speed convertible that I got to drive quite often. It was fairly quick but lacking an interesing engine/exhaust note. It made me feel like Huggy Bear. .

ALi-B: you might have those rose-tinted specs on now, but TR7's weren't a patch on the 150bhp TR6 that we later owned.

dpb

I seem to remember replacing the condenser , several time as well ..

Leslie

Progress now means that so little actual servicing needs to be done in fact. No more adjusting of points or timing to be checked, Sparking plugs seem to last for ever, and the reliability is excellent in comparison. I can't find it within me to complain about that. As long as it all works it does not seem necessary to have all the computers etc checked out. Bit of a nuisance if they do go wrong though.

Oil changes seem to be at very long intervals in comparison. I still change my oil far more regularly since I feel it is always better for the engine to run on newer oil rather than fine dirt being continually carried around the engine.

It was still good fun with the older cars though. I used to enjoy looking after them and tweaking the engines and suspension to improve them. It was very satisfying to open up the cylinder head ports and polish them and fit Cossie cams to my Lotus Cortina as well as shorten the exhaust system etc. Making the rear suspension reliable and improve the all round handling was great fun at the time.

I always cringe when I see people using the power steering to change from lock to lock when the car is stationary. If they only knew the excessive loads going into the steering mechanism they might think twice. I was taught to always change steering lock during manoeuvering with a little motion on the car. Reversing the lock before you stop is worthwhile too.

Les

dpb

Back then you didnt need a 16 point alarm system you could stick the rota arm in your pocket , i guess weve moved on

Turbo2

Here's a googled photo of a 1973 one, shows the keyhole starting handle slot a little bit better better. I guess Chamois were expected to start on the button!



Whilst browsing I spotted this Imp-based special. How low can you go?

David Lock

When cars had character

But I can't think of a modern car that can match this for looks

Simon C

I can, Morgan Super Sport.

ALi-B

iTrader: (1)

My mum used to have a TR6. Had the engine modified quite a bit to compensate for when 5 star fuel went off the market. In true 70's tradition my dad fitted quad exhausts (sounded good though). Lever shocks were also replaced with gas tube shocks too, so it handled a fair bit better than standard.

The TR7 suprised me when I drove one a few months back. Yes its s**t (and that example was probably the worst example), but it went like a Triumph Spitfire, but with a lot more grunt, the engine's tractability round town was alot more gutsy than many modern cars. And once you are inside the ergonomics are fairly good; you are sat IN the car, like you are a part of it, with your **** below the sills (like it should be on a sport car), Not perched on top like 99.9% of cars these days.

Ok the Dolly sprint engine put in a Spit' would be a better solution though (GT6 too front heavy).

J4CKO

iTrader: (1)

I drove our Fiat 500 back from the in-laws the other day, six miles and it didnt break down, a result in my book.

It is a tragic old thing really but for six miles a year, damn good fun, you have to drive it, you have to anticipate things much better as thought the brakes work they arent very good, there is no margin of error, no depth of capability to pull you out of the poop, no electronics to make it better, ok it doesnt really go over 50 but god that feels fast and mainatining momentum is the name of the game when you only have 19 bhp, annoying when some fanny pulls out on you when they could have waited, the trouble is people have no concept that it doesnt drive or have the performance of a modern car and afford you any consideration.

Leslie

I would have loved to have owned one of those.

My Bristol 400 was a good old car, nice lines, beautifully made by aircraft engineeers to keep them in a job. The paint finish inside the door trim was as good as the finish on the car body.

Rileys were good looking cars too, and I always liked the Singer Le Mans with its body built on an ash frame like the older Morgans.

I also remember once driving a TR2 up the A1 in the wet, every roundabout was a lottery as to whether it could manage to stay on the road long enough to get round it. The front end did not know whether to slide more than the rear-or vice versa!

Happy days!

Les

DYK

I grew up in the days when it was basically ford cosworth,fiesta xr2,williams renault and renault R5,peugeot gti 1.9,and of course the mini.Nothing that needed a handle to start it,well i remember them thomas bikes that you had to peddle,used to have some good fun with them before we moved onto ktm's

ChefDude

my first car was an audi 80 gls auto with one working electric window. someone had swapped out the 1600 engine for a 1500. i had to repair the exhaust with cat food tins and jubilee clips, every so often screw back in the engine mounting bolts and always carry spare oil and a 5ltr bottle of water for the radiator.



I used to drive it like i was escaping the law. there was no real way of stopping and cornering was by appointment

Great days

Midlife......

iTrader: (2)

Ali B

Did that TR7 have the 3.5 litre conversion

Shaun

Turbo2

My Dad still does that on his V12 XJ-S.

Probably 'cos the cost of a new stainless system is more than the car is worth!

dpb

Proper audi - before they became the car of choice to pose in , ( and the new bmw )

dpb

Used to work in a restuarant where hte head chef had a silver v8 tr7 , possibly original , it looked a heap of ****e , and he confirmed it was - always something not quite right / serious.


I Think the sensible buy could have been an X19 , but of course you needed to be gay

David Lock

Who remembes the early Minis? You daren't go through a puddle too fast as water splashed onto the distributor and it stopped!! Had my Mini stolen once but a cop found it and showed me how to start it without keys by using a threepenny bit in the fuse box. Secuiity eh

And drum brakes...... Hardly worked if they got hot! Not much better when cold either!

dl

jura11

iTrader: (7)

Hi guys in Czech Republic i have this Skoda 110R(lovely car and with small spending amount money you have perfect car for hillclimb and very reliable)

belliott69

iTrader: (3)

well i only started driving 5 years ago and my first car was a justy that the heater didn't work in, no abs or pas and was a great car because of it. i have only had one car that had abs and that was my landie disco but hated it so i've had two impreza's without it due to the fact i like to drive the car and not have it do anything for me. i've got mates whose parents got them nearly new vehicles that had everything in them and some of them are moving on quicker cars now without the driver aids and can't control them very well as there to used to doing nothing. bit like driving an evo really. lol.