ARmy Rumour SErvice

**Brotherton Lad** · 26-10-2011, 22:44

First car, a 1973 Hillman Hunter for £1200.

Cheapest car I bought was a Citroen wotsit with hydraulic suspension in 1985. Paid £90, drove it for 12 months round Berlin, sold the LHD headlights to a soldier for £30, sold the rest of the car to a Berliner for £30 (which was odd since it was a RHD car).

**Excognito** · 26-10-2011, 22:46

Learned to drive on ...
Green Goddess belonging to the local Aero Club
then my (younger) brother's Vauxhall Viva

After passing test ...
Father-in-ex-law's Volvo 120 series estate. It had written off 5 other cars for the loss of 2 wings (none of them by me)

My first car ...
Wolseley 1100, £50 from a scrapyard

The rest ...
VW Scirocco Mk1
Saab 99GL
Ford Escort Estate
Mazda 626
Ford Escort
Rover SD1 3500
Lancia Beta 2.0
Alfa Romeo Guilietta (ran on rails)
Ford Capri 2.0 S
... some Japanese turbo-ey thing whose name escapes me but blew up
Audi 80
Saab 900
Saab 900
Saab 9000 - auto, full turbo, carried on going when the speedo ran out
Saab 9000 - manual, full turbo, tweaked (the car disappearing rapidly in my rear mirror was usually a Porsche

)
Volvo 850 SE 2.4 (a sign of Volvo's poor quality - it finally just needed too many niggly things doing and it had only done 325,000 miles)
Volvo V70 R AWD (also runs on rails ... and lots and lots of petrol)
Peugeot 406 2.0 Hdi (I need a shave by the time it's reached 60 mph but it returns over 50 mpg)

**BingtheMing** · 26-10-2011, 22:48

First car was a 1972 Austin 1300 - brilliant wee motor , best car was in BFG , A Ford Escort XR3i ( VP230B ) used to chase the Bosch beemers down the Autobahns with not a care in the world cos I was the dogs danglies in me bright red babe magnet . Oh ok then the last bit was a bit of poetic justice .
Now drive the new Fiesta , done well for meself then !

**mikeninercharlie** · 26-10-2011, 22:49

1977 Dodge Warlock Pick Up truck. That 440 cu in, V8, 4 BBl beast would pass everything on the highway except the gas stations, 5 tanks of gas between Currie Barracks in Calgary and Vancouver! Came home from Cyprus in the Spring of 1980 and bought a much more sensible Mazda 626 sports coupe as a daily driver.

**bobj** · 26-10-2011, 22:51

Ford Escort Mark 1, bought at a local car auction in UK while on leave. Needed a car in a hurry.

Found out after I had driven it back to BAOR the floor was made of corn flake packets, nicely painted over with underseal and paint.

Moral of the story: never buy a car at an auction which is parked over a large puddle.

Aleegee1698 · 26-10-2011, 22:52

[QUOTE=mikeninercharlie;4026217]1977 Dodge Warlock Pick Up truck. That 440 cu in, V8, 4 BBl beast would pass everything on the highway except the gas stations, 5 tanks of gas between Currie Barracks in Calgary and Vancouver! Came home from Cyprus in the Spring of 1980 and bought a much more sensible Mazda 626 sports coupe as a daily driver.[/QUOTE]

You waited 4 years for a thread like this so you could finally show that beast aye?!:)

**Bushmills** · 26-10-2011, 22:53

Originally Posted by Troy

My first car was a Reliant Supervan MK3, with windows in the side and seats in the back. It was brilliant! I used to drive it on a motorbike licence without any fuss as you could happily do that back then. After a while of teaching myself to drive I booked my car test and a driving school car and passed, first time no problem. There aren't many people around who can say they taught themselves to drive.

Wasn't there a rumour that you were not allowed to use reverse gear on a Reliant if you only had a motorbike licence?

**archer** · 26-10-2011, 22:53

Couldn't afford a Reliant so it was an Austin A30 and wait to pass my test.
£45 in 1970 and money well spent!

**jockparamedic** · 26-10-2011, 22:57

Triumph Dolomite 1500HE...........what a fekin banger. Cost me £500 in 1985. First MOT discovered tinfoil and grease stuffed into holes in the wheel arches and the sub frame and chassis was rusted to fuck. Drank a litre of oil a week. Even remember the reg VSM 216V. Funny how it disappeared and spontaineously combusted

. (Got my money back tho)

**putteesinmyhands** · 26-10-2011, 23:00

Originally Posted by jarrod248

Definitely not a mini 850 then as that was my first car. It took about 2 miles to get to 60 mph had no servo and didn't stop very well. I think it was a 1971 model. Who decided to put the distributor there?

The 1964 Mini was quite different to the 1971 imposter. A three foot long gear lever, floor-mounted dip switch, separate ignition switch and floor-mounted starter button (turn the ignition off, coast to a halt, futilely press the starter button and pretend that you've run out of petrol on the isolated country road, we need to share body warmth to keep warm, etc.), sliding windows and a lever in the untrimmed door as a door handle. If you think that the distributor was in a silly place on your car, bear in mind that in 1964 Austin hadn't yet come up with the idea of the plastic rain shield for it. My second car was a 1969 Mini 1000 which was quite sedate and economical. I've still got parts of it in my Dad's attic (31 years after I removed the useful bits in case I got another one). Want an exhaust pipe? Only done 150 miles. Doors? Lights? Fuel tank? No body shell, that was rusted beyond repair and was sawn into small pieces to fit in the dustbin - with a 'kin hacksaw!