First car I drove

Couple of days after my 16th birthday, I put my dad's 2 week old VW Passat Estate on it's roof one night, about 3 miles from home (that's another story).

When I got out through the window, I tried lifting it back onto it's wheels, my mind thinking the roof must be scrathed...maybe they'll buff out. Reality hit me about 3 seconds after that.
You lot are fucking terrible.

Playing Destruction Derby with your parents' automobiles? At least my No2 son crashed his own vehicle one night when the wheel came off.

I would have given you all helicopter rides :mad:
 
First car on the road legally was either a yellow Mini 1275 GT or a Morris Minor. I think it was the Mini but it's hard to remember as we had so many back in the early '80's. Between myself and two brothers we wrecked them faster than Dad could buy them. Usually through abuse and lack of maintenance rather than crashing.
I passed my test on an Austin 1100, the hydro-elastic suspension thingie. And wrote it off rousting it round Ibberton picnic site ( @Hugo Magnus will know) when the sub-frame fell off. First car of my own was a 1300 Morris Marina which was an utterly piece of shit. Used more oil than petrol. I used to top it up when the light came on.
 
First car on the road legally was either a yellow Mini 1275 GT or a Morris Minor. I think it was the Mini but it's hard to remember as we had so many back in the early '80's. Between myself and two brothers we wrecked them faster than Dad could buy them. Usually through abuse and lack of maintenance rather than crashing.
I passed my test on an Austin 1100, the hydro-elastic suspension thingie. And wrote it off rousting it round Ibberton picnic site ( @Hugo Magnus will know) when the sub-frame fell off. First car of my own was a 1300 Morris Marina which was an utterly piece of shit. Used more oil than petrol. I used to top it up when the light came on.

Kudos - the1275 GT was a cool car even back then 👍
 
First car I steered was my cousin Johnny's mini van, I was around 8 as our Johnny would have been 20, then around the same time I steered his best mate Brian's mk2 jag, I drove a lot of cars from when I was tall enough, so around 15, the queens silver jubilee, some friends and I clubbed together and bought an old mk1 capri with the 2L V4, on the pretence that we would work on it to do it up, didn't quite happen as within the week me driving and 6 mates in the car, I rolled the fucker into a field, the gods must have been watching after us, as apart from bruises and a few cuts and scratches we all walked away, needless to say, next day a visit from the federales and lift to local nick. Told them it was stolen as I'd left the keys in, they couldn't prove owt, so I got a caution and a bit of a slapping, was the thing then, we used to call the station the knocking shop or stalag 17, fuckers they were.
Anyhoo my first legal car was a mk3 tina, the only time it ever had 'L' plates on was for my driving test, good old girl she was, started as 1.3L, soon put a 16 Xflow in her then upped the trim to gxl and finally a 2L pinto went in, with all the parts come from one scrappy. Thems were the days ❤️
 
I would have loved a 1275 but was too big to fit in one, my knees were either side of the steering wheel and my feet were too big for the pedals
I windsurfed with a bloke called cannus.. he was 6'6" and drove a mini with all his kit on the roof .. he had simply removed the front seat and placed it where the rear seats used to be which was full of sailing kit .. it was a mad sight ... he was absolutely bonkers which probably didn't need to be said 😆
 
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I would have loved a 1275 but was too big to fit in one, my knees were either side of the steering wheel and my feet were too big for the pedals

My parents had a gardener who was 6'7" and must've weight about 6 stone. His wife was about 4' 6" and round - Oirish they were so they were!

He used to change his car every year - always got a new Fiat 126 - smallest car on the market.

One day my mum asked him to pick my sister up from the bus at the end of the drive which was on the A6. She got in and he turned round across the A6 and got t-boned by a car that my sis clearly saw but he didn't. She was knocked out but thankfully nothing worse.
 
The very first car I ‘drove’ was my Uncle Alec’s Zephyr 4, it would have been summer 1965 😮, I was 4. Sat on the front seat on his lap, he did the pedals I steered. I remember it had a beautiful black leather interior and they all had bench seats in the front, you could 4 of us young ‘uns on there plus him driving.

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Move forward to the mid 70s and the first car I drove properly was a Hillman Imp. I was 15. My Mum thought it would be a good idea to teach me in the car parks inside Sutton Park which was not strictly a public road. It was all good until one time the little Hitler park warden pulled up in his shitty little van with his Royal Parks logo and gave my Mum a bollocking, reduced her to tears the bastard 😡.

IMG_2199.webp


Anyway it stopped then until I was 17, got the L plates, did a few lessons on the road with Mum & Dad, and then took my test and passed.
 
The very first car I ‘drove’ was my Uncle Alec’s Zephyr 4, it would have been summer 1965 😮, I was 4. Sat on the front seat on his lap, he did the pedals I steered. I remember it had a beautiful black leather interior and they all had bench seats in the front, you could 4 of us young ‘uns on there plus him driving.

View attachment 148464

Move forward to the mid 70s and the first car I drove properly was a Hillman Imp. I was 15. My Mum thought it would be a good idea to teach me in the car parks inside Sutton Park which was not strictly a public road. It was all good until one time the little Hitler park warden pulled up in his shitty little van with his Royal Parks logo and gave my Mum a bollocking, reduced her to tears the bastard 😡.

View attachment 148463

Anyway it stopped then until I was 17, got the L plates, did a few lessons on the road with Mum & Dad, and then took my test and passed.
My dad had a Zephyr and my Auntie had an Imp, fucking thing went like stink, i was about 6 or 7 at the time? :unsure: :)
 
The very first car I ‘drove’ was my Uncle Alec’s Zephyr 4, it would have been summer 1965 😮, I was 4. Sat on the front seat on his lap, he did the pedals I steered. I remember it had a beautiful black leather interior and they all had bench seats in the front, you could 4 of us young ‘uns on there plus him driving.

View attachment 148464

Move forward to the mid 70s and the first car I drove properly was a Hillman Imp. I was 15. My Mum thought it would be a good idea to teach me in the car parks inside Sutton Park which was not strictly a public road. It was all good until one time the little Hitler park warden pulled up in his shitty little van with his Royal Parks logo and gave my Mum a bollocking, reduced her to tears the bastard 😡.

View attachment 148463

Anyway it stopped then until I was 17, got the L plates, did a few lessons on the road with Mum & Dad, and then took my test and passed.

I just looked up the dimensions of the Zephyr as my mates dad had one and it looked massive

L: 178" W: 69"

A 2022 Ford Focus is L: 172 W: 72"


Whereas the Imp was only an inch shorter than a current Fiat 500e
 
I also had a close friend of the family that lived two doors down from my Grandmother who had a Dolimite with a working overdrive!! She took us down too Portsmouth, myself and my cousins!! I was in the passenger seat and with my usual curiosity asked what the switch did on the gear stick, fucking hell mind blown as a kid!! :ROFLMAO:
 
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I would have loved a 1275 but was too big to fit in one, my knees were either side of the steering wheel and my feet were too big for the pedals
The one we had was pretty shot. It was rusting, burned oil and something wasn't straight, probably from a prang. But is was a good fun car to learn in and my mates thought it was cool.
It was my brother's car. He'd bought it from someone at the pub. He couldn't really afford it so Dad bought it off him and let him keep driving it. Then he put it into a hedge when he was pissed and that was the end of that.
 
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