I drive a Fiat Panda, mainly taking my wife for medical, health & hospital visits. Normally my choice of vehicle is First Cymru buses, with my concessionary pass. My first car in 1970 was a Ford Poplar & it was about 15 yrs old then. The vehicle I would like to have would be the Honda Goldwing, I could`nt afford it 30 odd years ago (GL1000) & I certainly would`nt be able to afford it now (GL 1800).
Bongo, that RO story - driving up the Glynneath bypass early one morning on my way to Derby. As usual the engine was quiet at high speed and I glanced at the speedo while chatting to my passengers - doing just over 100 mph so no problem. Then I took a look at the rev counter and nearly had a fit; the needle was in the red zone. I checked the gear stick and to my horror the car was in SECOND gear (equipped with 3 forward and reverse, so not as bad as it sounds but bad enough!!) The thing is, the faster the car went the quieter it seemed to be aside from wind and road noise. Now it might seem daft to do this but my other cars at the time were all automatics so I just forgot to change gear. In an ordinary car the howling engine would remind you to change up but you didn't get that in an RO. The point is, the one thing you tried to avoid with an RO was over revving the engine because that was the most common way of blowing the seals on the rotor tips. I managed that eventually as I said on my previous post. If you remember, the car had a distinctive wedge shape, quite ugly by today's standards but I believe it was the very first car to be designed using a wind tunnel to improve air flow dynamics. It worked because the car gripped the road like glue at speed. As for parts they could only be described as horrendously expensive. In 1975 I was quoted about a grand to change the exhaust system - I compromised and changed the middle boxes for only.... ONLY £300!!! And one day I parked the car in the street outside St. Helens while I watched some cricket. I believe it was Alan Jones who hit the ball out of the ground which landed on my car and made a dent right on the top seal of the windscreen. Fearing it might have caused a weakness, or might leak in some way, I got a quote from a dealer for the repair. £250 they wanted so I decided to live with the dent. No further problems though. Happy days!
hell of a drive that Ivor..I remember the one i worked on ,my foreman reminded me that the car i was working on "cost more than my 5 years pay as an apprentice and another year on top as a tradesman" "So ****ing take care of it" and i did (scared the **** out of me).But it was known that it was a very expensive motor both to buy and maintain,purely because of its spec.but it WAS a ting of beauty for 1973/4 like something out of a sci-fi film..the one i worked on was this colour i did the o/s/f wing and door and bonnet....
Nice photo, Bongo. Mine was in a bright flame red. The car was state of the art at the time and seemed luxurious (1974/76) but having seen one some 18 months ago, the interior appointment was quite spartan in comparison with modern cars. Best to live with the memories I suppose.
Musty, absolutely agree with you, mate. If I could get back what I've spent in car repairs over the years in a lump sum, my retirement would be a damned sight more comfortable than it is now. It's great not to worry about image (for clients) these days and drive a car just on a day to day basis racking up normal mileage. During the years I ran my business, I never drove less than 100k miles yearly with over 12,000 in January alone, no matter how bad the road conditions were and the winter weather was much more severe than it is nowadays. Had some hairy moments I can tell you.
Nice "rider" there,jack. Do you really have one,or is it merely on your Christmas wish list? P.S. If you really DO have one,don't tell me,O.K.,just pretend you don't.
Dragon i saw a silver MX5 with the top down driven by a guy wearing a swans shirt pass me this morning in Kittle heading towards Penard shortly after Dyer drove past same direction ! Q1. was it you ? Q2. was there something swans related going on in Penard today ?
I drive a nippy little clio but I'm thinking of changing cars soon. I've driven a few nice cars in my time such as Audi, Ferrari, Rolls Royce. I think my dream car would either be a Ferrari SA Aperta Or a Pagani Huayra
forgot to add i drive a holden commodore but looking for something else - trying to decide if buying a better car is better over travelling, going for travel atm
geez ivor, when i was in the army our cars where replaced after 40000km not miles, unfortunately, not the same with my personal cars
