Calling all "old" dudes

[qwerty]

What was the "scene" like in the 60's 70's 80's?

What was everybody driving what mod's were big.

Any pictures, anecdotes and any remeniscing is allowed.

I just want to know what it was like when the cars we idolise on this forum were like the Nova's, Saxo's and corsa's of today

[akku]

There was much which was "chavvy". There was also much which was cool.

Some of the stuff I was trying to buy in the mid-late 80s but as I wasn't working yet I just couldn't make it.... bah.

Like a '66 Dodge Corronet coupe for £225 ono with MOT and tax. scruffy but solid. Proper Mopar muscle. I also missed a '68 or '69 Plymouth Valiant for £85 at a "bomb site" car dealer in town. I went back the week after with £60 to make an offer and the whole place had gone!

A lot of the cars were end-of-life Saloons bought cheap and splattered with accessories from Halfords or Charlie Brown's. I remember a mates brother had a '73 or '74 CROWN Custom Coupe in about 1980 and that had big chrome fake dual exhaust lowered at the front, sun strip, CB aerial, faded metallic blue paint, rusty arches. That was kind of the standard of cars on the street scene. I loved that car, I thought it was way cool.

Even more cool was a mate who's brother had a aussie Chrysler Charger in bright yellow, with slot mags and side pipes. This was about 1979. That was awesome.

In 1984 or so a mate of minbe's brother bought a '69 Mustang Mach1 sportroof. Stunning thing with all the factory stripes and go faster goodies. He paid £1500 for it and it was mint. Add a zero to the end of that price now. He was 18 or 19 at the time. Insurance wasn't a problem really. Madness.

Other local stuff and stuff I tried to buy was a Mk2 Consul "kustom" which had been lowered nosed and decked and shaved. It had failed the MOT but was solid as a rock. In 1986 I struggled to get the £75 he wanted together for it. I failed and it sold elsewhere.

A mate's neighbour had a 100E which was called "The Coyote" or something. It was daytona yellow with red painted weller wheels, jacked up like a 4x4 at the back, low at the front. I swear all you could see out of the windscreen was tarmac. Talk about rake. It had coyote and desert scene murals on it. That was about 1978 or 1979.

A mate's neighbour had a MG ZA series Magnette which had a 2.5 Daimler V8 in it and was a gasser. He moved house before I ever saw it finished. I was well impressed. c. 1985?

A chap I knew built a few nice rods. He had a pre-war Ford 8 which had a V8 in it, and was low and metallic green. He then built a Ford Y which he widened and fitted with IIRC a Mopar V8 and a wicked roof chop. Blakc & flames I think, with Centrelines. c. 1987 / 1988.

Same fellow (I forget his name now but I was round his place most weekends back then) started a local hot rod and street machine club. We had some great cars and some odd stuff. A couple of Morris Minors, an A40 Farina in grey with white revolutions, a Mk1 Granada with wierd body mods sculpted out of filler and inappropriate spoilers. Best was a Peugeot 504 on slot mags with a "wide body" kit the owner had made himself, kinda like box arches but smoother. I think it had a ROver V8 and a chromed Jag IRS. It was candy apple red with a red velour interior. And chrome cobra side pipes. I hated it at the time as I thought it looked very dated. "do people still drive those style cars?" but now Iook back and I feel a lot of love for it.

A mates neigbour had a jacked up Allegro with a full body kit and a bonnetr scoop and a whale tail spoiler. It was white with blue stripes and blue tinted glass.

I has a Hillman Avenegr 1500DL estate in gold with blackedout glass and I painted cherries on it (why???) and gave it a name - "PASSHION WAGON". Nope, I never checked the spelling before painting it either. It was getting twin 40s and goodness knows what but it got vandalised to death in a car park before I finished it (or even passed my test). This was 1985 I think.

I saw many Capris - the favouriote mod was cherry bomb back box, jack up kit, stock front wheels painted bright silver, 8x15 or so rear wheels (wellers painted brioght silver or slot mags were the favourites), lots of rust, limo tint glass, pop up sunroof (or two), rear louvres, bumpers removed.

A teacher at school ran a Mk2 Cortina which was slammed low on lotus steelies with no hubcaps, no bumpers, loud exhaust, stick on number plates, tints or sunstrip I forget, in a matt metallic blue. c. 1982

my second project c.1986 was a F reg Morris Minor. It was going to be a gasser, with a 1275 MG lump, Shorrock c75B blower, fat woolfy slots on the back, skinny centrelines on the front. It was marroon and I painted lime green flames on the nose with a rattle can, and put gasser style race class lettering on the sides (badly). A girlie distracted me from completing it, I ran out of money and my parents made me sell it (in exchange for being given free use of my mum's old Opel on the proviso I sold it when I was done with it and gave my dad any money that I made. I ran that stock for 18 months before I got the Capri. I sorted all the body work out had that resprayed lime green.

There were loads more examples, more later. I might even have some photos.

[qwerty]

See this is the kind of awesome stuff I want to hear. I was talking to my dad last night about buying a retro car. He is in no way a petrol head but he was telling me my uncle (his brother) kept getting my dad cool cars. He had an anglia 105e and a split screen minor. He learned to drive in his other brothers imp that his brother had modified the steering wheel was held on with a match which obviouls snapped whilst my dad was drving a long.

[Deleted]

I'm not that old but I remember the 80's, Chelsea Cruise and car shows especially.

Early 80's still had a lot of the 70's jacked up, portholed, buttoned draylon, crushed velvet & tassles interiored Capris and Cortinas but the cars were starting to come down a bit. You still saw them driving about like that. Paintjobs were WILD, purples with heavy metal flake over the top and bright orange scallops, slotmag wheels and bodywork had a lot of funny shaped stuff being moulded in.

As the 80's went on there seemed to be a lot of pickups on the scene, basically badly cut down cars with flat backs that looked curse word. Hotrods looked a bit rubbish in general, wheel and tyre choices were primitive and the arch clearances were really bad. I think it was due to lack of choice more than anything else.

VW Beetles were all being turned into Baja Bugs jacked up with massive General Grabber tyres, spotlights on the roof, bodywork all cut away and mad paint. Wehey, I loved them!

Then bigfoots became big. There were giant 4x4's everywhere, loads up at Chelsea.

The modern scene on new cars were really rubbish looking square bodykits but there were some mad cars out there like the Renault 5 turbo 2's and the Metro 6R4's so everyone was trying to make their normal cars look like that.

Then near the end of the 80's the billet scene was creeping over from the States and all the cars had really basic looking machined aluminium parts stuck all over them. The wheels really did look quite agricultural byt todays standards but waaaaay new style back then. Cars were all monotone and simple looking, stripped of all trim.

Actually the whole scene was in a bit of a dip by the end of the 80's if I recall, there wasn't a lot of money about and no-one could afford to do anything.

[Deleted]

Oooh and how could I forget blacked out windows and all the Mk1 and Mk2 Escorts with Cherry bombs. They gave rise to the name Boy Racer.

Car stereos were like really square looking Blaupunkt things that you would expect to see in Robocop movies and all the speakers were in their own little boxes that you screwed to the parcel shelf ;D

[Mr_Bo11ox]

what does 'gasser' actually mean? Where does the word come from?

[DarrenW]

jonny69 said:

Actually the whole scene was in a bit of a dip by the end of the 80's if I recall, there wasn't a lot of money about and no-one could afford to do anything.

From what I can gather, the VW scene was quite strong at that point - all the UK cars with pastel shades and mad "splat" graphics up the sides etc... Billabug etc I don't have any pics to hand though.

[Seth]

e661301 said:

what does 'gasser' actually mean? Where does the word come from?

Gas class drag racing in the late 50's early 60's. As in not alky or nitro. The gas classes were generally stock bodied so they messed about with chassis/suspension to try and improve weight transfer in a backyard period tech stylee leading to the high nose up stance.

[bstardchild]

This thread sooo takes me back!!

Mates cars

Reliant robin - Slot mags on the back and the arches enlarged with the tyres rubbing - metalic purple paint and kermit fur dash and interior

Several yank cruisers - nice noises very little top speed but always availiable to tow you home on a rope!!!

Dolly sprints, Coke bottle tinas, capris, Scrotes (inc van variety) Beta coupes all with bolt on chins and spoilers - frequently missing boxes from the exhaust systems (replaced with straight pipe)

Slot mags were the ultimate wheels

Faves for me were

MKII escort (ex polac K9) van - repainted in a deep blue - smoke perspex rear windows - deep dish capri steels with chrome trims. Nothing special but just looked right even.

Beta coupe - rusty as fark but very quick and made a very nice noise!

Dolly sprint - Yellow - black Vinyl roof - webasto sunroof and nothing added to the car

Needless to say at the time I lived 25 miles from sarfend so cruise nights were a religeon

[qwerty]

The robin sounds ace!

[mercmad]

In the 60's I had cars ,but was too young to have licence.That didn't stop me driving to school though... .I got my license in 1969 and throughout the 70's I was heavily into the New Zealand Hot Rod Scene and what are considered classics today were in fact just ordinary everyday cars to us.
In NZ ,english (pommy) cars were all too common and in most NZ towns the local hero most likely drove a Ford Mk1 or Mk2 Zephyr.Real heros had the bucks to swap in V8s such as Chev 283's or Ford Yblock 272's.
Because of the busy motor racing scene in NZ back then ( Bruce McLaren,Denny Hulme,Bob Wallace etc etc all local boys ) The Zephyr was really popular as the car to "tune" with lots of expertise available .With mods starting with triple carbs ,freeflow exhuasts,and when the money got better you got the cam reground to a 3/4 or Full race grind.the specs often being copied from some 'real' cam that the grinder had imported.
If you buggered the motor ( as per usual...) you got the block bored out and had either Bedford truck pistons fitted or Chysler 225 slant six pistons modified to fit.
The head would be fitted with big valves ,usually made from big truick vales that had been turned down .I have seen Zed car heads with the valves so big the block had to be ground away for clearance.
The flywheel would be turned own so much it would only serve to hold the clutch.
The sound of one of these terrors at full revs sounds like a Ferrari V12....you had to be there to understand!. Even if you were a bit cash poor, you could drop in the engine ,gear box and diff from a Zodiac Mk3 which gave you 100mph performance.
Even after the mk4 arrived the earlier cars still had a very loyal following .
A mate ressurected a really rough mk3 body,dropped in a seriously worked over Zodiac engine etc.Drove it to the dirt track races behind the meremere Drag strip,entered a race and WON IT!!. Even the track announcer though the car looked a bit rough,and appeared rougher than most of the cars on the track.Today it would earn the title of 'Rat Look' .
and that was just the Zephyr crowd....I was into Chevy's, another whole different scene.

[stinkwheel]

My dad used to be into the drag racing scene a bit (as he lives near santa pod)
at the time he was a biker mainly but he helped out on mates cars in the very late 60's early 70's. He remembers getting a go down the strip in ahotted up 66 charger and again later in a 71 cuda. All his mates ran stuff like old V8 pilots and one particular guy had a chopped roof model Y ford, jag rear axle and tuned up rover 3500. Cars like this were cool , are cool and always will be cool. Rodding was the thing for me, some UK cars could be made to loook damn cool and things that run on a tiny budget at the pod these days like mk2 matt black 'tinas and the like will always be cool.

[qwerty]

Kind makes me wish I was older.

[Shortcut]

What I remember is that a car with over 60,000 on the clock or over 7 years old was a banger. How that has changed with cars racking up 200,000 miles and 15 years old still looking factory fresh!
I also remember paying £350 for a Mk 1 Escort Mex in daytona yellow that the previous owner had jacked up at the back with huge tyres and a cherry bomb. Immaculate it was. What price now! Luckily I quickly returned it to a normal stance, added a set of cibies and rs four spokes plus a Demon Tweaks zorst!

Oh and back in the day there were still Fiat 131 sports roaming wild!

[Imperial]

i started going to the chelsea cruise late 80's , in my avenger.managed to get hoplessly lost and got tugged by mr plod in hyde park for 'looking suspicious' ,which to be honest was a fair reason,especially as my navigator swore blind the serpentine was actually the thames! back then cars were a mis mash of 70's left overs and 80's cal look bugs and boy racer escorts.it was a bit of a quiet time back then,yanks didnt venture out and plod were all over the place so it nearly died .when i started going again i had my imp coupe ,which makes it 92 onwards and things looked better,alot of yanks and classics were turning out now and the hooligan element were the minority,but the novas and the like were making an apperance.i'll have a rummage and see if i have any pics which survived the flood in my house and get em posted up if i have.

[qwerty]

Yeah photo's would be most appreciated

[akku]

I remember riding round on my pushbike as a kid looking round the local area there were always people working on cars. Seemed like maybe not every street but you didn't have to go far and there was someone bodging away and I'd go talk rubbish with them about their car for a bit. Sad thing is when kids come up now whenI'm working on a car I just want rid of them, I like to think when I was a kid I was askign sensible questions and the like not like the 'erberts you get "why is it so big", "whats it worth?" "I'd rather have a beemer, why don;t you get a beemer" and you can't get on with anything, too busy making sure they don't nick your tools.

Luckily I don't get bothered at the new place.

Back then sucked. Nostalgia is great but...

there was no internet so it was a nightmare getting parts. You had to know someone who knew someone. Or pay a fortune to a specialist and there were few of them about. In a lot of cases if you couldn't make it you couldn't have it. Insurance was a nightmare, very few specialist brokers, no classic insurance, no free road tax...

In some ways it was better. Cheap availability of the nice old cars. You didn't have to go far to find them either.

The sun was always shining, the birds sang in the trees and children respected their elders.

[bstardchild]

Rose tinted spectacles..............

It was better then tho - back in the mid 90's I was watching teenagers near me buying 205 GTi and R5 Obrut's as their first cars - I was thinking sheesh - how the hell can they afford them (I'd bought a 205 GTi brand new in 87 and it was a shed load of cash!!) but in relative terms 10 years later they were as cheap as the wibblepoo boxes I bought back in the 80's and had slumped into unloved and unwanted.

You only have to look at car prices on ebay to realise that even relatively modern stuff is peanuts to buy now!!! Trouble is I don't like any of it......... well most of it!!!

[rmad]

Chelsea cruyise was one thing, but Lakeside just blew me away the first time...so many top cars in one retail park! ;D

I'm 35 now, but I've been into the Custom scene since I was a wee lad (I bought the first Street Machine mag in 1979) so I've watched quite a lot happen...even if it was from the outside.

[JonnySierra]

There are several old AHRA members' cars from the 70s and early 80s here - well worth a look though the pics must have been taken with little old 110 cameras!



And check out the retro barnet on my previous "almost-father-in-law" Tom Newman!