The stories you hear...

[grifterkid]

Well hello there...

One of the things I love about classic car ownership are the wonderful tales that you hear.

I know some of the tales that enter our ears are a tad on the 'tall' side but on occasion you hear some amazing things...

For example, I was in my Triumph Toledo yesterday (on one of those fault finding journeys!!!) and I pulled over to listen for sounds and a car pulled up next to me...

An old chap in a Ford Bland-Max whizzed his window down and told me how much he admired my car then went on to tell me a wonderful story...

It turned out his Father worked for Lucas waaaaay back in the day and he was a rep' for the Standard-Triumph and Ferguson Tractors part of things...

I thought it was great to hear of that and I would never have heard his tale if I wasn't in my old jalopy...!!!

Superb...

So, what nuggets of legendary greatness have you heard over the years...?!

[SmokeEm]

Lucky you! All I've ever got, is listed below

When out in my Capri's - "I used to have a 3 litre Laser' or "Bet you wish you had a 280 Brooklands"

When out in my old Granada - "I bangered loads of them" or "My Dad had one as a company car but he had leather Ghia X"

All I get now, with the P100 is "I remember that back in the day" Err, no you don't, it's been in a barn for 10 yrs and before that it was std!


etc etc..

[grifterkid]

As I said, I know a lot of what we hear can sometimes be a little bit 'wobbly' as it were in terms of validity!!!

I was angling more at the joyous stores you hear that cheer you on a bit and make the old motor you tool around in seem just that little bit better for that moment...

[steveg]

Possibly not exactly what you were after but it will make Triumph owners smile. Heralds and Spitfires have rubber cased nylon steering column bushes. They aren't anything special but were deemed good enough to fit to the McLaren SLR when they needed a support for an intermediate steering shaft.

[koma]

I have had some really nice chats when I had the ke30 corolla one notably with a guy from Norway who had the ke70 and we chatted about the cars for a while.

most recently I had a guy pull up beside my mx-5 and declare my car was illegal due to the wheels also that he used to have a Capri and was a former rally driver so he knew about such things. needless to say he curse word me off with little effort.

[taurus]

When out and about in the Viva a lot of older guys come over for chat who used to build them at Ellesmere Port, since I'm in Chester there are quite a few older ex-Vauxhall workers around the area.

Their tales are always good, the best one was an old guy who was in charge of procurements during the 70's when all the suppliers were on strike every other week. His stories about how they used to build cars out of whatever they could find of the shelf sounded really far-fetched, until you start taking them to bits and find half the brake system is Lockheed and half Girling.

The stories about bare bodyshell parts being left outdoors during the winter might explain why they loved to rust so much.

Perhaps the most memorable conversation was the guy who staggered across the road at a zebra crossing, looked at the Viva, staggered on a bit, looked again, came back, looked again, came up to the window - "Ish tha a Viva?"

"Yes it is"

"Ahh - then I'm not a pished as I thought I was."

And staggered off.

[andyborris]

Jul 16, 2015 15:37:52 GMT taurus said:

Perhaps the most memorable conversation was the guy who staggered across the road at a zebra crossing, looked at the Viva, staggered on a bit, looked again, came back, looked again, came up to the window - "Ish tha a Viva?"

"Yes it is"

"Ahh - then I'm not a pished as I thought I was."

And staggered off.

Wonderful.

[PandaSelecta]

Filling the Lada up after taking it for its mot, and a guy got out of his van purely to come over and look at the car. It transpired that back in the 70s he ran a fleet of lada 2101's as taxis in Hartlepool, and he loved the things.

A minute later I had his mates all looking at the car and remembering the good old days

[Deleted]

Standard rate towards my buddy's FC Rx7 "Those rotaries do 25000rpm as standard you just need to remove the limiter"

[cjhillman]

I have a lot of guys around 35-45 telling me how they had Escorts like mine (or they think it was like mine) for their first car and put the XR3 wheels on it.

I also had a guy tell me the other day he used to out run the cops in his 1.6 with no tax or licence... kinda thing you hear in Manchester anyway. A lot of older garage blokes tend to think its a pile of curse word and cant understand why I drive a mk3... sometimes i think they might have a point!

Not got any riveting stories though yet as i hoped i might... just people liking it. Maybe you guys can give me some haha!

[MK2VR6]

After taking my mk2 Golf Gti to the local builders merchants, a lad who works there was telling me in great detail how there's a local old chap who's owned a 'mint golf exactly like yours since new. I've been asking him to buy it for years and I think he's almost ready to sell.'
He told me the private plate on it and I spotted the car driving around a few days later. Yup, was a mk3. Just like a mk2, except completely different.

[accord83]

When I had my Ph2 Vanguard an old farmer told me how his wife once ripped him a second ring due to him towing a trailer full of sheep to market in one. He also took the back seat out, threw in a wooden gate as a divider and added 4 lambs to the interior. That evening he was late back after drink had been partaken and he just banged the seats back in without any cleaning. The following day his wife was due to collect some ladies for a chapel gathering......... He didn't learn, as he said he did the same trick with a calf.
I was always getting farming tales whilst in the Vanguard, ex RAF ones were popular with farmers.

[The Jackeria]

When I had my Toledo I had all sorts of people approach me - not so much now with my mk2 as they are still reasonably common.

I never had many tales though they would stop me at the oddest moment, like when I'm just getting back in my car after filling up with petrol and the guy behind is impatient. The most popular story was "I learned to drive in one of those" I retort with something along the lines of "wow that was a long time ago" and laugh to make them feel old. More often than not people tell me my car was a dolomite.

When I talk to other guys at shows about their classics they seem surprised when I tell them I've only really owned 20 year old cars and go through my list being the young chap I am. After that the don't dismiss me as a common yobbo and actually chat to me about their cars and the work they've done.

My girlfriends mother used to have a standard mk2 in the same colour and spec as mine when standard back in the days that my girlfriend was a wee baby, she went on to sell it because she was pregnant with my other halves brother. Perhaps I should be dating her mum with taste like mine

[slomoshun]

When i owned my Suzuki SJ 410 it was on my drive and two old blokes walked by and one said to the other < look at that boat on a trailer > Other one said < oh yes look at the exhaust up the side ( snorkel ) and look where the outboard motor goes on ( tail gate with spare wheel removed ) I said excuse me its a sj410 jeep. Then one bloke said < he don't know nothing > Excuse me I'm the curse word owner. Made me laugh though. Innocence mixed with ignorance turns a jeep into a boat !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[chris y]

Having parked a Carlton GSi 24v "My Dad had one of those, but his was a real one"!

Someone walking past my rail (see avatar), "that's a landrover with the body taken off". It doesn't even have an engine at the right end.

I cant think of any of the fascinating true stories at the minute.

[60six]

Whilst in oz I hired a mini-moke as I have always loved these odd little vehicles - cruising through Sydney suburbs, a very old tall guy came up to me whilst I was at the traffic lights and said ...

"NOICE CAR!"

"YOU BIG GALOOT!"

"It's a mini moke - I have never heard of a Big Galoot".

Later on that day I found out a 'Big Galoot' is an aussie term for d1ckhead.

[Blue850]

Most memorable one I've heard when in the Fiat 850

"My Dad swears I was conceived in the back of one of those..."

[baggabones]

Used to get lots of comments when I had my aircooled vw's ....especially my type 3 varient, you would not believe the number of people who used to own them I had one old guy stop and chat to me at a petrol station to tell me about his "nights of passion" with his late wife in his old one and that he still had a heap of spares in his garage....phone numbers exchanged and sure enough I bagged a load of decent spares from him now I have a 924 as my daily I still get a lot of compliments but the usual comment is "nice car mate, bet you wish it was real Porsche though don't you?"

[goldnrust]

When I had my mk1 Rx7, all the comments I got by seemed to be from women in their 40s-50s who went all misty eyed about old boyfriends having one years ago!

On the other hand in my Lancia, it was only men who took any interest in the car, and mostly older gents talking about the good old days of motoring.

[luckyseven]

The other day I went up to clear out a load of parts from a friend's unit. Since I only have RX-7s and since the plastic one's boot is mostly full of battery, I took the old metal one. On the way up the A24 I had a bit of a play with a Lotus Elise that definitely wasn't hanging about and that was good fun but he got away from me in traffic for the Horsham roadworks.

Thought no more about it, filled up the car with obscure chunks of RX-7.. driveshafts, hubs, powerplant frame, ARBs, big gay wing, basically loads of clanky, heavy pigiron. Chatted for a bit then headed off home. And who should I meet on the A24 going back down but the bloke with the Elise. So we played some more... there were plenty of corners where my recirculating ball steering box and shaky single-piston brakes meant I couldn't really attempt what he could get away with, but use of both lanes where necessary to get a good exit meant I could exploit the power of the Weber on full honk to reel him back in.

When we got back to Worthing he pulled over into a petrol station and waved me in too. He got out effusing about how great the Rex was, and how it looked superb blowing massive flames out the back on the overrun. Turns out he had one back in the day and loved almost everything about it.. except the vague dead-ahead steering and the comparative lack of grunt. I confessed I was about as close to the limits of the steering keeping up with him as I was willing to get on a public road, but he pointed out that he was driving an Elise after all...

"I can't believe the power you're getting out of it," he confessed. "Mine never went anything like that fast". I explained to him about the porting and the 48IDA... and then showed him the back of the car, filled with several hundredweight of disassembled RX-7. He looked at the ballast, looked back at his Elise and said ruefully "Maybe it's really about time I did the engine upgrade on that thing"