I did enough wheeler-dealing 'on the side' in the '90s to get me into the hundreds, i never made any money because i spent too much working on the cars - it's sad that i didn't get photos (before phone-cam age) because each one had it's time and place in my life. I didn't get much time out from either working or partying, but when i did, i was on the drive.
I think that’s something we forget about present day and the way a quick snap with a camera-phone costs basically nothing. When it was 24/36 shots to a roll of 35mm celluloid it was often easy not to think of taking pics of the everyday - only holidays, birthdays, weddings. My dad was a bit of a camera nut so it’s fortunate he took so many - though sadly none of the ‘Cactus Green’ viva fastback/estate/shooting brake (which would’ve looked like this from the side)
I think the lesson is to take many now pictures are free!
Nice thread.
If we're playing pairs the matches on my dad's list would be ...
Mk1 Passat albeit a yellow (coupe iirc maybe saloon)
Mk2 cavalier although an L iirc in a non metallic green
Mk3 cavalier, same age and colour.
Mk3 focus albeit hatchback
Hey - love your Cars btw - esp the cube
I loved our Passat and Audi 80 - my sister always used to call them ‘proper cars’.
The Guigiaro design still looks awesome today - so simple clean and elegant - rare in a wagon I’d say.
Dream car would be basically one of these, either an estate or a 2 door, lowered a bit with an RS2 5 cylinder Quattro drivetrain
Or a fastback/coupe ‘Dasher’ - I’m actually not fussy
My dad must have had similar taste to yours with the French cars. He also had a Renault 9 turbo, same as the 11 but with a boot, a Renault 21, a Laguna and a 406.
Haha - yes - so many french cars. I don’t know where he got it from - his dad was either BL or Saab…
Renault 9s and 11s seem to have weathered the passing of time style-wise really I think - simple and clean (though I never really liked the weird L-shaped rear lights on the Mk1 11. The 11’s front clip was a weird one - the lights are US Spec DOT mandatory sealed beams and came out the selling of R9s in the US as AMC ‘American Motors’ branded cars. So it seems Renault decided to save R&D on a new front clip when they got to the Euro 11 and just stuck the front end of the US 9 on the front.
Cool list that, the Renault 16 is an interesting proposition for a useable roadtrippy retro!
By the way, I couldn't help noticing the 71 plates, I'm from Mâcon
Small World!
My folks are in a wee village near Bourbon Lancy now - nearest big place is probably Moulins. It’s really nice out there. Long schlepp from here but I like the rolling hills and super-chill lifestyle…
What can I say, luck of the draw mostly. I'm fairly sure the Jag ended up being sold to my gran, her 6th one. My entire family love their cars, I was always doomed.
Wishing I had pictures of the rest of the jags and yanks. Will ask him later.
Any more pics would be ace if it’s no trouble. I’d be interested to see any/everyone’s images if they have them.
Nice list! Lots of quirky french tin! R11 Turbo is my Fav.
I could do a list for my dad, but he has only owned 7 cars in 48 years of driving and most of them were a bit pants (well boring) lol, I had that many in 12 months one year lol.
Retrorides embraces all cars, however pants right?
R11 Turbo was ace - design looking very tidy even now. I think it was the only 3-door we ever had - bit cramped getting in and out aged 15 as I was back then.
I think it had the same basic drivetrain elements as the SuperCinq turbo? Love that blue - and the robotic wheels look so right. (A lot like an AW11 MR2 wheel actually)
They’d probably look good in Subaru / Williams Gold with that sweet blue……
What a great read than you for that, I wish I had the photographs and stories to go through, but mine would be a summary.
Car I know of that my Dad had through the years, quite nice to write this and reminisce, as my Dad passed away 3 weeks ago.
The ones I know of
Rover 3500s in beige with spare on the boot-lid, sold as my mum found kick down and it had an appetite for 5 star fuel at the time
Hillman Hunter Estate, no known stories apart from he hated it
Renault 20 in gold model unknown
Renault 20 in silver, first car I remember, had blue interior and electric sunroof that sounded like a plane taking off
Ford Sierra 2.0is C281 PTJ white, I remember picking this up New from Heswall Ford Garage, he chose the white over the black or red he had to pick from, kept for a long time!
For Granada 2.9 Ghia 4x4 F444 BCM One of his favourites, great noise, I learnt to drive in this one, bought from Taurus Motors Pensby Wirral with 33k miles on and kept until 160k and had gone through a couple of sets of rear arches by then.
Ford Mondeo 2.0 Ghia 5 door metallic black on an M plate, quite quick but very dull
1967 MGB GT British racing green, black interior wires and chrome bumpers, hardly ever driven kept for 8 years and did less than 1000 miles in it
1991 Porsche 944 S2 red with linen interior, bought off my mum boss who bough it new pretty much, it was the competition price for a Duckhams oil competition which we did enter but didn’t win. Kept for many years, until I was lucky enough that he gave it to me, I kept it for 2 days and had to sell it to get something more suitable with 2 dogs and 2 kids and driving 100 miles a day. Sadly this has now been made into a Ferrari replica.
1999 Ford Mondeo ST24 5 door in white with RSA kit, looked great, was the only car my Dad had an accident it, airbag didn't go off and he cracked his sternum on the steering wheel.
2001 SAAB 9-3 2.2 diesel 3 door black with beige interior. Nothing else to say, I didn't like it
last car that he sold last year
2001 BMW 325ti in Imola Red, Individual SE, this was my girlfriends that he bought off us after I had my daughter and needed something bigger. It was a cracking car, but did need a lot of maintenance.
My mums are list of small cars
Fiat 127 silver
Renault 5 tl 1985 red
Seat Marbella red
Volkswagen polo fox 1991 breadvan grey
Peugeot 106 Key Largo 1.0 4 speed 1994 L metallic green
Volkswagen golf 1.4Cl 4 speed white
Renault clio 1.2 dynamique 2004 black
BMW 316ti Compact silver 2004
Vauxhall Astra 1.4 Techline 2013 red
Sorry to hear about your dad. I hope the cars bring back good memories - he had a lot and so many cool ones!
Love Rovers with the spare on the boot-lid - kind of makes them look like Paris-Dakar support vehicles…
Love Renault 20s & 30s too - ever elegant, and a design that really suits the classic RR ‘Bit of low, bit of rim’ action…
Porsche 944 - was that the mid-life crisis car?
Great car. Sad to hear of it’s fate…
I bet the Granada Ghia 4x4 was pretty sweet too - kind of a ‘does everything’ car right?
A lot of you mums cars similar - the Pug seemingly identical - did you ever drive the Marbella? If so - how was it?
Thanks man! Appreciate it. I’ll pass it on to my Da…
Sadly not got pictures of most of my dads cars but remember them and most of their registration numbers
His first was an Austin A30 van in dark green around 1962 before my time
My first memory was of his Triumph Herald in gunmetal blue ATV 901B. It had broken headlight chromes where he ran into the back of a quarry delivery lorry.
He then bought a Triumph 1300 from a dealer in Chesterfield ... Same colour as the herald reg RNN 346F
After that he bought a Triumph 1500TC in conker brown. Reg AWJ 369M? Bought from a Jag dealership in Sheffield, Hatfields. I remember him swapping out the gearbox on the yard and the car nearly falling on him.
Things went sad then with his first ever new car, a Peugeot 305GL in bright red. Reg EDT ???V
He kept that for a couple of years before buying a Toyota Carina new from Lucas of Mansfield. It was light metallic blue reg UNR 4X. He didn't keep it long after someone cut across him taking out the majority of the front end. It was never right afterwards even though the main dealer did the work.
Next came another Toyota, a Camry in light metallic green. It was new on a A plate but can't remember the reg on that one. He kept it nearly 5 years eventually selling it with 18K on the clock.... Barely run in
Next came more from the rising sun a new Corolla Coupe in 87 silver over grey which he never sold
A couple of years before he died he bought a silver Rav4. As mum doesn't drive that was later sold on
He also had a few bikes after I got into 2 wheel entertainment a KE125 kwak, C90 plaggie pig and a Francis Barnett 175?
Neither me or dad tend to travel far so keep vehicles for longer than the norm with milage being at a minimum. I've only ever had 1 car that had milage over 100K of which I did 60K in 9 years. My bike is a 1990 and only done 17K. Adventurous lot eh?
Thanks for sharing - great set of proper family cars.…
We never had any J-tin growing up- I think my dad was fearful of the way the early Datsun’s rusted so never took the plunge. I learnt in a K10 Micra (driving instructors) which was pretty smooth (if a bit vanilla). Currently I have a Forester SF5 (mk1) S-Turbo, and my bro has had lots of Hondas (Civic Coupe, Civic Del Sol, 2 Accords and a Suzuki Alto so the J love is finally alive in the clan
Fantastic thread, a great read! Thanks for sharing
This site has so many good threads with memories, images and proper car history. I feel good I finally had something to share so really happy with everyones response.
This one interests me. My folks had an R6 in the early 80's. Same colour too. Certainly don't recall it being speedy though, trips to visit rellies seemed to take forever as we were passed by literally EVERYTHING on the motorways. Still, it did my dad a good turn. He was working in St Albans at the time which would have been a 50+ mile round trip, and it was certainly more reliable than the ropey P6 Rover it replaced. Not sure what happened to it, but I think it was some sort of moderately costly mechanical malfunction, leading to replacement with a rust-riddled R20 which stayed until about 1989 (alongside other stuff). Abiding memories of the R6 (aside from the slowness) are sitting on a bobbly orange cushion (in lieu of a booster seat!), and the wonderfully bemusing umbrella-handle gearshift.
Great that your dad was so diligent in recording the complete history. Whether this is a function of coming to motoring later in life, having relatively new cars in which to take pride or doing lengthy holiday excursions (or a combination of all of these) it gives an interesting insight.
I think his description of ’speedy’ is definitely a relative term based on his only previous car being the R4.
But then - the R6 was basically a R4 re-body, much in the same way the Ami and Dyane was of the 2CV
Looking at Wikipedia, it doesn’t even look like there was a performance bump in the engine - so It can’t really have been much better now can it?
You really don’t see them any more which is a shame. I saw one or two in Spain a couple of years ago but the UK ones seem to be all rusted away now.
I think they look super-cute and would have one for fun if I saw one at the right price.
Littlepixel, would I be wrong in assuming that your dad is quite into photography as well?
The clarity and composition of many of the pics suggest someone with skills and decent gear
You are indeed correct - thanks for the kind words.
He used to carry a camera around most of the time, and at one point when we had a big house that came with his job he even had a working darkroom for a while.
We got him a negative scanner a few years back so a lot of these are scanned from the masters, not the prints so they’re in pretty good condition.
Some I had to do a bit of post colour correction on (I’m a graphic designer so this stuff comes easily to me) but mostly they are just as they arrived in the Trueprint envelope…
