The Dark Wob

Didn't he get ousted as a nonce?
Pete Townshend.

mercrocker wrote: ↑Wed Jan 19, 2022 10:27 am They were bleeding everywhere back then....Almost everyone I remember in the late Seventies seemed to be switching to Jap. Teachers, grandparents, neighbours. The socialogical drivers for this would fill a small book but basically people were fucked off (or programmed to be fucked off) with lack of supply of British cars, quality issues with them and with French and Italian ones alike. With the Germans effectively pricing themselves out of many choices it was left to the Rising Sun to flood the market.

Almost daily it seemed another Viva, 1100, Landcrab or Avenger was being chopped in for a bright orange, red or turquoise Datoyota with each new owner proudly showing off the tinted glass, radio (with rakish aerial running up the A pillar) and shiny toolkit in a PVC roll.

Funnily enough Father Impala did that very thing circa 1975. He had a very nice K-reg Mk3 Cortina 1600L two door in red with a black vinyl roof and sports wheels (he actually listened to my advice when ordering it) but he dragged me along to the Datsun dealership in Woolwich so I could admire* the new shape 120Y Sunny saloon. The salesman didn't like me as when he asked what I thought of this prospective purchase I replied that I thought it looked like it was made of recycled baked bean tins complete with dustbin lids for wheel covers. It didn't help his cause as at that moment a Pontiac Transam rumbled by and I said there goes a real car. Naturally my dad bought it, it was bright orange and I recall that he had lovely blue and white seat covers put on the front seats. I have to say that it was very reliable but within about four years the front wings needed replacing due to them being rotten. My dad asked if I knew of anyone who could fit and paint new wings so I told him yes, a friend is an excellent body and paint man. Obviously my dad then got in touch with 'a bloke with an advert in the local paper' who made a splendid job of painting the new wings orange with added peel. Sigh. The 120Y was then bought by my brother to learn to drive in which it survived and later got traded in for a W-reg Datsun Violet 160J which later on I bought thus beginning my years of driving cars of Japanese origin, something which has only recently ended with the purchase of a Focus.

I've always been reminded of dustbin lids by those Sunny wheel trims too! Funnily enough, given my Datsun start to motoring life I have never owned a Japanese car, except for the brief custody of Mrs Rocker's Micra she had when we met.

I was quite horrified when my Grandfather traded his P6 for that Bluebird, too - to me as a teenaged passenger it was like giving up membership in a Gentleman's club for a season ticket to Mecca Bingo with that chocolate brown interior, fake Buick dash and heavily "tooled" door cards (they were moulded, of course...!) The Clarion radio may have been "free" but it wasn't a patch on the five button Radiomobile either!

I did actually refuse to ride in the Sunny for quite a while as a form of protest, that said I did own my infamous bubble arched Anglia then so I had my own wheels. But the Sunny did come in useful when said Anglia ran out of fuel a few times (usually late at night) and my dad would be telephoned to grumpily come to the rescue.

I did own two Bluebird estates, a P-reg 160B and a V-reg 180B in glorious brown with a splendid lump of filler in the right front wheel arch. I can understand your horror at the P6 being traded in for one.

My mates dad, early 1950's Yugoslavia. The villagers all came out to see him ride off in the morning. A great bunch of lads! Early 80's in Essex. Laugh at the kid on his new XS250. We all did.

Jerzy Woking wrote: ↑Thu Jan 20, 2022 11:43 pm My mates dad, early 1950's Yugoslavia. The villagers all came out to see him ride off in the morning.
20200314_140751.jpg

A great bunch of lads! Early 80's in Essex. Laugh at the kid on his new XS250. We all did.20190304_215904.jpg

We all looked like that in the early ‘80’s. Great times, not a care in the world.

Time travelling Boris?

brandersnatch wrote: ↑Fri Jan 21, 2022 7:00 am

Jerzy Woking wrote: ↑Thu Jan 20, 2022 11:43 pm My mates dad, early 1950's Yugoslavia. The villagers all came out to see him ride off in the morning.
20200314_140751.jpg

A great bunch of lads! Early 80's in Essex. Laugh at the kid on his new XS250. We all did.20190304_215904.jpg

We all looked like that in the early ‘80’s. Great times, not a care in the world.

Amen to that.