Claim's Cabbies Corner. Repo Revenge.

[DodgeRover]

Bugger the £5 I would be after his share of the royalties...

[Guest]

I only remember hitching once from the old Severn Bridge services back to Cardiff an older bloke, quite a frightening driver at he seemed completely unaware of what he was doing. He dropped me at J32 and I walked in to the centre of Cardiff to catch a train home.

Had you parked your Cavalier in the car park before hitching back to Cardiff ? If so you are Ritchie Manic and I claim my 5 pounds !

I had an uncle called Richard Edwards but not the same one.
I was "delivering" my Mini Moke. I had sold it via an advert in Jalopy to someone I had never met. He had come down from God knows where to Bristol, where his daughter lived and she was dropping him at the services to meet me.He was then going to head back North, I assume he got home eventually. A mate was supposed to accompany me to give me a lift home, but didn't.

[mercrocker]

One stand-out lift wasn't really a result of hitching. Between school and college, summer of '75, I worked for a local engineering company - they were having a big stores audit and I was helping with that. Each evening at knock-off I would stand and wait at the pub at the end of the road for my Uncle to come through in his Marina on his way home from work. It took him until 5.20 - 5.25 to get there so it would have been quicker to walk home but I was lazy bugger....

One lovely August evening I stood in my usual slouching position against the pub sign when an Espada pulled up. He wanted the village I happened to live in and was checking the route. I asked him what part of the village and he gave me a street name. I asked him whose house and he told me - naturally I knew the fella he was visiting. "Can get you straight there" I said "For a lift...."

The front seat was full of carpet samples - in those great big books flooring salesmen used to drag around. I had to shove them all between the seats one by one but it was worth it as I sank into the gauche interior of a real live Seventies Lambo. I even knew where the bloke worked so we went there first as it was on the way - just in case he had got held up. His 180B Datsun wasn't there so I then directed Espada Carpet Man to the very house, thanked him, jumped out and crossed the recreation ground next door to get home. Better than waiting for a bloody Marina any day!

[LynehamHerc]

I remember in the 70s the guy who had a small local TV shop ran an Interceptor. Those sort of cars were relatively common with small business owners by what I remember. The 73 Fuel Crisis had decimated values, I once saw 3 Daytonas in a garage for sale at 5k each. To put that into perspective an 18 month old MGB was just under 2.

[mercrocker]

Yep, this fella was only a contract flooring supplier. He had a small carpet shop somewhere like Salisbury and the rest of it was on-site demonstrations and supply only. Funnily enough, I passed the house where he lived about 10 minutes ago - he's long gone and there are a pair of Audis on stilts in there now. Lovely place, too, real Sixties ranch bungalow on the edge of the New Forest and the Espada always looked ace in the driveway.

[Warren t claim]

I remember in the 70s the guy who had a small local TV shop ran an Interceptor. Those sort of cars were relatively common with small business owners by what I remember. The 73 Fuel Crisis had decimated values, I once saw 3 Daytonas in a garage for sale at 5k each. To put that into perspective an 18 month old MGB was just under 2.

When I was 12 back in 1982 there was a bloke by my school that owned a Daytona. He was happy to chat to us spotty schoolboys about it when we showed an interest. I think he sold it sometime between series one and two of Miami Vice.

[paulplom]

Did he have a puppy and some sweeties too?

[Warren t claim]

Did he have a puppy and some sweeties too?

It was a fucking Daytona. I'd have happily noshed him off for a spin around the block in it.

[mercrocker]

There was another fella in our village, name of Carpenter (no not fucking Richard). He took over the tobacconist/confectioner (quaint turns of phrases for shops back then) after selling a guest house and wanted the typical quiet village life.

We used to gather outside his shop as there was a layby and a couple of benches to doss on whilst we decided where to go on our ramshackle collection of mopeds and 250s. Far from chasing us off he tolerated our presence and one evening as he was locking up told us to hang about he had something to show us. Ignoring guffaws and comments like "yer, his knob" he swanned off in his Alfetta saloon.

Half an hour later he's back....Only this time in a bleedin Alfa Montreal! I was supposed to be getting a ride in it but it never happened for some reason - probably electrics. Turns out he was a cousin of Ken Russell who also lived not too far away.

[LynehamHerc]

The days before nice cars became investments.