The Dark Wob

We lived in a small village so no real exciting stuff. My dad had a Wolsley 16/60 that is the first car I remember before that was and Austin Cambridge. Both of these cars were written off by MGB drivers running out of talent so my dad never did like MGB's. After the Wolsley the old man spent about 500 wuid on a 1968 Volvo 144S. That car was the bollocks as far as I was concerned. He did over 180k miles in it with just a clutch and servicing all that time (he had it about 20 years) He replaced it with a mk2 Cavalier and gave the Volvo to me. It only lasted until the mot ran out as taking it home from the pub across the fields broke the rear suspension mounts. After the Volvo he had a sucession of salvage cars out of Canvey island auctions that I used to help him with. The poor old duffer can no longer drive now due to a stroke which is pissing him off no end. He did work for the electricity board for years so there was usually a Land Rover kicking around most weekend for me to "borrow" when he was down the pub. Our neighbours were a bit more flash, the old couple had a P6 Rover that the Widow gave to my sister when her husband passed away. It was a lovely old thing and not the first car you expect for an 18 year old girl. Their son also kept his E-type in their garage for a few years and I lusted after that car after he took me for a ride out in it. He was rolling a fag on his knee as we were doing a ton down the A11. It froze up one winter due to no antifreeze so got sold on. I tried to talk my dad into buying it but he wasn't that into cars until I found a Jensen 541s in a barn and he had me track down the owner to try and buy it. The owner wouldn't sell but that car was the reason I started restoring classics as my first real classic was a 541 I couldn't really find a pic of my old house on this computer but it is in the background behind the Panhard. We rented the field the Panhard is in for my sisters horse but it was also a handy place to keep cars and finally my 541 outside the guy I sold it to house

I didn't know about the arrows estate.

My biggest regret story about being offered a ride was turning down a ride in a 1930s Bentley Speed Six*.
My Dad was doing an advert for something (Ithink it was trousers) and for some reason the idea was to get a photo of a bloke working under a car (for some reason this Bentley) in his action slacks.

I went to the photo shoot as Dad knew I was so mad on cars, but the owner/driver of the Bentley looked like a right piece of work to me so I turned down the chance of a ride in it.

*May have been a 6.5 litre tourer.

mercrocker wrote: ↑Fri Oct 23, 2020 1:19 pm One side was a Pole whose name resembled a bad hand at Scrabble

That Jensen is fabulous.

AMCrebel wrote: ↑Fri Oct 23, 2020 3:01 pm That Jensen is fabulous.

Seconded....Absolutely lovely.

We had some quite distinctive vehicles in our area growing up.

I’ll see if I can dig out some actual pictures at the weekend.

My Uncle worked for Bamfords the farm machinery folk - he had occasion to visit the beautiful Antrim coast on occasion in the 1960s -

OK, last instalment...

Covering the final two houses in my street. Both were old bungalows dating back to the early 20th century and until the mid 70s were inhabited by old school locals, an ex-Merchant Seaman and a lady to whom I was very distantly related through my grandmother's side. Needless to say, neither had cars.

One evening I noticed somebody had moved in to the last-but-one house and I could make out the unmistakable signs of car body restoration - the smell of peardrops, clouds of rubbing-down dust and two gas bottles outside the garage door. I had just met Joe. He was busy on a body-off restoration of a TR3A - the chassis was outside under the apple trees covered in a tarp and the body was supported by various improvised methods whilst he attacked the tinworm.

Joe's wife had a decrepit Fiat 500 in which she commuted some unearthly distance to a place I had never even heard of and I soon got to know them both as they were new to the area and glad of the company.

I had many, many motoring adventures with them - well outside the scope of this thread but which I will detail probably on my ramblings in the Cave.

However, Joe brought much life to the street and when expecting their first child the Fiat was cut up and thrown in a skip and replaced by a Toyota Crown Custom estate which promptly threw a rod and was re-engined with a P6 V8 unit. The exhaust obviously didn't want to meet its new partner so he simply self-tappered some side pipes and fabricated some downpipes. It sounded thunderous.....Joe was Maltese and had that simple, pragmatic Mediterranean approach to engineering.

After losing his wife's income with onset of children he started dealing cars on the side and placated neighbours by repairing their vehicles. The cars were sourced from Germany in a complex web of subterfuge involving British Army soldiers and a German agent - I went on a few trips to collect these and they were usually orphans like Fiat 132s, obscurities such as Audi 50s or unwanted Allegros.

As I say, this is all fodder for another thread and I will certainly write something up before long!

Until then, one last stop at the final bungalow in the road which brings me to the end of my time there, about 1981, when Deek, a Chinese gent moved in. He had an almost brand-new Granada Estate in that unflattering Terracotta colour but was also building a Nova kit-car which duly took up residence in the newly-built garage there. I was sad to leave the area but Mum and Dad sold up and moved to Canada so it was time to find somewhere else to live.

When we moved when I was 13, we definitely moved to a more upmarket village - although the chod was eclectic. Bloke next door was a surgeon. He drove a white Scimitar GTE with a fancy plate - something 22. His wife had a white Peugeot 305.

The Farmer drove a Farina Austin (hardly ever cos he went most places on his MF35). The Campbells opposite had a succession of utter sheds. They would buy a car then run it with zero attention until it either broke or they crashed it. The ones I recall were a Renault 4, a Fiat 128, then a Polski Fiat - I remember the mph values in dymo tape on the kmh speedo.
The Waterfields had a Fiat 500. Bloke next door was a retired farm worker in his 70s who drove his 71 Mark 1 Escort as if he had stolen it. In his garage was an abandoned 30s MG saloon of some kind.
The Tylers had a P5b which Dad drove through the wall at the back of the integral garage one time - so they converted it to a front room.
Further up were Herods who were very religious and drove Simca 1500 Saloon.

At the end was Barkers - he was the boss of local Renault dealers - so had a top model 30, and his wife had what ever the best trade in was that month. They always had various other stuff and motorbikes hanging about.

Oh where to begin, I grew up in the salubrious streets of Crewe and Nantwich depending upon how my parents were faring financially.

The first parental car I remember was a white and black ex police muni cooper s, that lasted until I was 6, replaced by a very green Capri 3ltr S, mum had a brown BL thingy?

Then when they got divorced mum ran a succession of BL chod starting with a white (and rust stained) marina on a j or l reg that was on a dynamo until 13 year old me somehow converted it to alternator. She ran it until I was 17, it used to hit an indicated 105 and then heat seize.

Then a brown mini estate that caught fire under the dash and melted her tights to her legs, a bronze chevette that was absolutely mint that was bought from the local inspector at Crewe nick.

She then remarried to a lovely chap, a plod custody sergeant at Crewe nick and ran all sorts of shit, mostly renaults and metros etc. Then many perodua nippas, the last being a pinky purple colour known as the love muscle to my sisters and I.

Step dad ran several ex plod Volvo estates.

Dad started divorced man life well with a banana yellow TR7 with tartan seats, then a jag xj series, then a maxi!! In calf shit, then a Datsun 180b, Volvo 9 something? Then more jag xj’s and presently a quashcow.

Neighbours cars were boring really apart from a barried no cortina in white with two stripes sprayed on in red and blue that I remember him applying.

The spinsters next door had the fruit and veg shop and ran a viva van then a marina van both in navy blue, the other side had a mini van with bench seats down both sides as per landies that we all ended up in when we were taken to sports stuff as kids.

Wealthy relatives eventually had stuff like cortina mk4 estates and v6 Granada mk2’s etc


Less annoying tag line.