The Dark Wob

Definite vote for 3000ME here - wonder if there are any left

I grew up in Hove East Sussex, I liked it there... Mostly BMC chod back in the mid 70s. Plus a bit of Ford and Luton tat. Then moved up to Gloucestershire in 1980, it appeared to go very Ford at that time, although Stroud was a backward place with plenty of eccentrics back then. One neighbour owned a silver R10, a very strange beast. After that he had an R16, I always thought a strange predatory looking machine.
There were plenty of old vans in use in what was still a fairly rural area back then, the milkman had a sherpa, the grocer an Austin J4, the builder along the lane had a CF and a school friend's father had a by then decrepit CA camper. People tended to stick, often religiously to a particular marque, often for purely sentimental reasons, one old boy, rather like the moleman always had a Skoda MB, which of course was a point of great mockery. Same with Reliant vans, which my brother and I found great amusement in, but they were almost common then, you could barely take a trip without seeing one, usually a Regal or Supervan but sometimes a Robin.
The first car I really remember was my father's Rover P6, it was an early one, a 2000 and was already quite old when I was able to take an interest in it. A Rover, back then, before the SD1 was seen as a middle class vehicle so there was little doubt to my grandparents that my father was going up in the world, at least for now anyway.
My mother naturally didn't have a car, few women did back then and if they did it would be something like a cast off Mini or 1100.
What I also remember is the number of motorcycles and how many were still British, a BSA Bantam, Ariel Leader or similar would still be quite common fayre for a blue collar guy to get to the factory and back on, there were still a lot of factories in South Glos in 1980, it was still quite industrial and there were still 3 or 4 foundries in our valley replete with smelly chimneys. There were also scrap yards, really quite big ones down by the railway arches, along the canal and river, with the cars piled high on bare ground quietly dripping. All long gone now and quite gentrified, there are fish in the canal now and there's talk of it being navigable through towards Lechlade to the east and the, Severn river to the west one day. I'll believe it when I see it, I think I preferred it how it was, all overgrown and quiet.

I am amazed at how much some of you remember, especially Mercrocker, I only have to go back to the 70s too...
What I do remember are some of the cars I went to school in, firstly an 1100, that was odd as I was used to RWD Fords at the time, it was flat so how did the rear wheels drive? Later I used to travel a lot in a Maxi, I still remember the vast gulf betwixt seat rows and those very deep front seats, no headrests then, head restraints were somehow 'exotic'.
I used to also travel in a DS Safari which was akin to being abducted, admittedly by benign aliens. Another friend of my father's had a Ford Zodiac mk2, now even then I knew that it was somehow cool, it was replaced by a Neu Classe BMW, an indignity but one very fitting to the early 80s and the first of many BMWs he owned.
Coaches were a regular part of any child's life back then, I remember many of them seemed to be 'Duple' and smelt of chlorine and sick. Naturally they had seats that were very itchy, that in itself was enough to make me hate coaches and any form of public transport. I suffered quite badly from travel sickness and still do a little, which did not help.
The other Wob of a sort that I remember, in this case very fondly were DMUs. I actually liked the smell of these, namely the smell of fag smoke. I took to smoking at a fairly young age, about 13 and still smoke off and on now. The DMUs were a lot of fun as you could run about in them, open doors whilst they were moving and throw things out of the windows but thats another story.

Strangely enough, I remember very little about what I was told at school, yet can vividly recall every single teacher's car in quite some detail.

Three wheeler invalid carriage as they were called
Nash Metropolitan
Jowett Javelin

I remember the Art teacher's Mk2 Jag, it was saggy as an old tabby then in the early 80s. Also remember the lady French teacher had a Lancia Beta coupe, it was gone by 84 or 85 too...The physics teacher regularly drove a convertible Rover, a P2? Just post War. Of course many drove moggies and minis and there were Cortina and Avenger estates that kinda thing but Kraut cars were still very rare in a school car park.

It's amazing how worthless MkII Jags were 40 years ago. Unless mint, they were absolutely unwanted.

mercrocker wrote: ↑Tue Oct 27, 2020 10:30 pm Strangely enough, I remember very little about what I was told at school, yet can vividly recall every single teacher's car in quite some detail.

That's handy!

The Reverend Bluejeans wrote: ↑Tue Oct 27, 2020 11:24 pm It's amazing how worthless MkII Jags were 40 years ago. Unless mint, they were absolutely unwanted.

They were never very expensive when new, the 240 and 340 were steals and AFAIK body work, especially the sills are very liable to corrosion and expensive to fix.

Mk2 Jags lost their shine very quickly. A school-mate's Dad ran them for years but was savvy enough to chuck 'em out when a big bill loomed. He used them to tow a gurt great cabin cruiser and the last Jag was always left down the side of the house to provide spares for the replacement one. They would literally get chopped up when even that use was beyond them and the big chunks of Jag were then lashed to the boat trailer for the trip to the scrappies. As Jags started to climb in value he switched to Triumph 2000s and did the same process - I remember him buying one of them for a fiver and spending £400 on a respray!