Early Childhood memories of Cars; good and bad

[steve_earwig]

It's another Arrow (it's a Hillman Hunter coupé ) The H120 version shared the same breathed-on lump as the Hunter GLS (Holbay alloy head, twin Weber 40 DCOEs). Note the elongated rear bumper it shares with the Humber Sceptre above (the one with the suspicious guy on the bench behind it) [/could waffle on about it for hours]


I'm sure we already did where the name Rapier came from (Hillman > Chrysler > Talbot > Peugeot) so I suppose we can count ourselves lucky there are no 406 Sunbeams, Minxes etc.

[trufflehunt]

I once did some improvement work on a Hillman Hunter..

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23771156@N00/4755779980/

YOu turned it into a Plymouth Satellite?

She came from planet claire
I knew she came from there
She drove a plymouth satellite
Faster than the speed of light

Yeh, I couldn't quite afford a Plymouth Barracuda.
The Satellite was however sufficent to destroy the rear end of the Hillman Hunter (see comments).

[trufflehunt]

It's another Arrow (it's a Hillman Hunter coupé ) The H120 version shared the same breathed-on lump as the Hunter GLS (Holbay alloy head, twin Weber 40 DCOEs). Note the elongated rear bumper it shares with the Humber Sceptre above (the one with the suspicious guy on the bench behind it) [/could waffle on about it for hours]


I'm sure we already did where the name Rapier came from (Hillman > Chrysler > Talbot > Peugeot) so I suppose we can count ourselves lucky there are no 406 Sunbeams, Minxes etc.

Thinking back to the time, IIRC, these Rapiers were regarded as a bit uncool, mainly because they looked a bit stolid, and even when breathed
on with the Holbay stuff, they had insufficient go compared to what else was around.

Rapier, and Arrow reminds me of something else though. There were similarish names with the the Standard cars... Standard Vanguard, Standard Ensign, Standard Pennant. When Standard were developing the successor to the Standard 8 and 10 cars.., they looked around at the competition and realised that
'Deluxe' was beginning to feature more and more. And 'Standard' was becoming associated with nothing much.
And that's why what would have been called a Standard Herald came to be named a Triumph Herald. And the Standard-Triumph company stopped using the Standard name altogether within a couple of years.

[steve_earwig]

I'd never thought about it like that, I just assumed the name Standard had been absorbed into a larger company. I suspect the GLS/H120 had enough go, they just looked to much like a granddad's car (which was probably 1500DL...)

The Satellite was however sufficent to destroy the rear end of the Hillman Hunter (see comments).

Ah, I read the first bit and assumed you'd linked the wrong page, but I couldn't find any Hunters in the album (yes, I saw those nutcracker shorts ). I suspect that by 1980 a sneeze was enough to destroy the rear end of a Hillman Hunter. Bleedin' rust buckets

The shock absorbers are standard thing on Yank tanks, I think they're referred to as 5mph bumpers. Or is it 15? Anyway, parking there you're allowed to shunt the cars infront and behind (seems an awful way to behave, probably made law by senators that were usually too drunk to park any other way) and all cars sold after whenever it was have to have them. 5mph bumpers do make European cars look stupid though.

So, 1980 plate rather than M reg for date of manufacture. they didn't do age-related regs then? You obviously bought that when it was imported, was it a personal import gone wrong or did they import it to sell?

[trufflehunt]

Yes, it was a '74 car that the dealer I bought it from imported in 1979/80, hence the V plate. By 1974,
the muscle car era had ended, and the emissions regs were hitting the performances. Plus, the engine
was just a 318 cubic inch, so some way from the 454 Hemi-Cudas. Not really very fast, but for posing,
I do feel it was very hard to beat.

Ah, the nutcracker shorts, 1980's. I don't go round like that all the time, you know. Things that expats do in the
tropics. Called Hash House Harriers. Bunch of, mostly , expats once a week gather near jungle. in the previous
few days a couple of people lay a trail through the jungle on existing tracks, some cutting of new ones,
and also lay some false trails. It's a variation of hare and hounds. On the day, you run through the jungle for
4 or 5 miles, then afterwards drink, and drink, and drink. Then head for some local downbeat eatery, and drink
some more.

[FarmerPug]

I can't remember any terrible cars from when i was younger, my dad had a few metros one had a "floor sunroof", and as a child i would pick at any rust and store it in my pockets, this usually ended up being discovered in the washing machine.
After the metros, came the 205 diesel, an audi 80 which had "buzzy windows" as they were known, and the radio had an LCD screen, back then that was high tech, and at the same time as the audi my mum had a mk1 ford fiesta as far as i can remember that was the most unreliable car we had.

My grandpa bought his first diesel in the 80's that was the 305, i can't remember the time before it but it was a much superior car to the marinas and various fiats that were there before it, the old petrol cars back then were nothing but trouble, the 305 on the other hand never gave a moments trouble, and can remember my grandpa had it for well over 10 years. A lot of work was done with that car, back when the mushroom yard was much smaller and the 305 delivered everything.