My Cars
My very first form of motorised road transport was when I was offered a motorbike from a school friend. I think I would have been 17 to 18 at the time. My friend (and his motorbike) had been in collision with a cow on Chipping Sodbury common and as a consequence had lost the fairing, which was badly damaged and so I think I paid about £30 for this old, maroon BSA C15 250cc motorcycle.
I worked in Bristol at the time and rode it into and out of the city centre each day. Unfortunately, one evening whilst travelling home, I had the classic motorcycle accident where a driver pulled out of a junction to turn right and obviously didn't see me coming. Fortunately, somehow I survived going over the handlebars but the bike was a write off after hitting the car.
Eventually, after passing my driving test in a Mk II Cortina 1600, I bought a Ford Anglia 105E something my Dad arranged from a work-mate. The car was not such a good buy as it was well rusted below the surface in places and I soon moved on to buy an Austin 1100 from a local garage. I think I was swayed by the hydro-elastic suspension even though I didn't really know what this meant!
That car didn't last too long either, I think it failed it's MOT and repair was not financially viable, so then I had to hunt for something else. I have no idea why, but I ended up buying a car advertised in the local paper. It was a totally unsuitable Ford Zephyr 6 with a 2.3 litre engine. This was fabulously comfortable to drive with it's bench seats and column gear change, but it wasn't a bargain at £50 as it was unreliable and when I snapped the bleed tap off the underside of the petrol tank on a country verge it too became financially non repairable.
The final car I owned in my early driving period (1971-1974) was a Wolseley 1500 which I bought from my brother for a discounted price of £10 (as I think I may have loaned him money at some time). To my shame I managed to write this off on the buttress of a farm building one rainy night and I think that was the last of buying cars for a while. The jobs I had subsequently, provided company cars and I then drove Escort Mk II's or III's and Fiestas and a Vauxhall Belmont 1.6 until the early 1990's when I left that type of employment.
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