Cars
Posted By Judith on 20th March 2017
In 1960 my parents bought their first motor car. It was a green Ford Popular similar to this, the registration number was NJX 942. Why do I remember that after 57 years and yet I can’t remember the number of my own first car a red 1966 Mini which I bought in 1972?
I’d always wanted to learn to drive and bought it as soon as I passed my driving test, proudly naming it Toby. Neither of these photos are mine, nor are most of the ones that follow, but they do represent the correct colour and model. (Isn’t the Internet a wonderful thing?!)
We were married in 1973 and Toby took us safely to Wales for our honeymoon, but it wasn’t long after that he started to feel his age and so began our love affair with cars. Some we bought new but most were second hand.
We replaced Toby with a Ford Escort, followed in short order by a reconditioned ex-army Series 3 SWB Land Rover and a Ford Capri. The Capri was particularly exciting as it had an automatic choke, no knobs to pull out to flood the engine, just pump the accelerator a few times before turning the ignition. At the time it was ‘state of the art’. How times have changed!
The Land Rover had it’s moments too. Being ex-military it had 2 petrol tanks, one of which was directly under the seat, (very health and safety) so you had to take the seat out to fill it up.
We’d really hit our stride by this time and it’s hard to remember in what order the subsequent models appeared, so in no particular order the Capri was followed by:-
A Mini Clubman Estate; a purple Triumph Spitfire; a Range Rover; a Mazda estate; a yellow Triumph TR6; another Spitfire, this time in orange and a Rover 2000.
Then came a Citroen Dyane and although I’d stopped naming my cars by this time I called this one Brian after the snail on the ‘Magic Roundabout’. If you’ve ever driven a Dyane you’ll know why!
Brian was always a delicate soul and never quite recovered from the time he was side-swiped by a large tractor tyre which, unaccompanied and sans tractor, rolled out of a side street one evening as I was driving home.
We followed Brian with a Talbot Horizon and later a beautiful silver Ford Fiesta XR2. Sadly this was stolen from the public car park in Halifax whilst I was at work and was never recovered. We were ‘grounded’ for the 9 weeks it took the insurance company to pay out on the claim, but at least it gave me the chance to decorate the hall, stairs and landing.
We replaced the XR2 with the slightly less desirable Vauxhall Cavalier and then in 1991 we found our true love, the Mazda MX5 roadster and that’s what we’ve been driving ever since, 26 years come August.
Not the most practical car in the world I grant you, but for sheer driving pleasure on a summer or winter day when the sun shines, with the roof down, it can’t be beaten.
As for the practicalities, what we’ve managed to pack in them over the years is no-ones business. Like the year we decided to buy an 8ft Xmas tree for example, or the time we drove home from Lancaster Antique Centre with Peter carrying one of our biggest and heaviest chimney pots on his knee.
Our first MX5 was white, followed by a red one and a little later by a special edition ‘Merlot’ which we kept for 12 years. We traded that in 2008 for this copper red one which you’ll have seen in previous photos.
Well, it’s time for a change. No, not a complete change, but a new model MX5, that’s why last Thursday we set off for Cambridge. Why Cambridge? Well it was where the best deal was to be had.
To be continued – – – –
