John Burke's Nostalgia   Transport 2

It was registered 385 TD and was old enough to have no synchromesh on first gear and no server-assisted brakes. If you were going fast and had to stop quick you stood on the brakes, pulling at the steering wheel! One wing was badly corroded and we cut off lots of metal, building a new one with fibreglass. It looked perfect - the two fibreglass Reliants had given me a certain amount of skill - but Dad decided to warm it up with a blow lamp to start the resin "setting" and he set fire to it instead... It was ok though because after we emptied the kettle over it to put the flames out, the fibreglass had gone rock hard!

The next car was an absolute joy - a Zephyr Mk III as used on TV's Z-Cars and in its day, one of the most sought after cars on the road.

It too had a bench seat but this time with an American-style column gear change which I loved, the dashboard and interior were gorgeous and the horn was a silver ring set within the steering wheel.

It did guzzle petrol a bit but - hey! Look at my car!!! The main problem was that the corrosion under the bonnet got to be such that when the bonnet was lifted, on trying to shut it again, the hinges, instead of closing, just bent the metal they were attached to. The bonnet closed ok at the front, but the rear, where the hinges were was still halfway up the windscreen... At least Mum didn't sell it for a fiver...

Instead we bartered it for having the drive tarmacced but it had stood unused so long the brakes had seized solid and it pulled the bumper off the transit van the new owners tried to tow it away with. They abandoned it two streets away but we had a new drive...

It was followed by a brand new Skoda. Dad bought it for me because he needed help with the football coupon round (see Teenager page) and the wrecks I bought (even with his help) were not reliable enough. The L plate was for my brother Frank.

It was before the VW takeover of course, 1972 to be precise and the thing was horribly plastic tacky grot! Barry Lord was really embarrassed at snapping off not one but two of the plastic door handles! And the plug leads used to melt on long journeys and would then fall off leaving the car running on three cylinders...

I ran it into the back of a lorry one night and wrote it off. Not one of my better nights, I still have a mark on my leg where it snapped off the metal tube that took the ignition key, but at least I was rid of the Skoda!

It was followed by a Mini, the basic 850 model which I absolutely loved.

It's seen here in 1975 with Fran. Just look at those sleek lines... the same thing now just doesn't look the same... er... Minis I mean!!!

Note the wing mirrors, the custom picked out highlights all done with yellow metalflake.

Unfortunately it attracted vandals like a flame attracts moths. The wing mirrors got ripped off and at one point we returned to it to find a gang had been dancing on the roof which was bent down and ruined. In the end it was resprayed to the original blue (Frank doing the honours above right) and sold through the auctions. We had it eight years.

Meanwhile Dad had had a Maxi and this Austin Princess, both of which I hated. Both had gearboxes where, with the gear in neutral, you could move the gear lever in a circle. It was so loose! Frank bought it off him when he eventually saw sense and got something else. Frank ran it until it was just a heap of rust held together with a few scraps of paint - must have run it for...oh... weeks...

Anyway, you can get some idea of the state of it from this shot, right.

Note the front door under the window and the bottom edge of the rear door.

Ever the flamboyant, Frank knew he wouldn't be able to sell it so he offered it to the organisers of a big truck show and had it crushed during the show... In the photo to the left, my nephew, John, poses proudly in front of the remains of the Austin which has had a few inches taken from the headroom...

I'm not going to show every car here and really this is the only other old car that really made an impression. This is a Ford Mark 3 Cortina which had a custom paint job and everyone knew it was me so wherever we left it we would come back to it to find messages on the windscreen from friends who had seen it!

It was 17 years old and had gone around the clock and onto 30,000 for the second time and it was in excellent condition. It ended under the wheels of a lorry and I couldn't bring myself to photograph it after the accident. I was really sorry to lose this car, but the amount of work it would have needed was just not worth it. WFV 97 - OK!

I've had other cars that had done many more miles that I loved too, but Mondeos just don't have that nostalgic interest yet, do they?