By popular demand ....

[Peter.N.]

My son was a 'Droopsnoot' enthusiast but the nearest he ever got to it was a Viva E. I had an HA van at one time, I think that was ex GPO, dreadful thing to work on, you had to remove the exhaust manifold to get the starter off! Maybe I just picked a particularly bad job.

Peter

[Dieselman]

My early cars were Mini 1275GT (tinted glass, full length sunroof, wood dash Lasted a few days before letting a mate drive it..Oops. , good job for me all that welding held out... ), Triumph Toledo, Vauxhall Viva HC, Vauxhall Magnum, then into newer cars.
Before buying the Magnum I was going to buy a CX but the insurance was just too crippling.

[Peter.N.]

By the time I got my CX I was already getting old so the insurance wasn't to bad

[Dieselman]

The best quote I could get was £750 TPF&T which was a lot of money in 1984. As an alternative I was going to buy a Vauxhall Carlton, but eh bank refused the full loan value, so I bought the magnum for £400 instead.
It's a good job I didn't spend a lot as I was made redundant a few months later and cash was very tight due to living on my own in digs in London and jobs were very scarce, which is why I was in London anyway.

[Peter.N.]

I dont think mine was more than about £200.00 but this is a cheap area for insurance and I was in my 40s, my XM insurance has been under £200.00 - until our recent spate of accidents but I think its only gone up to about £250.00.

Peter

[harryjoe]

Really interesting reading peter !!
A great topic, and it's great to read about other peoples earlyer cars, i remember the Viva's, i remember driving down to Cornwall in the family SL90 estate, in the early seventies, and while driving back we lost 3/4th gears, so it was driven most of the way back with an over night stay involved somewhere to Haywards Heath, took bloody ages .
My 1st car when i passed my test in 1984 was a 1972 Austin 1300 gt ,navey blue, that was quite a quick car for me as a new driver anyway, them bought a R5 gordini, bloody hell that went, until the floor pans fell out of it ( and i scraped it )


Nigel

[Peter.N.]

Hi Nigel

Remember the Reanult Dauphine? Possibly not, if you weren't around within 10 years of them being made they had regressed to iron oxide.

Peter

[harryjoe]

Hi Peter

Was that the little rear engined four door saloon ?? very square looking

[harryjoe]

Are i know the one you mean,

I don't really remember that model, the one i was thinking of was the R 10 , after a sneeky look though car & classic, thats the model i remember seeing around.

My R5 Gordini was a quick car, and was great fun and to this day i must say i have a bit of a soft spot for the R5, the mk1 i mean, i have had several R5's , the newer shape, but not a patch on the early ones.
Iv'e mainly stuck to french cars, with the odd 740 / 850 t5 estates , but still return to the french marques

[Peter.N.]

No I think it was somewhat rounded at the corners, quite a nice looking car I thought, it hails from the '50s so they may have all gone by the time you were taking notice

Peter

I have just had a look on ebay images and there are several on there I'm amazed to see, they appear to be from the early '60s and there was a 'Gordini' model