Your family's best piece of motoring heritage
Discussion
My Mum and Dad in Dad's MG - complete with obligatory flat cap - this would be about 1950, a couple of years after he left the Fleet Air Arm having flown in Baracuda's and Swordfish (a bi-plane taking off from an aircraft carrier- gulp!).
The MG had a leaking fuel tank so Dad decided to solder the leak himself, asking his then Fiancé to hold it while he did so. Needless to say a new fuel tank was required... and she still married him!
Dad also had a Morgan three wheeler. I always think the most remarkable thing about this 'photo is the complete absence of any other cars in the street! Dad always said this was a very well specified 3 wheeler as it had a reverse gear...
The MG had a leaking fuel tank so Dad decided to solder the leak himself, asking his then Fiancé to hold it while he did so. Needless to say a new fuel tank was required... and she still married him!
Dad also had a Morgan three wheeler. I always think the most remarkable thing about this 'photo is the complete absence of any other cars in the street! Dad always said this was a very well specified 3 wheeler as it had a reverse gear...
Grandad was dragged up in a children's home in Camden in the late 20s - not a particularly pleasant experience.
Kicked out at 13 in the clothes he wore, he walked along Camden High Street and obtained an apprenticeship as a mechanic, at a garage that mainly dealt with high end motors - RR/Bentley/etc.
After a while, he used to open the garage up, and move all the cars out onto the forecourt. Soon realised that rather than setting the hand throttle and then getting out and cranking, he cod set the throttle then flick the advance/retard lever and the engine would fire...
70 odd years later, I took him to FoS. Not up to much walking, we saw a stand showing Bentley recreations of Speed 8s and the like. After telling his story, the chaps gave it a go - then amazed that it worked, plonked him in a chair and spent several hours nattering about the cars in period. Made his year...
Another anecdote - whilst at the children's home, he signed up for church services - as an excuse to bunk off on the way and go shoplifting in Woolies to earn some cash from the b
ds who's wealthy parents sent money to. Stopped on the way back by a copper, he emptied his pockets into the bench seat of the Austin 10 police car. Once they'd told him to bugger off home, he explained he'd get the cane and no dinner as he'd be late. Copper gave him a lift to the children's home, on the return journey he refilled his pockets...
Still have his first invoice as a garage owner, and a lovely antique wall clock he was gifted by a customer, the face has the name of his garage on it.
Miss the old bugger dearly.
Kicked out at 13 in the clothes he wore, he walked along Camden High Street and obtained an apprenticeship as a mechanic, at a garage that mainly dealt with high end motors - RR/Bentley/etc.
After a while, he used to open the garage up, and move all the cars out onto the forecourt. Soon realised that rather than setting the hand throttle and then getting out and cranking, he cod set the throttle then flick the advance/retard lever and the engine would fire...
70 odd years later, I took him to FoS. Not up to much walking, we saw a stand showing Bentley recreations of Speed 8s and the like. After telling his story, the chaps gave it a go - then amazed that it worked, plonked him in a chair and spent several hours nattering about the cars in period. Made his year...
Another anecdote - whilst at the children's home, he signed up for church services - as an excuse to bunk off on the way and go shoplifting in Woolies to earn some cash from the b
ds who's wealthy parents sent money to. Stopped on the way back by a copper, he emptied his pockets into the bench seat of the Austin 10 police car. Once they'd told him to bugger off home, he explained he'd get the cane and no dinner as he'd be late. Copper gave him a lift to the children's home, on the return journey he refilled his pockets... Still have his first invoice as a garage owner, and a lovely antique wall clock he was gifted by a customer, the face has the name of his garage on it.
Miss the old bugger dearly.
I just remembered this family anecdote. After WW1, my grandfather returned home to civvy life as a carpenter at Thorneycrofts, the boat builders on the Thames at Hampton. Money was tight and my grandmother had several jobs during the 1920s and '30s, cleaner at the local Barclays Bank, housekeeper for a single lady nearby and also she was a laundress. Hampton on Thames isn't far from Brooklands and one of the names in the overalls she washed was 'J Cobb'.
timbo999 said:
My Mum and Dad in Dad's MG - complete with obligatory flat cap - this would be about 1950, a couple of years after he left the Fleet Air Arm having flown in Baracuda's and Swordfish (a bi-plane taking off from an aircraft carrier- gulp!).
Small world - my great uncle also flew Swordfish in the Fleet Air Arm! I wonder if they knew of each other. Dom
This one is my maternal grandmother just after the war with my mother in the centre:
My paternal great grandfather probably holds some kind of record as he killed himself crashing his car in 1900 driving off a bridge to avoid a pram in the road. Another great grandfather used to race Bugatti's between the wars and I keep meaning to go to Brooklands and see the records of his races.
An interesting aside is the both my maternal and paternal grandfathers nearly killed themselves during the war with silk scarves. One had the scarf get caught in the rear wheel of his motorbike which promptly tried to pull him off the back of the bike while the other was driving a car with no floor and his scarf got caught in the drive shaft.
My father used to race and decided he and a friend would try their luck at rallying. He went straight on at a corner, travelled a couple of hundred yards through woodland in a MK II Jag without getting a scratch on it and promptly retired from rallying.
My paternal great grandfather probably holds some kind of record as he killed himself crashing his car in 1900 driving off a bridge to avoid a pram in the road. Another great grandfather used to race Bugatti's between the wars and I keep meaning to go to Brooklands and see the records of his races.
An interesting aside is the both my maternal and paternal grandfathers nearly killed themselves during the war with silk scarves. One had the scarf get caught in the rear wheel of his motorbike which promptly tried to pull him off the back of the bike while the other was driving a car with no floor and his scarf got caught in the drive shaft.
My father used to race and decided he and a friend would try their luck at rallying. He went straight on at a corner, travelled a couple of hundred yards through woodland in a MK II Jag without getting a scratch on it and promptly retired from rallying.
DonkeyApple said:
An interesting aside is the both my maternal and paternal grandfathers nearly killed themselves during the war with silk scarves. One had the scarf get caught in the rear wheel of his motorbike which promptly tried to pull him off the back of the bike while the other was driving a car with no floor and his scarf got caught in the drive shaft.
That's how Isadora Duncan died. It broke her neck.Jimmy Recard said:
That's how Isadora Duncan died. It broke her neck.
i remember my grandfather telling me that the only reason he didn't go off the back of the bike was that the scarf eventually slipped and took all the skin off round his neck!Some time later he ploughed into a cow on a country lane at night and when awoke his legs were broken and the bike was sticking halfway through a rather dead cow.
I've just remembered though that my other grandfather, it wasn't a scarf that got caught in the drive shaft but his trench coat.
What a great first post.
No pictures from me, but I am obsessed with Jaguars which apparently is a family "thing".
According to one of my uncles, he said that my grandfather ( who I unfortunately never met) was the only person he knew who could spin a MK 10 Jag 360 degrees on a Cornish back road without touching the hedges. Somehow I think we would have got on!
No pictures from me, but I am obsessed with Jaguars which apparently is a family "thing".
According to one of my uncles, he said that my grandfather ( who I unfortunately never met) was the only person he knew who could spin a MK 10 Jag 360 degrees on a Cornish back road without touching the hedges. Somehow I think we would have got on!
Sway said:
After a while, he used to open the garage up, and move all the cars out onto the forecourt. Soon realised that rather than setting the hand throttle and then getting out and cranking, he cod set the throttle then flick the advance/retard lever and the engine would fire...
70 odd years later, I took him to FoS. Not up to much walking, we saw a stand showing Bentley recreations of Speed 8s and the like. After telling his story, the chaps gave it a go - then amazed that it worked, plonked him in a chair and spent several hours nattering about the cars in period. Made his year...
Great story70 odd years later, I took him to FoS. Not up to much walking, we saw a stand showing Bentley recreations of Speed 8s and the like. After telling his story, the chaps gave it a go - then amazed that it worked, plonked him in a chair and spent several hours nattering about the cars in period. Made his year...
Growing up, we were a close family. Family get-togethers were every weekend with all of the children playing games and adults chatting and drinking coffee. I had a very close bond with my grandad and throughout the years and right up until he passed away, he told me about some of the childish pranks he played and stories of my uncles when they were growing up.
One of his earliest stories was when he was ten years old and Malta was still a little dot in the Med serving as a base for the British. My great grandfather owned a number of buses at the time and my grandad took it upon himself to 'borrow' one of these beasts. Propped up on a rickety drinks crate, he was able to reach the pedals and steer the bus around the barren streets. He was even bold enough to stop and pick up passengers. When my great-grandfather caught up with him, let's just say he never thought about 'borrowing' a bus again.
At the start of the TOTD, I mentioned jumping a Mini over a footbridge, writing cars off on a fish and chips run and drag racing up and down the Old Kent road. This was when my grandad had moved to the UK and my dad and two of my uncles worked on his site.
The Mini belonged to my aunt who had just got her driving license and as mischevious as boys can be, my uncle took the car for a spin and wanted to see how much air he could get out of the little car. Just enough to completely write it off!
Fish and chips run - One evening after a day at the car site having resprayed a few cars, my uncle refused what my nan had cooked and chose to buy fish and chips instead. Rather than moving cars about to drive his own car, he took the one which was the most convenient - a recently sprayed customer car. Having been gone a while, my uncle called my dad asking to be picked up. My dad and my other uncle head down to the street and said that it was like driving to a wreckers yard, damaged cars scattered down the street, pieces of mangled metal littered the road. Towing back the customer's car after having dealt with the angry owners, my grandad had to purchase the car off the customer than show him what had happened. It is still the most expensive meal my uncle has never eaten.
I will contact my nan to get a few photos sent over and will update this response as soon I do.
Nik
One of his earliest stories was when he was ten years old and Malta was still a little dot in the Med serving as a base for the British. My great grandfather owned a number of buses at the time and my grandad took it upon himself to 'borrow' one of these beasts. Propped up on a rickety drinks crate, he was able to reach the pedals and steer the bus around the barren streets. He was even bold enough to stop and pick up passengers. When my great-grandfather caught up with him, let's just say he never thought about 'borrowing' a bus again.
At the start of the TOTD, I mentioned jumping a Mini over a footbridge, writing cars off on a fish and chips run and drag racing up and down the Old Kent road. This was when my grandad had moved to the UK and my dad and two of my uncles worked on his site.
The Mini belonged to my aunt who had just got her driving license and as mischevious as boys can be, my uncle took the car for a spin and wanted to see how much air he could get out of the little car. Just enough to completely write it off!
Fish and chips run - One evening after a day at the car site having resprayed a few cars, my uncle refused what my nan had cooked and chose to buy fish and chips instead. Rather than moving cars about to drive his own car, he took the one which was the most convenient - a recently sprayed customer car. Having been gone a while, my uncle called my dad asking to be picked up. My dad and my other uncle head down to the street and said that it was like driving to a wreckers yard, damaged cars scattered down the street, pieces of mangled metal littered the road. Towing back the customer's car after having dealt with the angry owners, my grandad had to purchase the car off the customer than show him what had happened. It is still the most expensive meal my uncle has never eaten.
I will contact my nan to get a few photos sent over and will update this response as soon I do.
Nik
No photos unfortunatly, but my grandfather on my dads side was the only one in the family with any interest in cars.
Big black Rover P4 with red leather interior when I was very young, then a red Vauxhall VX4/90. We both loved that car. To my kiddie eyes, it was exactly the same as the car in Starsky and Hutch, and, as my grandfather drove with some 'gusto' (or as a loony as my old man said!) I called him 'Starsky', and that became his name to the grandkids till the day he died.
Certain it's from him I get the 'pistonhead' gene.
This has now got me looking for any VX4/90s from that era on classic car!
Big black Rover P4 with red leather interior when I was very young, then a red Vauxhall VX4/90. We both loved that car. To my kiddie eyes, it was exactly the same as the car in Starsky and Hutch, and, as my grandfather drove with some 'gusto' (or as a loony as my old man said!) I called him 'Starsky', and that became his name to the grandkids till the day he died.
Certain it's from him I get the 'pistonhead' gene.
This has now got me looking for any VX4/90s from that era on classic car!
This thread has motivated me to look through old photo albums to see if I can find any car related stuff. My father used to tell me about my grandfather's penchant for American cars which he ran mostly. Bearing in mind this would have 1930's he must have looked like a proper gangster in Stockton on Tees!
Zeemax_Mini said:
Small world - my great uncle also flew Swordfish in the Fleet Air Arm! I wonder if they knew of each other.
Dom
They may well have done...Dom
My Dad used to tell a tale that if the carrier was sailing into the wind they would have to radio in and ask it to slow down so the Swordfish could catch up and land... I've always assumed it was a joke...
Edited by timbo999 on Friday 15th April 15:33
Only car I can think that's been in my family was an E-Type we had about twelve years ago. It was a Series 1 (or 1 1/2) '66 Fixed Head Coupe, in Roman Purple. It was apparently bought by Graham Hill for his mechanic as a present for having done such an excellent job spannering his racing cars. It was fettled by Coombs engineering, apparently the only E-Type they ever did. It had a straight-through racing pipe at the time, we took it on a speed trial day and got about 127mph out of the old girl. Sounded glorious. Sold it a while later unfortunately.
My father loved to do amateur rallying, however had a major accident at Silverstone when testing the car.
My father's Healey 3000 after a crash at Silverstone in 1965
Car during rebuild with new WSM body
Then when rebodied by WSM (Wilson Spratt Motors) www.wsmcars.com
Finally as found a couple of years ago (currently undergoing full restoration at WSM cars)
My father's Healey 3000 after a crash at Silverstone in 1965
Car during rebuild with new WSM body
Then when rebodied by WSM (Wilson Spratt Motors) www.wsmcars.com
Finally as found a couple of years ago (currently undergoing full restoration at WSM cars)
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