Only a true petrol head / piston head would...

[scottygib553]

I can't remember anyone's phone number but I'd probably be able to tell them what car they were driving at a period in the past ten years and probably the reg plate.

A really uncool and useless Jason Bourne, if you will.

[littleredrooster]

Aye. I am similarly afflicted. I can remember not only all my own cars regs (36 of them) but also those of mates too.

Just the other day a long-time mate sat open- mouthed with disbelief as I told him the reg of his first car in 1974 and who he bought it from & who he sold it to!

Missus will sometimes say ‘Have we been here before?’ ‘Yes - 1976. We had the 3 litre Capri & parked over there under the tree...’

[RDMcG]

I have a model of almost every car I have owned, pictures of all but the earliest one,photograph every German car with the Brandenburg Gate in the background. Remember all cars very well, the times when I got a lift in the occasional desirable car when I was a youngster.....

[hornmeister]

I can't remember what I went downstairs for, but I can recite every numberplate, make, model & model designation of every car both I and also my father had during my lifetime.

[torx_whisperer]

So relieved to hear that many of you remember times in your life according to what car you were in! It's actually got to the point where if I become nostalgic about some part of my life then I immediately start browsing the classifieds looking for another one of the cars I had at the time.

Biggest regret was selling a car I had for years and which my wife and I used as our wedding car to leave the venue. I'd love to buy that specific car back ....

[Dog Star]

gforceg said:

I have a lot of holiday photos with the car in them. Sometimes the rental car finds its way in too.

Not just me I imagine.

I have a series of photos of my cars over the years taken in the same spot with the Atomium in Brussels in the background - sometimes I will take a bloody great detour to get this photo.

This is a small sample of said photos - the first taken in 1989 and the last in 2011 I think. There are a load missing.

[Yertis]

torx_whisperer said:

Biggest regret was selling a car I had for years and which my wife and I used as our wedding car to leave the venue. I'd love to buy that specific car back ....

I located “that specific car” for the same reasons, via this very forum, and would buy it in an instant if the opportunity arose (preferably before our 30th anniversary next year).

[gforceg]

Dog Star said:

I have a series of photos of my cars over the years taken in the same spot with the Atomium in Brussels in the background - sometimes I will take a bloody great detour to get this photo.

This is a small sample of said photos - the first taken in 1989 and the last in 2011 I think. There are a load missing.

Brilliant, that's a great record of passing time.

[67Dino]

I’m also guilty of remembering cars but not much else. My wife will say: “You know, Janet and Geoff, you met them at the BBQ?” and I’ll be going “Nope, no idea who you’re talking about”.
“She’s an old friend of Pam’s?”
“Nope”
“He’s a lawyer?They live in Sussex?”
“Sorry, don’t remember them”
Then she’ll add: “He’s got a big grey car”
“Ah yes! BMW 330d estate? Cream leather, M-tech bits? 66 plate, FN66 B something. Oh that Geoff, yes I remember him”.
Drives her nuts.

[grumpy52]

You lot are lucky , I used to be able to remember things like reg numbers, phone numbers , old addresses ( being a forces family their were a lot of them ) then I had a stroke . I had trouble remembering the number of my private plate that was my initials and the model of car ! I have also been involved in some historic events in motorsport, caught on camera , seen by many on video and DVD but I have very little recollection of them . I am not looking forwards to my dotage !

[rossub]

67Dino said:

I’m also guilty of remembering cars but not much else. My wife will say: “You know, Janet and Geoff, you met them at the BBQ?” and I’ll be going “Nope, no idea who you’re talking about”.
“She’s an old friend of Pam’s?”
“Nope”
“He’s a lawyer?They live in Sussex?”
“Sorry, don’t remember them”
Then she’ll add: “He’s got a big grey car”
“Ah yes! BMW 330d estate? Cream leather, M-tech bits? 66 plate, FN66 B something. Oh that Geoff, yes I remember him”.
Drives her nuts.

so true

[Skyedriver]

krisdelta said:

Guilty of remembering what happened and when based on the car I was driving at the time. "Oh yes, we went there in the Z4, must of been 2009"

Me too.

[Mr Tidy]

And me - the easiest way for me to pin down when something happened is if I can remember what car I had at the time!

[kieranblenk]

I'm horrendously guilty of this, as are my parents actually. I often say "yeah it when I had the orange Skoda" for example when time stamping a trivial matter from the time.

Also I know all friends/family by their reg plate and can pick the reg's from a distance. When I was 4 and started school, the school called my mam in because they were amazed that I could read fluently and were convinced I was autistic.

My mam explained thay my dad used to give me the What Car? Magazine from being about 18 months old and he basically taught me the badges and to read essentially. I could recite car makes and model by the age of 2.

Edited by kieranblenk on Thursday 12th September 21:37

Edited by kieranblenk on Thursday 12th September 21:37

[kieranblenk]

legless said:

forrestgrump said:

I get rinsed a lot for saying when cars/bikes in films aren't making the correct noise.

Or are the wrong model year for the setting of the story.

It's the one thing that really grated with me about 24 Hour Party People. Set in the mid 1980s, but on the outdoor shots the roads were full of late 1990s/early 2000s traffic.

Edited by legless on Monday 9th September 20:01

What really gets me wound up is when watching a drama type TV show and put false plates on the car which don't correspond to when the car was on sale. One of the ITV dramas had a 57 plate silver Volvo V70 Mk3 in the first series for the main character, then replaced it with a silver Mk1 V70 (probably to save money) wearing the same (false) number plate as the Mk3 car and it used to drive me up the wall...

[Royce44]

I seem to record memories of car moments rather than the cars themselves.

Examples-

• Racing a vectra up the a127 in a civic vti many years ago.
• Going out in a import Delsol vti for the first time and feeling my head get pushed back as the vtec kicked In.
• getting told off by the instructor as I kept going over "their" rev limit in a ferrari 360 around brands hatch. The high revving noise was so infectious.
• Hearing a c43 rumble past me on the North circular. It changed gear right next to my window. Thought a bomb had gone off!

I have loads of memories like this and they seem to stick on there with so much detail.

• hearing the turbos whooshing in an rx7 with the windows open

Yet I struggle to remember birthdays and what day of the week it is aha.

[bigmowley]

Blib said:

Apparently, my first word was "Car".

+1

Followed by "Sports Car"

followed by "Bubble Car"

According to my mum.

[Croutons]

I could draw a map of the city I grew up in based on cars I went to see and test drive, but didn't actually buy.

I still feel bad for ragging the Opel Manta (he told me to!) And not buying it. And the very late Grey 405TD that overheated on the motorway and cooked the head. TBF if I'd bought it, it would have happened anyway, and I was never sure if the seller actually knew there was a problem as he appeared totally non-plussed.

Still drive past roads and say " D64 HAE, the Fiesta 1.4S was from down there", and other such useless info.

Oh, and I know all my old car's plates too. 68 of them...

[Mr Tidy]

I'm glad I'm not alone!

My sister and I were having a clear-out at my mother's flat last weekend and found the invoice for the only brand new car she ever had.

A Midnight Blue Fiesta 1.1S registered on 2 January 1979 that cost £3,082, and then we found a photo of it.

I remember it well as it was snowing on the day she was due to collect it, so I got to drive it home.

But it seems to have died years ago as there is no online MOT history - RIP APG 14T.

[Haltamer]

bigmowley said:

Blib said:

Apparently, my first word was "Car".

+1

Another one for the club