WELL-DOCUMENTED NOSTALGIA

Still really enjoying the mag, it’s a particularly welcome relief every month during this challenging year and yes, a good dose of nostalgia really does us good. In response to your recent article about putting your cars from over the years in order, I did exactly that a couple of years ago. Over the last 40 years or more I’ve owned close to 100 cars of all shapes and sizes, and I’ve amassed various mementoes of them – photos, old tax discs, V5 slips etc. With the help of my long-suffering wife I have now put them in the order that I acquired them, from my very first motorised transport (a Puch Maxi moped, STV 104H) and my first car (1966 Mini Van) right up to the present day. Sadly I don’t have photos of them all, so I have had to improvise with pictures from the internet or magazines, trying to match the model, colour etc as closely as I could, although trying to find a picture identical to my 1975 Hillman Hunter in Chrysler Orange Blossom or the Limeflower BMC 1300 I owned is proving very difficult; if anyone could help with those, it would be appreciated!

As you’ll know, you can see online when your car was last taxed, which also documents the colour, date of registration, engine size etc. I’ve also printed those off (where the details were still available) and, along with any other info on the car I still have such as bill of sale, old insurance documents and so on, it’s given me a fairly comprehensive, nostalgic look back at my old cars at the turn of a page. It’s a sobering and quite depressing thought when I look at pictures of the two Mk1 Escort Supers I owned from 1968, one I sold for £40 and the other I sent to the scrapyard for £15. What would they be worth today?

I hope this gives readers some ideas for the long winter evenings as it makes for a very interesting piece of nostalgia.

Graham Westcott