My First Car

They say that time flies when you’re having fun and that’s certainly been the case on these pages of This England. It has been two years since we first cranked-up the engine on this feature and set out on our journey to discover your introduction to life behind the wheel and your adventures on the open road.

Over the past eight issues we have driven through the decades of motoring history, glimpsing countless humorous and heart-stopping scenes along the way. You have been the generous drivers who have allowed us to hitch a lift and share your wonderful recollections. It has been a marvellous trip down memory lane and thank you so much for all your brilliant stories and photographs. We have tried to fit in as many as possible during our travels. From Austins to Wolseleys and Fords to Triumphs — plus numerous other marques in between — all have had a golden moment in your lives and on these pages!

We’ve clocked-up a good few miles in the last couple of years, but now that we have reached our destination it’s time to bid a fond farewell to “My First Car”. However, rest assured, your enthusiasm for motoring nostalgia hasn’t gone unnoticed and we will be mappingout more car-themed articles for future issues, so do keep a look out for those. Now the engine’s ticking over let’s rev up for the final lap of your motoring memories.

Keith Hall, Kerang, Victoria, Australia:

At the age of 18 I was working at the local Ford garage and I bought a 1932 Ford Model Y (single seater). This did not stop us from having three people inside: two on small bucket seats and one sitting on a cushion on top of the handbrake! Owing to our climate in Australia the canvas hood was down most times and the windscreen also folded down. The car had suicide doors, which often came open on a rough road. I later traded it in for an English-built Prefect. The enclosed photo (see below) shows my beautiful wife of 58 years, Nancy, with it.

Reverend Canon Ian Pusey, Exmouth, Devon:

I bought my first car in 1961: a 1936 14HP Armstrong Siddeley (see below), in a very distinguished dark green, with a wonderful smell of leather from the bench seats.

I have the original handbook. It is quite staggering how far motoring has come in the last 80 years! The handbook includes a fold-out oiling and greasing diagram. There were 31 oiling and greasing points which needed attention with varying intervals of between 500 to 2,000 miles. Apart from this extensive regime, other maintenance was straightforward.

In common with most cars of this vintage, there was no heater so winter motoring was a real test. The previous owner had fitted a small demister to the front screen which proved largely ineffective.

It was fun to drive. The pre-selective gearbox gave out a wonderful warbling burble when it was engaged. I could be at traffic signals, with first gear engaged and the selector handle already in the second gear position. On the green, foot to the floor and she was off! A quick push on the clutch and second was engaged, handle up to third for when I needed it.

I paid £25 for the car, which came with a spare gearbox. After thousands of miles of trouble-free motoring, I thought I could do with something a little more modern so I traded her in for a Hillman Minx. The garage gave me £19 trade-in and I sold the spare gearbox through Exchange & Mart for £6. So the balance sheet for my first car was precisely zero: if only the same was true of all the other cars I have owned in the intervening years!

Bob Luckhurst, Sompting, Lancing, West Sussex:

In 1956 whilst working for Caffyns Garages, in Haywards Heath, I asked the branch manager if he’d allow me to purchase a traded-in car.

“No,” he said, “Caffyns do not sell second-hand vehicles.”

I was 21 years of age and had joined the garage straight after National Service. “But, sir,” I said, “if I had a car of my own I’d be able to work the late shifts on the petrol pumps at Station Garage and the Chailey branch.”

“Ah, well,” he replied, “in that case we’ll have to wait and see what vehicles we get, but I’m afraid they’re usually well beyond your means.”

He was right and during the next few weeks several cars were traded-in for new models, but all were way beyond what I could afford. But then someone traded-in a 1935 Morris 16 saloon. On seeing it I hurried to his office.

“Sir, I believe I could find the money to buy that Morris 16.”

“All right,” came the reply, “as long as you purchase it ‘as seen’, with no guarantee. You can have it for £50.”

“Oh dear,” I said, “I won’t be able to do any late shifts after all because I’ve only got £40.”

“All right then, £40!” he replied in an exasperated voice.

That old car did great service by taking me and my fiancée many miles through Sussex and the South Coast — as well as me doing the late shifts on the petrol pumps. However, two years later I took a job as chauffeur to the Sheriff of the City of London, so my second car (see photo below) was a RollsRoyce Silver Wraith!

Dr. E.J. Booth, Qualicum Beach, British Columbia, Canada:

In autumn 1961 I was offered a place at Manchester University Medical School and having my own transport became a necessity. Fortunately a neighbour wanted to sell his 1935 Austin 10 sedan (reg. no. CMP 163), so I bought it for £15. I decided

to paint it in Medical School colours — navy blue on top; yellow/gold in the middle and black on the lower half.

My car needed a name. My sister found two — Philomena-georgina — or “Phil” for short! She served me well and in the following years I put more than 40,000 miles on her odometer. I did most of the repairs myself, but finally I was spending more time keeping the car on the road and not enough time studying!

Reluctantly I put the Phil on the blocks and covered her up until I graduated in 1966. I emigrated to Canada four years later, sadly leaving my car at home. My father was anxious to get rid of the car and asked me what I planned to do. I have regretted my decision ever since. Instead of asking him to crate it up and ship it over to Canada, I foolishly asked him to put a notice on the Med School board to see if anyone was interested. It was gone in less than two days. It was a sad day when Phil was driven away.

F.S. Winstanley, Wirral, Cheshire:

I have enjoyed your series “My First Car”. I enclose a set of drawings (see above) by my son, Neil, of 1940s and ’50s Lea-francis motor cars. We were lucky enough to have the black saloon as our family car for five years and then, for six years, we had the “Woody” estate for transporting us about. By then we were a family of six, so this roomy estate car was ideal for holidays and shopping.

Lea-francis made cars until the early Fifties, but they were three times the price of an Austin or a Morris and the price forced them out of business.

Pete Lovell, Henderson Valley, Auckland, New Zealand:

In 1961, a week after our wedding, my wife, Mollie, and I emigrated to New Zealand. We soon found that the transport system left a lot to be desired. Hoping to purchase a small car, we discovered that second-hand vehicles were few and far between. We therefore had to buy a new car, but with our limited funds it wasn’t easy as you needed a third of the purchase price in overseas currency. “Have you any sterling?” was what we were always asked. When we’d emigrated we’d transferred all our combined savings (about £1,000) to NZ dollars.

We approached the NZ Reserve Bank to prove we had transferred the sterling and after much negotiation we managed to get about £208 ($620 NZ) — a third of the price of a new Mini (then known as an Austin Seven), which we collected five weeks later.

It was a bright red and the photo (see above) was taken two weeks after the purchase. Many Kiwis had a bit of a laugh when we told them we’d bought an Austin Seven as they assumed that it was one of the 1936 Austin Sevens. It was interesting to see their jaws drop when they saw it was a brand new car! It served us well; it was reliable and we did not have to spend a terrific amount on fuel. When our daughter and son joined the family our Austin Seven enabled us to travel around getting to know our new country.

Roger Denniss, Repton, Derbyshire:

I fell in love with vintage Bentleys when I was 14 coming across a 1924 3-Litre parked at Lulworth Cove, Dorset, whilst on a family summer holiday. Back at Walpole Grammar School in West London I took out a library book The Romance of Motoring and became a petrol-head overnight. Much against my father’s wishes I became an apprentice motor mechanic.

When I was 17 my grandmother died and left me £100 so, with the sale of a 1939 Velocette MAC 350 motorbike, I was able to purchase my first motor car, a 1926 3-Litre Red Label Bentley for £134 (reg. no. KA 3357). This would have been in 1952 and whilst there was a shortage of new cars vintage Bentleys were cheap because of the perceived price of spares.

It was bought from Speed Services Garage in Camberley, Surrey, and was in a really shocking state. The degree of wear was frightening, however, I worked hard with my dad and Uncle Jerry (a paint salesman — very useful!) to bring it back to life (see photo above).

In August 1956, Dad, Mum, Uncle Jerry and my two sisters waved me and three old school friends (Dave, Graham and Gordon) off on our way to Monte Carlo in KA 3357. It was Monte Carlo or bust!

We caught the Dover to Calais ferry and went on to attack the Italian, Swiss and Austrian Alps. I recall the frightening ravines either side of the single-lane road, the clean Alpine air and the colourful surrounding countryside. It was a sight I had never witnessed before.

The car aroused a lot of attention. In Switzerland we received a note and a box of chocolates signed “To our English friends”. In France the proprietor of a hotel insisted that we put the car in a prominent place, but in Germany (see photo below) we had the radiator cap stolen.

The old Bentley covered just over 1,700 miles in 10 days without a whimper. We were so fortunate to experience the romance of motoring before the coming of the crowded motorways.

Fifty years later, I am still in touch with that remarkable motor car (see photo below) which now lives in California.