Great exercise this, really enjoyed sorting out the details on the list of cars. It was helped by the picture that my wife had painted by a local artist for my 40th birthday on the cars I'd had up to that point.
Motoring life started with a James 197cc trials bike in 1965.
Passed test in my dad’s MG Magnette after failing twice in British Motoring School A40. The examiner was very sympathic to me having such a big car to do test in, the road for 3 point turn I could practically do a “U” turn, the hill start was so slight the car wouldn’t have rolled back even if I wanted it to!!
1960 Austin A40 Farina – First car, painted wheels cream, fitted big bore Peco exhaust & ran on remould tyres!! A right flying machine.
1965 Austin Mini –850cc engine changed to 998cc Riley Elf unit – fitted 4½J reverse rim wheels, big bore Peco twin exhaust. It was our honeymoon car, followed later by 4 up trip to Austria. Whilst I was sleeping in front passenger seat my mate let it overheat on autobahn near Wurzburg. Ended up getting towed to BL garage which was busy working on American GI’s Triumph TRs, MGAs etc, so they helped me to get a new cylinder head rebuilt which I installed. Started first push of the button!! After we got home never saw my “mate & his wife” again to this day.
1966 MGB GT – Oh how I wish I had this car now, I’m convince it was a Press Car or similar as it was Black/Black leather and had chrome wire wheels, both non standard and must have been one of the first produced. Keep checking at Classic Car Shows.
1974 MGB GT – Bought new from the BL garage where my father was foreman. Even thought about getting V8 version but couldn’t afford the extra. Remember picking up my wife & new born daughter from hospital in it, put her carrycot on the back seat!
1975 Austin Maxi 1750 HL – Bought new to replace MGB GT so baby daughter, pram etc could be transported around. Great load carrier which was a problem as I was always getting asked to move bulky items.
1978 Reliant Scimitar SE5 – Great car, remember my missus coming down to Heathrow with the two kids lining on mattress in the back to pick me up from Oman as I had a stereo to bring home. Can you imagine doing that with kids now!!
1980 Reliant Scimitar SE6 – Another great car, loved it, bit more space than SE5. Painted dark brown to which I had fitted a tan vinyl roof, with polished Wolfrace alloys it looked the bee’s knees.
1978 Rover SDI 3500 – Always fancied one on these, really wanted a Vitesse but couldn’t find one. Great comfortable cruiser, however the paintwork was crap. Read in Motor magazine about how new paint system that Rover was using was a leading to paint coming off in sheets. You guessed my car was suffering. Quick respray and sold it.
1967 Hillman Hunter (Stop gap!!) – Bought whilst SDI was being sold, didn’t keep long.
1980 Mini 1275GT (Passed to my wife) Bought after getting rid of Hunter with intension on letting my wife take it over as we went to a two car family. Nippy little car but those horrible Dunlop Devono runflats, got some 12” Minilite fitted, big improvement.
1985 BMW E28 528i Alpina – First BMW, real sleeper, debadged, Alpina staggered wheels, Bilstein lowered suspension, upgraded brakes, Alpina exhaust did a couple of trips to Denmark.
1980 Yamaha 250cc trail bike (in Oman) great for dirt tracks.
1982 Beamish Suzuki trials bike – Bought from my boss in Oman after he wanted another project to do, rebuilding a Mini Moke. Sold it when I moved to oilfield job in the interior.
1983 Suzuki Katana 1100SZ – Bought in Muscat Oman, transported to the desert oilfield location where I was supervisor in charge of wireline and completion workshop so storage was no problem. Used to take it out a couple of nights a week on a run down the only bit of tarmac road (about 2 miles each way) to the airstrip, used to get a lot of visitors to the workshop to see it. Shipped home when my boss was moving back to UK and had space in his container. Still got it in my garage.
1986 BMW E28 M5 – The only BMW I was disappointed in as I was unknowingly sold a pup, it was my present fella John who I take my cars to who told me when he looked at it for a electrical fault when he worked at another garage. His quote was "Its got history, get shot". Took his advice and sold it shortly afterwards.
John set up on his own and I’ve been with him ever since, over 20 years now.
1987 BMW E24 M635 – Loved this car owned it for 10½ years, kept it standard apart from changing metric wheels/tyres to some BBS split rim style 5 18” staggered rims and fitting 8 Series front discs. My wife says I should never have sold it, saw it up for sale for about £25k a few years ago over twice as much as what I sold it for!!
2000 BMW E36/8 Z3 MC – Always thought about getting a M Coupe after seeing one at a Goodwood track day back in 1999 but they were £42k then. Bought mine in 2005 after trekking as far North as Edinburgh & South to London. Great car for touring, did southern France then a few years later a trip to Denmark, Sweden & Norway.
2003 BMW E46 M3 – Thought I needed extra seating capacity for transporting grandkids around. Sold MC to get it. Great car really enjoyed driving it on a trip through Republic of Ireland up to Northern Ireland. Had all the bells and whistles, but after only having grandkids in the back seats 3 times in 3½ years I realised a 2 seater was required again.
2000 BMW E36/8 Z3 MC–So to present car which is unbelievably exactly the same specification and colour as my first car just a few months newer, I didn’t know until after it was purchased. This was my retirement present in 2012 and is a keeper.
