Cyprus-Forum.com

[paul]

blue ford cortina mrk 3..with a london taxi engine fitted.....very slow but after a vespa it was warm..

[Pete_D]

Then came along Marti, he was lovely a little purple KA, he was named after Marti Pellow.

Call me sad if you want, i don't care, but I am quite a wet wet wet fan and they were great to watch live!

[Pete_D]

i hope its not a girly thing - my first car was a fiesta called Ena - but thats proberly because of the number plate.

Interesting. My cars have had many names, although they have usually been things like "b&stard", "piece of sh!t", etc. and their names are usually prefixed by words like "oh come on, don't go wrong again, you...."

[Hiyar herif]

yep - i know how you feel mate.
my last car had about 300 names - everyday.

[villawagen]

Then came along Marti, he was lovely a little purple KA, he was named after Marti Pellow.

Call me sad if you want, i don't care, but I am quite a wet wet wet fan and they were great to watch live!

you are most definitely sad Pete and to think you call me old

[BOF]

my dad had a hillman minx, just like yours devil !!! he loved the bench seat in the front and the colombe change gears and was a two tone green colour, he really did love this car and always said it was the best car he ever had. my older brother (who now lives in paphos) smashed it into the back of another car, in birmingham city centre, a week after he passed his test !!! my dad was not happy that was about 1968 i think.

Guess that was a much earlier model, c. 1956, I think. Hillman stopped the bench seat and column change with the Minx III, if I remember correctly. I did have one like that and then I had one with the curly tail fins (c. 1959) before the one I showed above. The bench seat/column change was an American influence, but weren't popular in Europe, except by courting couples!!! I think Hillman had them only for a couple of years, but Vauxhall kept them up longer, with their 3-speed gearbox. The changes were very mushy.

Ah memories memories! in my dim and distant past i worked for rootes motors at Barlby road in N.W.London, sort of distribution centre..minx, gazelle,super minx,rapier,sceptre,snipe and super snipe and the V8 alpine too just before i left....and true..the hillman imp was shite!
in the compound where they were stored prior to being sold the clutches used to bind and you couldnt get them to change gear...wonderful!
One point of interest,at the time i was there Rootes still kept a humber available for Winston Churchill and employed his driver Joe Bullock.

[Jerry]

My wife had a Hillman Imp, nice design but badly made. The number plate was JG 79, what would that be worth today!

[devil]

My wife had a Hillman Imp, nice design but badly made. The number plate was JG 79, what would that be worth today!

And they rusted round the back hatch while they were still printed in the catalogue.

My last Rootes Group car was a model which I think was made only for the Swiss market: a Super Minx GT Station wagon. It had the twin carb Sunbeam Alpine Engine, bored out to 1800 cc, and a gearbox with very low 1st and 2nd gears. The problem with the standard Super Minx Wagon was that it was so damn heavy with just a fairly ordinary 1600 cc engine that it was hell to move off on steep hills, as were often found in the Alps. You can imagine the reaction when I was able to beat Ferraris off at the lights with all that torque on the wheels and the grip with all that weight. 0-60 km/h in about 2 secs. Great fun for a station wagon, but it quickly became a rust bucket.

After that, I ran Toyotas from 1969 until I left Switzerland in 1998. My last three there were Camrys, a great car and super-reliable. When I moved here, there were many dirt roads so I wanted a medium 4-WD. The options were the Toyota RAV4 and the Honda CRV. I tried them both. The Honda won - and I still have it, at least until the Civic Hybrid is delivered, some year, in Cyprus time!

[rotate]

First car in the UK was an Austin Mini, broke the rear sub frame when I hit a speed hump that was'nt there the day before.

First car in Cyprus was a Triumph Herald, last seen Famagusta 1974.

Most disasterous car 1. A 'state of the art' Hillman Imp, lovely engine which could be easily removed for the frequent clutch changes that were required. Not always so easy getting the engine back in! Paving slab in the front end boot to keep the wheels on the ground. Another Imp victim!

Most disasterous car 2. A 1950's Morris Minor I fitted with an MGB engine and gearbox, failing to upgrade the braking system resulted in loosing a confrontation with a post box.

Most disasterous car 3. Mercedes Benz 230E, purchased in Athens and one week later stolen in Paris, recovered in Nice six days later minus engine gearbox wheels dashboard and upholstery. Absolute insurance nightmare!

Most profitable car 1. A Lada, based on a Fiat built with Soviet tank technology. Paid a neighbour £40 for it after it failed an MoT, replaced the brake shoes got an MoT and sold it for £350.

Most profitable car 2. My daughters one month old Mini Cooper, used it while in the UK and got smacked up the back by an unmarked police car pushing me into the unmarked police car in front. £9,400 out of court settlement and an almost immediate full insurance payout for the written off Cooper. Strange how no one at the accident scene was breathalised.

Most Disapointing Car! Triumph Spitfire, bought it an effort to impress a girl friend only to be told that I should have saved the money for an engagement ring. Engagement was not at all what I had in mind

[deedeepuss]

Then came along Marti, he was lovely a little purple KA, he was named after Marti Pellow.

Call me sad if you want, i don't care, but I am quite a wet wet wet fan and they were great to watch live!

Your are definitely not sad, I have seen them twice live, they were brilliant. I used to be a Housekeeper in a hotel in London and Marti Pellow stayed there, he was rather unpleasant to one of my room attendants which put me off him a bit. I think it was around the time he was reportedly doing drugs. I have got over that now and I have got tickets to see Wet Wet Wet again at the NEC in Birmingham on 4th December. So I will have to get my video out of the cupboard again and get practising