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Older Triumph Drivers may remember the days

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Woohoo, bringing back memories.


My first sports car was a 53 Chevy 4-door. Before you say, "hey wait a minute", did anyone ever measure across the rear seat. I as a sixteen year old, could lay on the seat, entirely, and not touch both doors(still had some growing to do.

Then my next car was a 54 XK120M, lovely car. That's where I decided I was going to be a mechanic, so I could fix my own cars, as I sure couldn't pay anyone to work on it, working at a gas station and a root beer stand.

Then a 40 Ford Coupe Deluxe, with 39 LaSalle gearbox, tube shocks, small block Chevy(265, that tells you how early it was), black tuck and roll interior with a chrome glove box lid, fluorescent orange/red paint job with real Halibrand mags on it...

A 57 Ford four door(another sleeper) started as a 292, wound up with a Merc 352, won a few orange grove drag races with that one.... Ah Youth, the memories made..
 
Yeah, those were the days that just seem like a gazillion years ago. Thanks for the time travel. BTW, that dash looked like an MGA.
 
Great website.

My first car (1969) was a '55 Plymouth Belvedere with a rubber bladed fan on the dash. Two speed auto with the gear lever in the dashboard. Huge car, four people could easily fit in the back seat.

Two cars later, my first LBC, a '69 GT6. I can still hear her engine growling like a tiger.

Does anyone remember how a flat head V/8 sounds? Nothing like it, a wonderfully powerful sound, that.
 
vagt6 said:
Does anyone remember how a flat head V/8 sounds? Nothing like it, a wonderfully powerful sound, that.
Click to expand...

Yeh, my first car was the families old 4 door '53 Merc. Three speed moved from the column to the floor (excuse to touch girl friend's legs) and over drive.

I remember the hardest thing to do was adjust the valves. Off came the heads, then lap the valve to close the gap, or grind the bottom to make it larger. The worse sound in your life was the ker-plunk when the little keepers fell into the crank case.

Wrecked the car, joined the Navy, next car was a '64 TR4.
 
I learned how to drive in a '60 Ford Sunliner, then drove my Dad's '66 Mustang until I bought my first car...a '60 Austin Healey. Those were the days!
 
Oh yea.

1st: 1965: '55 Chevy with 348ci transplant and 3 on the floor. Used to beat everything. Ran recap tires all the time.
2nd:1965: '58 Impala with 348ci and factory trips (3 two barrels) and Powerglide.
3rd: 1965: '64 TR4. Drove it for 5 years.

Keep on.
 
1937 Dodge... nothing powerful or "tough" about it. I was 16, I'm now 70 /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif do the math.
 
In the 70s I had a "retro rod", a '29 model A roadster with a flathead V8. 16" wire wheels, 40 Ford hydraulic brakes and a nifty 39 Ford banjo steering wheel. It wasn't real fast, but was a great cruiser. Then I moved in to a 57 Ford Skyliner retractable hardtop. A few years later, I discovered english cars.
Bruce, now driving a Riley Elf with a whopping 998 ccs
 
What a Great Site!!

First "Purchased" car was `57 Chevy Belair; 4dr sedan; 6 cyl; 3spd column; $400.00: Punched holes in the Muffler with a Screw Driver & Hammer to make her sound "Mean"!

There were many after that: Chevy Nova; Firebird 400 & One day, My first LBC; "MG Midget": "The Beginning of the End"!!

Yep; Those were the "GOOD OLDE DAYS"!!!!!

Happy Motoring;

Regards, Russ /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/driving.gif
 
1947 Ford coupe with flathead v8 (high school 1955)
1960 TR-3A (new)- college graduation
1963 Mercedes 190 4-door (now married)
1965 Corvair 2 speed auto (wife)
1966 Ford Country Squire station wagon (big V-8, 10 MPG)
1960 TR-3A in 1966 ($300 rusty driver, mine)
1973 Dodge Charger

A succesion of about 25 other cars (BMW's were the best) arriving at 1958 TR-3A for fun/recovery of youth last year

Keep 'um running!

Bob Burt
 
OK, that was fun.

But I honestly never owned or even wanted most of those cars (other than the Cobra and the MGA...that's an MGA dash).

The closest thing I drove to any of that back then was my Dad's Flatbed Ford (like the one mentioned in the Eagles song). It had a flattie V8 and we adjusted the valves one time...no fun at all.

In the 60s (and into the 70s), the cars I owned included:
Austin A40, MGA, TR3, VW Type 1, Renault Dauphine, Simca Etoille, Volvo P1800, an Auto-Bianchini, several Minis and Austin 1300s, a number of Sprites and Midgets (including a Bugeye), FIAT 124 sedan, a VW Kombi with 20-odd windows and a "giant" Corvair coupe.
 
Back in the UK I had 2 Ford Anglia Supers that I had raised compression and a few other go faster ideas. Used to try anything to make them faster but with those old drum brakes stopping always seemed to involve a prayer.
 
My first car was a 1963 Triumph TR4. I gave $300 for it in 1972 when I was in college. Even then, there was rust everywhere on it, and I could see the road thru large holes in the floor.

My roommate asked to borrow it one time, and pulling out of a parking spot, the rubber steering u-joint broke and the steering wheel "free wheeled". He walked back to our room and his face was "white as a sheet".

I taped it together and drove it home. He thought I was nuts, and he never asked to borrow it again. I sold it a year later and bought a 68 GTO.
 
What's really strange is to consider the engine displacement of cars you've owned over the years.

Strangely, my most beloved cars/vehicles featured relatively small engines:

'69 Z28 Camaro = 302 CID/5 litre (about 375 HP!)
'69 & 70 Triumph GT6s(two) = 122 CID/ 2 litre
'70 MG Midget = 93 CID/1.5 litre
'70 Ford Mustang = 302 CID/5 litre
'69 Benz 280 SEL = 171 CID/2.8 litre
'67 Mercury Comet Cyclone GT = 390 CID/6.5 litre
'05 MINI Cooper S = 98 CID/1.6 litre (supercharged!)

Interesting. The average CID of these 9 cars is only 191 CID. Pretty small! The only anomaly is the Cyclone GT. It's also the one I most wish I still owned!

Actually, I want them all back . . . /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/cryin.gif
 
$15.00 for a very used Morris Minor was my first (@12 years old) later sold under orders from management(in worse shape) for $25.00
 
At 16 I got a 1951 Studebaker Champion 4 door with suicide rear doors (not running)for 10$ fixed the firing order to get it running and found one in a junkyard and paid 40$ for all the body parts I could get off it. I kick myself every time I think that I sold it for 75$. Then I got a 65 Beetle from my brother for 250$. After that I had about a dozen VWs, a Jeep, a few Americans, a 72 Triumph Tiger 650 and last November my first LBC, a 78 Spitfire.
 
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