What cool or very uncool cars did your dad have when you were a kid?

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What cool or very uncool cars did your dad have when you were a kid?

117 posts & 107 voices | Started 2 years ago by derek_starship | Latest reply from ex-pat

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allthegear - Member

My dad only got around to learning to drive a couple of years before me so it's a short history...

Starting with the incredibly uncool Austin MiniMetro 1L in a weird orange/red.
Followed by an Escort Diesel - before anyone thought of sticking turbos in cars. My god that thing took some winding up!
There was a Rover 214 involved for a while I think and then he redeemend himself with an Alfa Romeo 155. My God that car was cool - somehow having not a single flat surface inside or any cup holders seemed wonderfully petrol-head. Of course, in reality, it was a right pain!
Then went on to a series of GTVs and now has an GT.

(yes, he's a bit addicted to the Alfa thing. That and he gets a big discount through work...)

Posted 2 years ago #
spacecadett - Member

My dad only had cool cars:

80's Ford Sierra Cosworth
Lotus Elite (looked like a fast, red, wedge of cheese)
Lotus Esprit

Shame he spoilt them by blasting out Chris Rea.

Posted 2 years ago #
rabyoung - Member

After my dad had to give up his Brough Superior (SS80) and double adult sidecar combination due to heart problems he bought a 1946 Austin 7, then a 1948 Austin 10, then in 1964 his pride a joy - a Hillman Husky.

Posted 2 years ago #
GaryLake - Member

Good god, I'm about to take the tone of this thread down a notch or two...

My dads first car after giving up bikes because I was born:

When that inevitably rusted away, then came the hateful Corolla...

When that inevitably rusted away (I used to get told off for picking chunks of the bonnet off), my dad went back to good old leyland with a Rover 400 (which one day I would inherit as my first car)...

There was one of those bubble shaped Rover 200s, a VW Caddy (the current one) and eventually a Seat Altea so it got better eventually.

Posted 2 years ago #
srrc - Member

1964 Mk1 Lotus Cortina.
Mum went mad because he traded a good family car (Zodiac) for it.
Have still got it.

Posted 2 years ago #
pault41 - Member

The first one i remember was a Hillman Imp van,then a Wartburg .
Then things improved and we had S11a LANDROVER SWB EX ARMY .

Then he became ill so he got various Skodas 4 in total .Great cars in the snow as rear engined but totaly unreliable.

Then a metro under rover guiess and now god bless his soul he's driving a Jag in HEAVEN.

Posted 2 years ago #
trail_rat - Member

uncool - metro (turned out to be a cut and shut of 2 cars)
mk1 cavilier
Audi 100 "sport" serious electical problems
Audi 80 CD
Bedford astra van (went up in flames)
Ford transit dropside pickup
Ford Transit van
yamaha RD125

Cool - MK2 XR2i
JCB 4cx
yamaha XJ450 (chopper type thing which is cool age 8 ;))
Kwack ZX6R
Mercedes sprinter - the biggest one they did with 8 seats and
room for 7 DH bike

Posted 2 years ago #
willard - Member

I remember my dad having a Mk.1 Cortina that I thought was really nice, then he changed brands and went for a Rover 2000, which was bigger inside, but not as nice. After that he went BMW for his company cars.

Mind you, he did have an Austin Ambassador as a courtesy car once. That was highly specced, but totally rubbish. As was my mum's Morris Marina, but not the Rover Vitesse that she briefly had afterwards. Nothing with a rover 3.5l V8 in could be uncool.

Posted 2 years ago #
failedengineer - Member

I would love a Mk1 Lotus Cortina - when I was a kid they were the ultimate fast family car. It will take pride of place in the dream garage alongside the Cobra. And the GT40. And the Healey 3000 .......
Oh, and the Vincent Black Lightning. And the '68 Bonneville .......

Posted 2 years ago #
smiffy - Member

Porsche 924 (ok, so it had a vw engine)

A very fine version of a fine engine. one of the models was the quickest porsche at the time and was one of the first to break the mass-produced 100bhp/litre mark and wasn't far short of 200bhp/tonne.

They handled well and you could get two bikes and a weekend's camping luggage in the boot. I've even had two adults in the back seats albeit for a short, uncomforable journey.

Posted 2 years ago #
mcmoonter - Member

924 was a great biking car. We used to ride with a guy who rode his bike to the Porche dealer in Edinburgh, then asked for a test drive. He took his bike to bits and fired it in the back for the test drive. There's a banana curve just off the M9 to the Forth Road Bridge. He said he reached 90 and that was what clinched the sale.

He replaced it with a 928, That was a flying machine. Two bikes in the back were possible too.

Posted 2 years ago #
llamafarmer - Member

My dad used to work for VAG, so he had a few nice Audi Quattros, but my favourite was a VW Corrado VR6. It had a button on the centre console to raise the rear wing, which for a 10 year old was the coolest thing in the world!

In another job he once bought home a customer's Skoda because for some reason it was the only car left (this was a pre-VW Skoda)

Posted 2 years ago #
jon1973 - Member

Posted 2 years ago #
acjim - Member

Before I was born:

Citroen Traction

Healy 3000

Lancia Fuliva Coupe

(that's 3 x cool in my book)

Post my arrival:
Saab 96 in tank green

Saab 99 in beige (hmm... not so sure that's a goodun!)

Saab 90 Turbo in ? can't remember the colour, how weird

Subaru Legacy GT in blue

Subaru Legacy GTB in silver

Mostly pretty cool i reckon, I'd certainly be happy to own any of them now. I currently drive a rusty Ford Ka - woo! (I did own the last Legacy and it was wonderful, but bank braking in terms of fuel)

Posted 2 years ago #
terrahawk - Member

Rover 3500S

COOL
Cortina GT

COOL
Rover SD1

NOT VERY COOL
Daimler

COOL (if you're elderly)
Then he had a series of 3 Supras, before a brief love affair with 4x4's, then another Supra - a twin turbo chipped grey import job that he still owns.

not sure if that's cool or not. It's like sh1t off a shovel anyway.

Posted 2 years ago #
Sandwich - Member

Fiat 126 and Corsair 2000e were the best two in our family.
Ford Anglia and Volvo 144 were the worst.

Posted 2 years ago #
gavtheoldskater - Member

cars were functional to my dad, motorbikes were his passion and he was the only dad on the island with a garageful (and i was the only kid with dirt bikes). in '76 he bought himself a new bmw r1000, commuted daily on it all year round in all weathers and kept it immaculate.

Posted 2 years ago #
PJM1974 - Member

When I rocked up on the scene I was taken home from hospital in a VW Type 3 Variant, shortly replaced with a Peugeot 504 estate.

This was in turn replaced with a Lancia Beta. In the late 1970s. Go with me on this, because the Beta was comprehensively Zebarted and one of very few that refused to rust.

Next up was a white Saab 900 Turbo, followed by a black Saab 900 Turbo SE and a Saab 9000 Turbo which showed my brother's Corrado VR6 a very clean pair of heels.

Latterly there was the Alfa 145 Cloverleaf and for his retirement a Yaris.

Not bad...

Posted 2 years ago #
RepacK - Member

We called it "The Purple People Eater"..

Posted 2 years ago #
ourmaninthenorth - Member

My dad only had cool cars:

80's Ford Sierra Cosworth

The second Quattro my father had was nearly swapped for an RS500, which he borrowed for a while. F*** me was that quick too, 2WD only made it somewhat hairy - we exited a junction sideways once. Which, to an 11 year old was The Best Thing Ever.

Posted 2 years ago #
VooDoochild - Member

My dad has been driving citroëns as long as I can remember.
(He was an official citroën dealer before he sold the company and retired)
I think the ami 8 break was the worst af all.
Small, noisy, smelly, slow and damn right ugly.

Put me off french cars for live, they're all rubbish.

Posted 2 years ago #
mogrim - Member

A Renault 12:

and a Ford Cortina estate.

Both pretty grim, really. But then I've got a Renault Scenic, so I suppose I can't talk...

Posted 2 years ago #
fatsimon mk2 - Member

mk3 jenson interceptor whilst in germany in the Army(pre me) used to tell me stories of out running police cars on the autobhans still had it when he came back to England got rid of it a few years after i was born so don't remember it just in photos and stories.

Posted 2 years ago #
silverpigeon - Member

When I passed my driving test (22 years ago) my old man gave me his orange Lada Riva.

Thanks Dad.

Yes. Orange.

Posted 2 years ago #
CaptainFlashheart - Member

out running police cars on the autobhans

They were running 911s back then....

Posted 2 years ago #
olie - Member

This thread is great!!!

Cars I remember:
Vauxhall Firenza (I think?)
MK1 Escort Mexico
Lots of MG's including an MGA
MK2 Spitfire
1930's tub racer
V8 Rover 3000
V6 Rover 800 (it did 150mph)
Various Jags the best being an XJ sport, fast quiet and handled a dream
Various rep like fast saloons/hatches
and the wolf in sheeps clothing a Montego (yes thats right!!) GTi. It could bury almost anything else around at the time, I remember as a 17 yr old wondering why there was a long line of traffic on a nice straight bit of road in the dales, a few seconds and a terminal velocity in excess of 100mph I spotted the cop car at the front the line and calmly braked and pulled in behind him. Amazingly I didn't get pulled, he must have been daydreaming.

Posted 2 years ago #
carlosg - Member

Dad always had bikes up till me being 6 in '76 , always Triumphs or Nortons.
We moved back to Leeds and he bought a mk2 Jaguar , after this he had a mk2 Cortina that he'd shoehorned a V6 engine into then uprated the brakes and suspension added a front and rear spoiler and wolfrace alloys , wot a 70's chavmobile but it went like stink.
Then he's had a couple of lada riva's a lada samara , ford focus and now it's a kia carens people bus.

Posted 2 years ago #
tony_m - Member

The coolest (IMHO) was the first we ever had as a family car - a grey Morris Minor 1000 van (EUR442B), complete with foot-operated dipswitch and an old armchair with the legs sawn off for me to sit on in the back.

The next coolest was a dark blue NSU 1000 (OWM667J), a super little car.

After that came the uncoolest of the uncool, a sandy Austin (yep, you guessed it) Allegro. Sadly this didn't have the legendary square steering-wheel, but did use to go droopy and leave small pools of green Hydragas suspension fluid on the garage floor at regular intervals. So uncool I've erased the registration from my memory, though I think it was FRN something-or-other S.

Posted 2 years ago #
stonemonkey - Member

Opel manta always fancied buying one myself

and several of these as they kept getting stolen

followed by this

Posted 2 years ago #
davidpurvis - Member

Well i'm a dad, and I own this from 1982, so does it count?

Posted 2 years ago #
Bunnyhop - Member

My father was a huge Lancia fan, so he seemed to own many models through the late '70s and '80s.
His first car was a Morris Traveller, then it was family estates up until the Lancia phase. He must have been having a mid life crisis then.

His last car was a Lexus.

Posted 2 years ago #
Zedsdead - Member

My old man still has this...

And I forgot about this one...

Posted 2 years ago #
derek_starship - Member

As already covered, my dad had crap cars. My ex girlfriend's dad had somepretty cool ones from 1985-1992 I recall these:

Posted 2 years ago #
genesis - Member

They should bring back cars like the Manta and Capri I reckon, 4 seater coupes with rear wheel drive that aren't BMW or Merc. Oh hang on there's the Monaro!

Posted 2 years ago #
oneoneoneone - Member

oh my dad had,
3X anglia 1300, 1600, and 2000 redtop convertion
rs1600 mk2 escort
rs2000 mk2 escort
mk1 mexico escort
mk1 astra 2L
opel mantra
some big rover V8
range rover
mini mayfair
hyundi stellar
dawoo nexia X2
ford feista

some nice cars when i was young but some crap heaps as he got older.

Posted 2 years ago #

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