OT One Vulcan still flying!

[harry]

[Mr Pounder Esquire]

Ahhhhhhhhhh Magnificent. In my day it was single channel rudder only. It was fun and I eventually wrote off the lot. That was the way it was. Writing of that thing would be heart breaking.

[harry]

I was into aeromodelling as a schoolboy. Mostly from plans. I'd spend weeks building some model & then smash it up on the first day out. I'd always have the best model going. For one day only.

Gave up for that reason.

[Brian-Gaff]

Well, when I was young, I was not really into scale models, as their performance is not optimal due to the difference in size in real air if you get my drift. It was much more fun to come up with just novel designs and after all if it crashedand needed to be patched up, who cares that it might look strange or be a different colour? I had to stop due to my eyesight getting worse. I could never find the damned things if they got away!

I went on to boats, which had their own issues of course like weeded up props and collisions with semi submerged stuff.

Not to mention the holes in clothing from spilt battery acid. Brian

[Mr Pounder Esquire]

A couple of shitty kits, then from plans. I eventually designed my own models, nothing complicated. I gave up the hobby when I got my first car. Well, a Ford Anglia van. Could not afford both.

[DerbyBorn]

Youngsters of today don't know they are born. Decent car - latest iPad, pubs, etc. We had to save up for a repair to our car exhaust. Things seemed expensive in those days.

[harry]

I dunno,cars/insurance was cheap. My first car cost me £30. I made an exhaust for it out of some electrical conduit.

It was a shed. You could see the road through the floor. Minor 1000. You used to see them at the roadside with the front wheel fell off.

[Mr Pounder Esquire]

Parents are to blame. I know two little girls, whatever they want they get. They just drop their iPads on the floor when they have finished. I had a paper round when I was 12 years old and learned the value of money.

[Mr Pounder Esquire]

I can remember paying 25 quid for a Ford Zephyr and selling it for 15 quid. Wasn't it the Allegro that had the ball joint/wheel falling off failure? The dark days of British Shit Leyland.

[DerbyBorn]

harry wrote in news: [e-mail]:

I had one - the back of the seat rested on some telephone directories.

[Davey]

I don't know about the Allegro, but the Minor was the one famous for the left front wheel falling off. It was usually just after a left turn, after a ride at a decent speed. Lack of lubrication led to the threaded joint at the top balljoint wearing out and coming apart when the load was taken off it by the left turn. The right hand side didn't do it, as the right turn actually helped to tighten the joint on that side. Memories.

I once worked for a summer for a major soft drinks company. The Morris Marina was announced, and the manager/engineer in charge of company vehicles took me out on a test drive. After a trip around a roundabout several times, with the rear wheels hopping about madly, he said: "It's terrible! We'll have 30 of them for our sales reps."

[Bob Eager]

I had two. The first one was a rustbucket but in a way I widh I'd kept it. It was a convertible and not so common.

[harry]

If we ever have a proper recession and have real "cuts" and "austerity", ie true hardship, it will break the little bleeder's hearts. Seems quite possible it'll happen too. Remember the blubbing bitch on QT? Doesn't know she's born.

[Vir Campestris]

Ah, the Marina... I was following one around a roundabout once, thinking "Why's he going so slowly?" when the back end stepped out...

Andy

[Davey]

It might have been us.......

[dave]

Surely the Ford Anglia is the worst car ever made - worst I ever "drove" anyway.

[Davey]

Maybe. The Minor was in fact a very good introduction to basic practical engineering theory. I never had the pleasure of driving an Anglia. I once owned a 105E fibreglass-bodied Special, but sold it, for a modest profit, before I even got the engine working. The Bradford (Jowett) Van was fun, except for the Rising Floor and the oscillating steering action. Oh, and the kingpins filled out with brass shim material. You could listen to the individual cylinders firing while it was still pulling uphill, it must have been running at about 200 rpm. I even made a profit on that, even including the cost of a month's student insurance, and tax. When it went for the MOT, to a garage run by somebody who 'knew about old vehicles', one of the tail lights failed until we hit it, and the passenger seat folded up and threw the Tapley brake meter onto the floor when the tester hit the brakes. The unsecured battery then came loose, and spilled acid on the ground. It still got the MOT, though.

Them wuz the days....

[charles]

Not the 123E. I had mine for 6 years from new. It did me very well.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Its a tough call, but I think the worst car I ever drove - worse even than a Chrysler Neon or a Ford Zodiac automatic, was a Pontiac.

Until you have driven a big cheap US automatic you haven't experienced the worst that the world of automobiles can deliver.

Only in such a country can a Fiord Mustang be considered a sports car.

[Davey]

For three years, I had a Ford Fairmont, the one with the resonant frequency at 55 mph, while that was still the national speed limit.