White Ls

[Spacewagon52]

I think we all get a little nostalgic when we see old cars we once owned. However I do not wish to go back to the good old days of rust, plastic padding, spray cans, points, dynamos, tracking and generally poor reliability. I recall an uncle who traded in his 1978 Cortina Mk4, which was 2 years old and rusty!

[Chasdad]

I don't think I'd enjoy my old mk1 escort with a 2l pinto and drum brakes. But Id like the money it would be worth now

[Scribe]

One of my father's other company cars was an Escort estate which had a handprint on the paint inside the tailgate. And instead of the letters F O R D on the bonnet it had F O F D - perhaps they'd run out of Rs, or perhaps the workers just couldn't be bothered to fit the right letter.

[mikeyv]

My dad bought his first car in 1960, a brand new Triumph Herald........well it actually said Triuwth on the bonnet, as the M was upside down.

It took longer to spot the other mistake though, the reg was UDW 820 at the front, but the back plate was a different number.

Don't bother looking up that number to see if it's still around, it died in Nov 66, one month after I passed my test, after I repaid his kindness in lending the car to me, by stuffing it in to a lorry, with sufficient force to remove the engine from it's mountings.

The only saving grace was a good insurance pay out, which paid for a lovely used Humber Sceptre auto, that he also let me drive.

He was certainly a kinder, more forgiving man than me!!

[Cotswold Pete]

My dad bought his first car in 1960, a brand new Triumph Herald........well it actually said Triuwth on the bonnet, as the M was upside down.

It took longer to spot the other mistake though, the reg was UDW 820 at the front, but the back plate was a different number.

Don't bother looking up that number to see if it's still around, it died in Nov 66, one month after I passed my test, after I repaid his kindness in lending the car to me, by stuffing it in to a lorry, with sufficient force to remove the engine from it's mountings.

The only saving grace was a good insurance pay out, which paid for a lovely used Humber Sceptre auto, that he also let me drive.

He was certainly a kinder, more forgiving man than me!!

Had a mate in the mid 70's with the Sceptre Mk2, recall it as being comfortable, fast, and I was jealous. Had a valve radio as I recall.

[Titch LS]

I started out driving in a Renault 4L. An early model, it had a 3-speed gearbox and a gearlever which came through the dashboard. It had an 850 cc engine and drum brakes all round. In the exuberance (stupidity) of youth I once had 8 of my friends plus me in it, haring (after a fashion), up to a roundabout. I had no idea that drum brakes were so ineffective. We barely slowed at all and just hoped nothing was entering the roundabout at the same time as us. Now much older and hopefully wiser, I understand why insurance premiums are so high for 17 year olds!

[Malc]

My dad bought his first car in 1960, a brand new Triumph Herald........well it actually said Triuwth on the bonnet, as the M was upside down.

It took longer to spot the other mistake though, the reg was UDW 820 at the front, but the back plate was a different number.

Don't bother looking up that number to see if it's still around, it died in Nov 66, one month after I passed my test, after I repaid his kindness in lending the car to me, by stuffing it in to a lorry, with sufficient force to remove the engine from it's mountings.

The only saving grace was a good insurance pay out, which paid for a lovely used Humber Sceptre auto, that he also let me drive.

He was certainly a kinder, more forgiving man than me!!

Had a mate in the mid 70's with the Sceptre Mk2, recall it as being comfortable, fast, and I was jealous. Had a valve radio as I recall.

I wonder, was the Sceptre Mk2 the huge Humber Sceptre, like the Imperial type one which models ceased production about F reg / 1968 ish, or the Hillman Minx sized one with the " new " Sceptre styling and luxury ?

Malc

[mikeyv]

Actually, my memory has kicked in a bit (recovering from man flu), and the Herald was replaced with a farina style MG Magnette, which was nicked from Newport and parked on it's roof in Penarth.

The Sceptre was bought with the Magnette write off money, and was a 66 D reg in metallic green, which looked like this