What was fans 1st car that they used to go to an away match?
Mine was my 1st car anyway: A Ford Anglia 1500 E. Blue with a yellow bonnet. Front wings & bonnet were all in one like a rally car. I painted it all black, at the side of my parents house. I paid £15 for it off a work mate and he let me pay in £3 instalments as I was only on £7-6d a week. Eventually wrote it off in thick fog on the way back from a nightclub in Watford! 1st match away was Luton Town following QPR at the time.
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Datsun sunny !
The first i drove to was in my white Peugeot 205. Took some treatment that vehicle did. Remember driving to a match at Alty with 5 of us in the car and the red STOP light came on passing Stokenchurch.
I just stuck my fag packet in front of it and carried on. By the time we got there you could hear what sounded like a big kettle boiling. Turned out, the radiator was just low on water. Clueless.
The first away trip I went in a car to was driven by @kerlmann - an original Mini (bit of a squeeze with 5 blokes in).
The only BMW I’ve ever owned. A red early ‘sixties Isetta bubble car. No reverse gear but a transistor radio slotted into metal housing in the front-opening door cleverly installed by the previous owner and an extremely basic non-adjustable warm air ‘heater’. Felt like the height of luxury after scooters, a double adult motorcycle and sidecar combination, and a couple of motorcycles.
After sailing through the driving test for a proper car in 1964, I graduated from the bubble car to a well worn mini (44 GYR, amazing how those earliest registration numbers stick in the memory) which I bought, without inspection or any notion of what to look out for myself, in time for a tour of the West Country.
My line manager at the time was into car maintenance and a very caring man to boot. Just as well because when I invited him to give my newly acquired prized possession ‘the once over’ he not only quickly spotted dangerous ’give’ in the steering rack (or somesuch) but also very kindly agreed to repair it at extremely short notice in time for the grand tour.
Probably a much earlier Mini than the one @arnos_grove describes but I don’t think I ever squeezed five adults into mine.
Having said that, I seem to recall that there was a strange preoccupation a few decades ago with trying to get into the Guinness Book of Records by squeezing improbable numbers of people into cars and telephone boxes.
First car of mine that I drove to an away game (Doncaster), was a bright orange 1975 Alfasud. It was a beautiful thing to look at, as long as you didn't look at the chassis which was 99% rust. I eventually wrote it off in a 10mph bump - the other car had a slight crack in the number plate, mine was twisted enough that one of the wheels no longer touched the ground.
Ford escort for me, although I have fond memories of 4 of us bunking off school early to head down to Swansea in a Vauxhall Nova (the autoglass area final first leg....an "interesting" atmosphere to say the least. We were young and naive and were decked in light and dark blue, scarves out the window the lot. All colours were definitely hidden and coats zipped all the way up on the walk back to the car afterwards!)
It was a late 80s mini @micra that took three star petrol. One Boxing Day (back in the days when even most petrol stations were closed on bank holidays) we were running on empty before chancing on a Esso in Aylesbury.
They only had two or four star available so the advice from the bloke on the till was to go 50/50 on the two grades.
Knowing nothing about petrol grades, I’ve never understood whether that was sound advice or a random guess, but we made it home.
I've never even heard of three star petrol!
I was going to say that I’ve never heard of two or four star petrol but I bet I have. I do remember being reluctant to put a tiger in my tank though.
In the leaded petrol days, the octane rating was significant to many of the low tech engines of the period. A differing numbers were apparently too difficult for the public at large, they (?) came up with grading petrol by a star rating with two star being lowest octane and five star being highest (99+?). Gradual reductions in lead content killed off the five star after a few years and 2,3 and 4 star remained. Then they persuaded us all to go diesel............!!!
I remember two star and four star but only because I saw the pumps from my seat in the back of my Dad's Ford Anglia as I read my Beano and drank panda pop. No seatbelts, chain-smoking parent, leaded petrol. That was motoring.
And those disgusting travel sickness tablets called "joy rides".
@arnos_grove That's a great story. After filling up, did you have to get out with your crew, pick the mini up and shake it until the Octane blend was at 3 stars?
Great stuff as usual @Wendoverman !
Weren’t the pumps hidden from view by the pump attendant ?
I think I was young in the cross-over era...when your dad sat in the car for ten minutes waiting for a pasty youth or old fellow to come and put three quid's worth in...and then swore to himself when he realised he had to get out and do it himself. Modern life is rubbish.
I remember nausea-inducing Joysticks, extra long cigarettes, but my father always stuck to Churchman’s No. 1. He bought them in boxes of 100 so didn’t miss the odd one or two from the sideboard. I remember one occasion (1950ish) at the Athletic Ground, home of Maidstone United, when a regular a few places along the wooden bench from us offered Dad a Player’s Weight. Even at that age(12ish) I was embarrassed when Dad said “No thanks, have a decent cigarette.” One of my other memories of those days was the PA announcer asking us to ‘please slide along to your left as there are still many people coming through the turnstiles’
Next slide please.
Not when they were giving you a complimentary check of your fluids under the bonnet!
Xr2
Morris 1100, registration number 4846 PP, 1964 model (I think).
Coming back from either Clapton or Ilford on a wet Saturday evening around 1975, the footwell suddenly filled with water. The underside of the car had virtually disintegrated before my eyes.
Bit concise @Alexo !
?? Fine, it was a grey and black 1988 ford fiesta xr2. Lovely car. My first away game, and the one that got me hooked to Wycombe Wanderers was Lincoln away.... You know the one! Paul emblem scored last doors to keep us up. A friend invited me along. Never looked back since ❤️
That was the souped up one wasn’t it ?
The car, not the match!
Haha indeed it was. Not mine I must add, I was too young at the time at about 14!
I've just caught myself out talking absolute nonsense ???, I just went on YouTube to watch the highlights of that fateful game and witnessed a very youthful version of myself climbing onboard a Mott's travel coach.....
So whatever away game I attended in a fiesta xr2 most definitely was not that one!!!!
EmbleN
Indeed! Slap on the wrist for me!
Haven't typed that for about 20 years! Was nice to get the chance again to be honest
Glad I made your night ?
That was actually discussed! I think we bounced the bonnet around for a couple of minutes and drove on.