Cycling UK Forum

kwackers wrote:

Mick F wrote:Drive on the motorway in a Mini?????
Don't get me going. <snip>

And yet a quick search on every classic mini forum brings up the same problem time and time again...

Perhaps they're all driving my old minis?

Just shows you that people don't understand these old cars.
I never ever had a problem.

Little story from summer 1965:

Dad owned an Austin Mini Cooper. Pale yellow. Probably a 970cc long-stroke.
We were on holiday in Staithes - just north of Whitby on the Yorks coast.
It rained quite a bit the night before we left for home - Wigan area.

Crossing the country, we ended up queuing in a long stationary queue of traffic and nothing was coming in the opposite direction. Dad got bad tempered (as usual) and overtook the whole queue. It was then that he found the problem, but he was committed by then.

There was a flood right across the road, and a tractor was towing a car out.

Dad gunned the engine and hit the water, revving away and ploughing through.
Water was coming in through the doors and the handbrake as well as up the gearstick gaiter. I climbed on the back seat and my sister lifter her feet off the floor. Dad kept going.

Yes, we got through. The engine was fine, though Dad was worried about the brakes for a while. The water was up to the tops of the 10" wheels, so you can tell how much water hit the HT leads.

Such fun.

My first car was 1966 Ford Cortina 1500 estate,Ran it for about 4 years,other than a couple of plates welding over the inner wings,and a couple of balljoints on the steering it never missed a beat,loved it.I lost £25 on it when I sold it,to a chap less than 1/2 a mile away,he was still driving it 7 years later
After that I bought a 1974 1.6 Ford Capri XL,ran that for 5 or 6 years,again never missed a beat.
Both were great cars if serviced regularly,which I did myself and like today's fords never used a drop of oil.
I had a cambelt go on the Capri which I replaced where it broke down on the East Lancs road ,no engine damage,though I believe the later ones bent valves in the same situation.
Then I hit problems in the shape of a 1.7 Morris Marina estate,a total heap.
Then a Ford Granada which I didn't the handling,a big lolloping lump of a thing.
By this time it was the 80's which meant two FWD Vauxhall Cavaliers,followed by two Carltons and an '94 Omega.
All five cars were great,though the first Cavalier needed a camshaft at 80k miles.
The bees knees was the Omega,great car,drove back from lake Garda in Italy to the channel in under 12 hours,the needle rarely dropping below 90mph!

kwackers wrote:Few of those are more difficult to deal with now, just that people have gotten used to not needing to.

Keys. Hot wiring might have been easier but the steering lock was still on.

A lot of old cars didn't have a steering lock. In any case the type of steering lock which most cars have working from an ignition switch on the side of the column is very easy to disable. The sort that companies like Mercedes use with an ignition switch on the dash panel is a lot harder to disable.

Lose the keys with a modern car and you can't sort it quickly and easily and it is very often extremely expensive.

kwackers wrote:Flat battery, you have to try quite hard these days to get one, plus the batteries last much longer. (Mines 12 years old now and tested fine a few months ago).

I got caught out by a flat battery a few months ago. Surprisingly, since the car was only 7 years old. Trouble was, I got no warning. In the old days you would know something was amiss because the engine would still turn over slowly and, with a bit of luck, still fire eventually - giving you a chance to drive to a garage and get a new battery. With my present car, the starter wouldn't even turn: just a load of warning lights lit up. Previous time I'd used the car there was no sign of anything wrong. And even putting the battery on trickle charge for several hours, the car still wouldn't start. I had to call out the garage.

pete75 wrote:Lose the keys with a modern car and you can't sort it quickly and easily and it is very often extremely expensive.

On the plus side, there's more chance your car will be were you left it! Back then, cars often weren't - and having them nicked wasn't cheap either...

kwackers wrote:

pete75 wrote:Lose the keys with a modern car and you can't sort it quickly and easily and it is very often extremely expensive.

On the plus side, there's more chance your car will be were you left it! Back then, cars often weren't - and having them nicked wasn't cheap either...

Car theft is a thing of the past - I think not. Don't think it was ever very common ever anyway. Certainly I've never had a car stolen nor do I know anyone who has. What's happened with modern systems is a reduction in twocing not nicking by which I presume you mean theft. With computerised control and security systems the latter is easier for professionals who know what they're doing. A laptop plugged into the OBD2 is all that's required.

pete75 wrote:Car theft is a thing of the past - I think not.

Compared to the 70's? It may as well be.

Stupidity is the main mechanism for car theft these days. Back then all you needed was an old nail.

Crook locks and their like, more car alarms of varying degrees of sophistication than you could wave a stick at in every motor factors. Hidden switches and more...
Seen them all.

kwackers wrote:

pete75 wrote:Car theft is a thing of the past - I think not.

Compared to the 70's? It may as well be.

Stupidity is the main mechanism for car theft these days. Back then all you needed was an old nail.

Crook locks and their like, more car alarms of varying degrees of sophistication than you could wave a stick at in every motor factors. Hidden switches and more...
Seen them all.

Yeah and people are being advised to us stuff like that again because of the ease with which modern systems can be defeated using the obd2 port.

You seem to think everything modern is wonderful and everything in the past wasn't The truth is some things are better , some things are worse and some things are no different. To think otherwise is stupidity.

pete75 wrote:Yeah and people are being advised to us stuff like that again because of the ease with which modern systems can be defeated using the obd2 port.

There's more myth than fact in that statement.
Lots of anecdotes floating around but not much of substance.

You seem to think everything modern is wonderful and everything in the past wasn't The truth is some things are better , some things are worse and some things are no different. To think otherwise is stupidity.

What's worse then? Which aspect of modern cars is worse than a 1970's banger?
Go? Fuel economy? Reliability? Rustproofing? Theft? Lighting? Electrics? Paint?
I'm struggling here and need help.

Sure you could claim it was easier to maintain them - but then you had to maintain them so I don't think that counts. Never had to take a welder to my current car. Only taken a spanner to it to replace the brake pads and discs, oh and a air intake sensor failed at 100k.
My old cars seemed to spend half their time jacked up.

No. I reckon I'm being realistic.
Back then a car was a hobby, these days they're transport. Find me someone who uses one for daily transport and lets see how much oil they have under their nails (or a bottomless wallet to pay someone else to do it).

Oh yeah - and old cars stink. Go to any classic car show and the smell of unburnt fuel when they start is rank.
It's not only rose coloured specs you need, it's a nose plug too.

Dad had a 1966 Minor 1000 tidy, Old English White, red upholstery, was his pride and joy.
It had been fitted with a well hidden secret switch in the petrol pump circuit, switched off it only had a carburettor full of fuel.

Someone nicked it one Saturday night in town. He merely walked around a bit and when he found it abandoned, switched it on and drove home!
He chuckled for ages about it!

Speaking of maintenance, I can remember reading through a load of old engineering mags from 1900's onward and right up until the late 40's early 50's hardly six months would go by before there'd be an article on setting up a crankshaft in your lathe to re-machine it!

Back then obviously everyone had lathes and crankshafts were made of tin. At least by the 70's they'd mostly sorted them out.

PDQ Mobile wrote:Dad had a 1966 Minor 1000 tidy, Old English White, red upholstery, was his pride and joy.
It had been fitted with a well hidden secret switch in the petrol pump circuit, switched off it only had a carburettor full of fuel.

Someone nicked it one Saturday night in town. He merely walked around a bit and when he found it abandoned, switched it on and drove home!
He chuckled for ages about it!

Dad had a Mini Van in the early 1960s with a hidden fuel-pump switch. That was the only good thing about electrical fuel pumps.

One of the ways that cars are stolen these days, is to pick the door lock, snap the steering lock, and then connect a device to the OBD socket to overwrite the immobiliser and engine and body computers.

kwackers wrote:I'm struggling here and need help.

Yes you are a bit aren't you.

pete75 wrote:Yes you are a bit aren't you.

Ah wit. Nice one.

kwackers wrote:

pete75 wrote:Yeah and people are being advised to us stuff like that again because of the ease with which modern systems can be defeated using the obd2 port.

There's more myth than fact in that statement.
Lots of anecdotes floating around but not much of substance.

Not according to Scotland Yard http://www.standard.co.uk/news/crime/ga ... 19762.html

kwackers wrote:I'm struggling here and need help.

Yes you are rather aren't you?