Reminiscent - Or How I make You All Feel Young.

Also:

Synchro on reverse
hydraulic jacks
vinyl roofs
funny how pressure is still psi, but most other measurements are metricated
kilometres not miles
today's six speed automagics Vs Holden's Hydramatic of the 1960's
red light cameras
speed cameras & radars & "please blow into this, Sir"
regulated tow truck industry
CB radios
8 track cassettes
iPods
dashboards not made of steel (eg 1960's falcons & Holdens)

Oh I had some wonderful crashes in the 60's with all sorts of tin monsters(mainly Fords) and somehow survived them. The 70's were reasonably trouble free(except for a few 4x4 mishaps out bush) but then in the early 80's I got cleaned up twice in two years in succession. Managed to get out of those with not too many broken bits.

Been trouble free since then...touch wood(says he touching his head)

My biggest bugbear was that some cars were sold without heaters in those early days!!!!

Better watch out for Murphy..................

My late father bought a 1970 HT Holden, the salesman tried to upsell him to one with a heater..... Dad refused! He didn't like ANY accessories and even disconnected the ciggy lighter!

LOL......

I have just progressed backwards..........

Bought a 1969 valiant, one owner -little old lady that only drove around town, that is true too 'cos we know her and the car (she lost her licence about 6 years ago when she was 87, and the car had been on blocks since)

It has all the nostalgia of that era, basic but good. SWMBO loves it to bits.

Does make the troopy seem like a luxury car tho;)

Regards
Michael B (SA)

This reminds me of a conversation I had with No.1 daughter, all of 16yo and nothing to learn.
She was asking me about learning to drive, actually she was telling me how good she is. Buggered if I can tell how she knows that, she's driven my old VL Commodore around a car park a couple of times. Tells me she'll never drive my Troopy, manuals are a pain.(There is a 4wd god) Again, I don't know how she learnt that, she's never even sat in the drivers seat of a manual!!

Anyway, she asked me what I learned to drive in. Easy, 1953 model Dodge 1 ton truck. 3 speed column no synchro on 1st, 6 volt electrics, side valve six cylinder awesome power, I could beat a Leyland bus off the traffic lights!!
It had an ignition key and a foot pedal starter on the left hand floor that manually pushed the starter onto the ring gear and engaged the electrics. Basically a foot operated solenoid. It was on the left for two reasons, that's where the starter motor was and the truck was made for the American market, left hand drive and converted in Australia by Chrysler.
No heaters or anything beyond what it actually needed to run.
It was totally theft proof, there where only two people who could start it, Dad and I. Don't know how many timnes I had to rescue my brother from a flat battery because he couldn't start it!!

Any way, I digressed, back to No.1 daughter. I was telling her all about the Dodge.
Her answer? Why would people make cars like that?
Ahh, she's her mothers daughter.

Geoff.

Remember Vanguard Spacemasters. They had a column shift on the right side of the column and gears were all over the place compared to LHS column shift.

The first vehicles I remember at home were a Rugby and an Overlander. I'd be rich now if I had kept them. The old man used them for the farm - cut the back off and made atray top out of them. ??????

What about

Headrests & the demise of open speed limits

Cheers

Spacemaster was the Standard Vanguard stationwagon.

eerfree