The 70's and 80's
The rare Rover Meteor that I mentioned last time cost £65 from Runyards garage closure sale near Reading and landed me with a fine for towing an unlicensed vehicle on the road. Friend Ray Arnott decided to restore the car and when last heard of they were both in Canada. The Riley 9 that I had was as near to mechanically perfect as any of my old cars ever came, which is a shame as I didn't realise how lucky I was until I'd struggled with the eccentricities and tiredness of my Talbot 14/45.
The next Riley I had was a Kestrel but sadly its wooden body framework was too rotten for amateur repair. I sold it to an expert who proceeded to cut in down to one of those sad racing specials.
For everyday transport in the 1970s and '80s I had a succession of Rovers including a £100 3 litre Coupe that managed to commute regularly from the West Country to London for three years whilst slowly disintegrating around me. Then there was a 2200 TC that took me all over the Continent without a moment's complaint and a 2600 SD1 which, due to gearbox problems, was the only dog in a basket of good Rovers and Land Rovers. I can't remember what an immaculate Rover Ten cost from its one gentleman owner in Leamington Spa but I do recall paying £80 for a newer Twelve registered DHT 919. A Rover bicycle came my way when the Mayor of Warwick gave the vintage Humber I'd been coveting to his nephew and I got the booby prize (albeit an interesting and healthy one).
In the 1970s I seem to have had a first hint of premature mid-life crisis which necessitated wind in the hair motoring whilst I still had some. OYM 636F was an extremely skittish Lotus Elan that cost £925 and had probably been involved in an accident and not been straightened out properly. I never had much confidence in its handling and found the difficult access to the distributor and other parts hidden by the manifold a real bugbear. It was soon sold at a considerable loss and in its place came a 1960 Austin-Healey 3000 for I think £3000. This one was equally skittish until I fitted new shock absorbers and then enjoyed a twenty year love affair with the old girl, which finally ended when I had another mid-life crisis a couple of years ago and sold my collection and house to become a Continental wanderer. I think EX8500 was sold for around £10,000 and I was a trifle miffed to see it clock up £19,000 in a subsequent BCA auction. Mark you it had been transformed into a gleaming delight with new wheels and its many gradual failings fully rectified. I hope the car is giving as much pleasure today as it gave me on epic trips all over Britain and the Continent. The only time it ever stopped involuntarily was when the water pump bearing failed at the appropriately named Damville about an hour out of Paris in the middle of a Friday afternoon. As brown water spots gave a warning on the windscreen I coasted to a halt outside a Peugeot garage. Luckily I had a French classic car newspaper La Vie de L'Auto with me and looked up the British sports car spares. Within 2 hours a taxi had delivered a pump and it was fitted at first light the next morning after a pleasant evening in the small town's hotel and restaurant.
My fleet by then was getting quite a bit of film work, especially the commercial vehicles which were another secret fetish. The Austin-Healey appeared in a TV play and in the Merchant Ivory epic Remains of the Day as 'Superman' Christopher Reeves' caddish transport. He told me that he had always wanted a Big Healey but tragically before he could realise that ambition he was paralysed in a horse riding accident.
Continue my story into the Aston episode.
