Digitising my old slides and came across my first car, a 900cc Triumph Herald. Nice to drive but had a very fragile rear end, wasn't long before I traded it in on an FC van.
Colour on the old slide has gone really strange, no matter what I did with white balance couldn't get green grass.
Select to expand quotelandyacht said..
how much would you like to have it shiny and parked in your driveway now
I'd much prefer the later 1200cc model, that didn't have the rear end problems.
Select to expand quotePitbull said...
Did it only come in black and white?
Colour wasn't invented back then.....everything was b&w. You only have to watch old movies to know this.
PS my first car was a Leyland mini I borrowed off my sister one weekend at uni and never returned it.
Saved long and hard to buy this "beast" all 1.6 liters of it, then the insurance company updated there policy and made the yearly third party insurance 3 times the value of the car
. Mind you that probably kept me alive.
That Herald brings back some memories. My old man had the Vitesse , 2 litre straight 6. I liked the sporty frontal styling of the Vitesse. No idea if the rear end was any good. I can't remember how long he held on it, it wasn't a long period of time. There were never many cars around where you tilted the entire front end to gain access to the engine. I wonder if it was because ya needed to get in there on a regular basis 
, J
Similar. Dodge Dart
Kept it until the floor rusted through , and the frame broke.
No pics (too embarassing....
)
First car was a Torana LJ bought for fifty bucks, painted red.....with a brush, dabbled in motorbikes for awhile......"invested" in a 1952 Morris Minor.... ninety bucks for an oil filter
.....VW Kombi......it was pink, had a crystal hanging from the dash, cops kept pulling it over, looking for drugs, go figure?......now I drive your Grandmothers car.....Toyota Corolla.....and before you ask....yes I learn things the hard way and yes I know what it feels like to set fire to 100 dollar notes........
.
My 1st car ever...
O M G , what a confession.
I had one of these....
Drove around without a licence.
I don t do that anymore.
I have got a licence now. 
.
Like Sausage my first car, for a grand price of 300 British pounds sterling, was a 1974 1000cc Leyland Mini bought in 1991. Four forward speeds, looooong gearstick, no synchronised gearbox, big bus-like steering wheel. Awesome acceleration from 0-to-30 mph and then a screaming engine as it closed in on 80 mph...Had to turn the radio WAAAAYYY up to drown out the sound of the engine! Am glad there was no rev counter God knows how I survived those first years of driving!!??
Here's my '73 Cortina not long before going to the wreckers. Mostly rust, brush paint job in white by the previous owner from the original brown. 3 speed manual, 200 x-flow. The base of the back seat was not bolted down and one of the seatbelts was tied on
....it gets better...took the pink kombi to the wreckers at the end of its life....got 200 dollars for it...left my 200 dollar Mako sunnies on the dash....never saw them again
......is that what they call karma??
Hillman Imp GT, rebuilt with my old man in our workshop before I got my licence, resprayed purple and motor hotted up with 12 to 1 compression. Went like a scalded cat, would spin up the wheels in 3rd, maybe why I blew 3 transaxles in 12 months. Snags it blew mini's to the weeds Also might be why old man made me buy new 73 corolla and told me to slow down. Corolla only lasted a few months before I had a head on with a drunk, very bad prang and lucky I wasn't in the Imp
Not mine but similar...
I heard reports of a mini front getting grafted on to an imp rear. Not sure if they managed to combine the controls, or if there were 2 gear levers and 2 clutch pedals. Sounds like a beast whatever they did.
paid $250 in 1991 from car yard. many fun hours padock bashing. wreckers wouldn't even take it without me paying them and still perfectly driveable (eventually they did). leyland always copped a bad wrap, but this had an amazing motor
Select to expand quoteSquid Lips said..
Here's my '73 Cortina not long before going to the wreckers. Mostly rust, brush paint job in white by the previous owner from the original brown. 3 speed manual, 200 x-flow. The base of the back seat was not bolted down and one of the seatbelts was tied on
Love it - thanks decrepit
The colour loss on the slide doesn't diminish the content - look at those garage doors - just about to replace our roller door with a similar set
The gallant ( my first car in baby puke yellow) the Honda 4 ( my first road bike a gold 400/4)
And ( drum roll) how bout the composition of the Corty ........through the gum tree in the backyard with the battery on the deck. My mind just Implanted the concrete first Australian and the white tyre swan
GOLD
Ah the old R12, was a great car in it's day Fly.
Haircut the 6cyl version of the Marina was a lethal unit, dodgy torsion bar suspension 
73 valiant regal... coz my dad said it was a good buy at $2500. No other reason.
Edit... Laurie - can't edit post to add images! 
Here's another of my old slides. In 1968 it was Leonara's hearse.
If you were a surfer in those days, an old "woody" was the vehicle of choice.
This would have been perfect, but they didn't want to sell.
1969 Delta 88 Oldsmobile bought for $350 in the early 80's. This one is not mine but same model
Was in the States at the time. V8, 455cubic inch engine (is that ~ 8 litres?) but only a small 2 barrel carbi. It was happy to cruise at 100mph (160kph) though took a while to get there. Petrol was an outrageous $1.00 per gallon at the time.
It was big enough so I could lie stretched out in the back seat. And made of solid steel. Once crashed through 6" thick tree with only a dent in the bumper.
Finally sold it for $100 to this bloke who had a restored 60's Camero but was scared to drive it in case it got scratched.
Select to expand quotedecrepit said..
Here's another of my old slides. In 1968 it was Leonara's hearse.
If you were a surfer in those days, an old "woody" was the vehicle of choice.
This would have been perfect, but they didn't want to sell.
Remember.....
This topic is all about your first car.
...Not what would be your last.
.
Select to expand quoteCambodge said..
no synchronised gearbox,
It must have been well and truly stuffed then. Right from the Mini 850 onwards they had synchro on all but 1st and reverse. Like nearly all manual transmissions at the time.
Nothing beat this precise German engineering.
Trabant 601 Combi !
Powerful two stroke two cylinder 600 cc engine producing astonishing power 26 HP !
Most modern composite body made of progenitor of the carbon fiber.
To be fair at 600 kg it was fantastic tool to move around, but I even managed to cross whole Europe multiple times.
Get me going at max speed 105 km/h.
With safety limiter ON the speed on motorway ( Autobahn) was limited to 30 km uphill with two or three mates inside.
Riddle for you. Where do you find fuel cap to replenish your tank with 78 octane petrol mix? I bet you will not guess!
Select to expand quoteMacroscien said..
Riddle for you. Where do you find fuel cap to replenish your tank with 78 octane petrol mix? I bet you will not guess!
I thought fuel caps only helped to retain fuel in your tank.
I didn't know that fuel caps could replenish your fuel tank, let alone where to find one.
Macro, I also had a Trabi as a first car. Not a green one though, mine was either the "Egg White", or the "Off White" non-option. I think the waiting time for the green "combi" one was a few years longer at the time
Fuel cap under bonnet. "Carbon fibre" - well, not quite. It was any discarded fibre VEB could lay their hands on, and cheap resin.
Gee I feel real young now.
First car I purchased was a 2001 Subaru Forester which proceeded to have a very rough existence.
I then upgraded to a 1973 SIII Land Rover
Then a Hilux Surf.
Then an 80 Series TD LandCruiser
Then another Subaru wagon
...and now a turbo diesel taliwagon. Also have a Fiat x1/9 car for the track.
Going to go back to the old Land Rovers though I think.
