I love classic cars

Mr. Ed

Mr. Ed

Be what you is not what you what you ain’t
Location
Central NY
As baby boomers we grew up in an era of great music and fantastic cars like Hurst Olds, Chevy SS, Nova SS, Caprice Classic, Pontiac Judge, Ford Mustang, Shelby Cobra, AMS Javelin, and of course one of my favorites the AMC Gremlin. My first car was a 1967 Dodge Charger followed by a 1972 yellow Gremlin and many others. Sadly I did not appreciate the cars I drove and basically wrecked or ran my cars into the ground.

The automobile industry produced works of art and beauty while trying to outsell the competition. Chevrolet, Dodge/Chrysler and Ford were the top three auto manufactures, less not forget contributions from American Motors and foreign imports.

It was a wonderful time to own your own car.
 

Mr. Ed said:
As baby boomers we grew up in an era of great music and fantastic cars like Hurst Olds, Chevy SS, Nova SS, Caprice Classic, Pontiac Judge, Ford Mustang, Shelby Cobra, AMS Javelin, and of course one of my favorites the AMC Gremlin. My first car was a 1967 Dodge Charger followed by a 1972 yellow Gremlin and many others. Sadly I did not appreciate the cars I drove and basically wrecked or ran my cars into the ground.

The automobile industry produced works of art and beauty while trying to outsell the competition. Chevrolet, Dodge/Chrysler and Ford were the top three auto manufactures, less not forget contributions from American Motors and foreign imports.

It was a wonderful time to own your own car.
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I hear ya. (y) What a great time to be a gear head. Wife was looking at my computer the other day and spotted a folder I have that's labeled engine porn. 😮 She thought the worst til she peeked inside. :ROFLMAO: Detroit sure had some ass kicking power plants back then.

427 mystery motor 1963.jpg cross ram 426 hemi.jpg boss 429 Ford.jpg 1960 Sonoramic Fury 383.jpg
 
jessica 2022.JPG
Seen here last June arriving at the start of The New Forest run held by the local MG Car Club.

jessica2022.JPG
We were lined up next to a couple of open top versions of our car. The car got lots of attention.

NFMG Run & blue shoes 001.JPG
Our appearance had phones and cameras pointing towards us. There were so many silly grins I wondered if my flies were open.
 

Classic is in the eye of the beholder. Some of us are older than boomers and liked different cars, but today drive newer vehicles.
Years ago I had a Ford convertible with a rumble seat. Then there was a 46 Hudson convertible, then a 51 MG TD. The Nash Metropolitan convertible was fun and the Riley roadster was unique. We went on our honeymoon in an Austin Healey Sprite and at a later time I had an MGA with a removable factory hard top. Then for 20 years I did not own a car because I drove company cars.
 
Manatee said:
Then there was a 46 Hudson convertible, then a 51 MG TD.
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Small world, my father had a 46 Hudson that he bought from an American serviceman. Mother used to freak at being on the wrong side. Left hand drive in the UK meant she was on the right side facing oncoming traffic.
Your MG TD shares about 85% of it's DNA with my MG Y-Type.
 
I love the simplicity of the classics! Modern cars have some great features that make for great performance. But I shudder at all the electronic junk that is not needed. I don’t need to surf the internet while I drive. And backing up extra slow while checking all my mirrors works fine for me. So many extra doo-dads on new cars to jack up the cost and provide more to fail!
 
squatting dog said:
I hear ya. (y) What a great time to be a gear head. Wife was looking at my computer the other day and spotted a folder I have that's labeled engine porn. 😮 She thought the worst til she peeked inside. :ROFLMAO: Detroit sure had some ass kicking power plants back then.

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I don't know too much about some of these engine, with me being from the UK, but I think I know enough to contribute something. I think its obvious that the engine top right is the fabled HEMI. Not sure about the engine bottom right, but I've seen it somewhere before, with its long runners on the intake manifold. The Boss 429, not quite hemisperical combustion chambers, but almost.
 
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Michael Z said:
I love the simplicity of the classics! Modern cars have some great features that make for great performance. But I shudder at all the electronic junk that is not needed. I don’t need to surf the internet while I drive. And backing up extra slow while checking all my mirrors works fine for me. So many extra doo-dads on new cars to jack up the cost and provide more to fail!
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I was in a BMW dealership some years ago. The sales woman was telling me about the vairious drivers aids & trying to sell those options to me: Lane Keeping Assist, Evasion Asist?, & a kind of radar cruise control that keeps you at a fixed distance from the car in front.

I said I didn't want any of that, but she insisted I should. She eventual asked me why I didn't want them. After a short pause I said, "because I can drive!". Her sales training didn't have a comeback for that. Just give me an 'analog' car with a manual transmission, I'll be fine.
 
My granddad had one of these for a short while. A Ford Pilot, built in the UK. Ford UK also cast its version the the American engine that they put in this car -- 3.6 litre flathead V8 (221 ci). I think it was based on the North American built Ford Model 48 chassis?

Acording to wiki & othere sources, the Ford Pilot was an old design even when first released. It was produced by Ford UK just after WW2 to get its manufacturing plant back to building cars, instead of the vans, truck, ambulances & Bren Gun Carriers it was building during the war. Ford UK soon replaced the Pilot with a new car called the Ford Zephyr, of 1950.

I remember my grandad saying it had 4 built in hydraulic jacks for raising the car when changing a wheel.

Ford Pilot:

v8 pilot 01.jpg

v8 pilot 02.jpg


Later my grandand had one of these, a Ford Zodiac.

ford zodiac.JPG
 

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My first car was a little nimble pre-owned Ford Escort RS2000 MK1, painted in Ford Olympic Blue. It seemed to take me ages to save up for it! Wish I stil had it, it would now be worth a lot more than I paid for it.

Made famous around Europe in race & rally, and still used in historic racing.

 
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In the 70's my uncle had a Ford Granada MK1 (not to be confused with the North American Ford Granada).

I would see a Granada almost every week in a TV show called "The Sweeny". Sweeny is slang for "The Flying Squad", which is a branch of London's "Serious & Organised Crime Command".

The Sweeny in a bronze Granada chasing the bad guys:


I suppose political correctness wasn't a thing in the 70's

 
I recall as a kid growing up in the early 1960's my parents had a chevy nova.
Then into those later years, it was another chevy, an oldsmobile and lastly the 2002 and 2003 Buick Century Sedan.
My parents' Buick sedans were well-made vehicles-that lasted for a lot of years.
The good thing about yesterday's well-made, safe cars was that they were without today's technology.
I have seen/looked at today's car. Inside of the steering wheel there are built-in button -functions for maintenance, smart-phone techonolgy and so on.
What is this Bluetooth? What is with connecting the mobile device to the car?
There is that over-sized audio-visual screen,data messages and so on.
Nowadays, I see people driving those SUV's.
I will end my discussion here.
 
At the start of the this thread Mr. Ed said, "The automobile industry produced works of art and beauty..."

Where might this fit in? A car built by Ford UK in 1961. The Ford Consul Capri:

consul capri 01.JPG

consul capri 02.JPG

consul capri 03.JPG
 
MissRJ said:
The good thing about yesterday's well-made, safe cars was that they were without today's technology.
I have seen/looked at today's car. Inside of the steering wheel there are built-in button -functions for maintenance, smart-phone techonolgy and so on.
What is this Bluetooth? What is with connecting the mobile device to the car?
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One of the directors gave me a lift back from the garage after leaving a vehicle there for repair. On the journey home his phone rang, he touch the radio screen and started talking. At the end of the conversation I asked if it was a new type of radio. He said it had bluetooth, as did his cell phone. So the call came into his phone then by this bluetooth wotsit, out of the radio speaker. Bluetooth? Blew me away!
 
Back in the old days, a car owner just brought their car into their trusted mechanic.

In my area, with today's new technology cars the owner with the warranties has to or should have have repairs done at the dealers.
It was explained to me this way: the mechanics that work for the dealers have the updated knowledge that your local, independent auto mechanic may not have.
 
There was a time when motor cars
were serious fun to drive,
back then they didn't have seat belts,
which help you stay alive.

They had quirky things like
running boards and trafficators too,
those were little semaphore arms
that gave the direction true.

Jessica is just like that
in two tone fancy colour,
an MG of classic vintage,
a real beauty to discover.

There's nothing more that she prefers
than to show off in the shining sun,
and be photographed by one and all:
she smiles for everyone.

This classic car has survived the years
and not been torn asunder,
not for her, the breaker's yard,
her body parts to plunder.

Despite her years she's greatly loved,
her lines to be admired,
and she can still put on a turn of speed
to get the adrenaline fired.

Out on the highway she likes to go
and keep up with the traffic.
But serious problems can arise,
when all the cars are static.

The water in her engine boils
and out the steam comes hissing,
she doesn't have a temperature fan
but it's not exactly missing.

It simply wasn't ever there
like modern cars today,
there's so much missing with vintage cars,
it's the price you have to pay.

But for all her lack of equipment
and of technology,
there's something intangible this car has,
this lovely old MG.

It's that distinct smell of old car,
of walnut and of leather,
a fragrance that's so captivating,
it doesn't get much better.​

Then there's her style & grace & beauty
and class in overload,
but her greatest asset is the fun you can have,
that comes by the bucketload.​
 
Can anyone tell me what this is. There was no name on it that I could see. I took these two photos on my phone yesterday, in a car park of a hardware store here in the UK.

On the top of the registration plate in small text it said, “1954”

car b&q.JPG
 
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