My father in law died in a MkII Zephyr - he was driving along,and said to his 8 year old son...''Take the wheel son....'',had a heart attack and died.
My first driving experience (and it was on the public road) was when I was about nine. My father was a mechanic and often needed to toe cars in. Using a rope. He needed someone to deal with the braking and steering of the towed vehicle. My Mum was pressed in for that duty first but she refused to continue it after an unfortunate experience. So it was down (occasionally, when no mate could be suborned) to me. Weren't bugger all traffic cops on the Shore then. He did get into a big fight with a cop later though , when he was towing an Austin on an A frame, with me do do the necessary. Cop pulled us up. " How old are you ?" Got stuck into Dad. Dad got stuck into him back, reckoned that on an A frame he didn't need a person in the towed car at all, so I was just a passenger along for the ride . If I made myself useful that was none of the cops business. Back and forth they went , but the cop won in the end, not on the me "driving" argument , but because Dad didn't have a blue light on the towing car (required in those days of you were towing a trailer- his argument was that if the car didn't need a driver it must be considered as a trailer) . Dunno if he got off that or not, but I do know that I completed the journey as "driver" I actually learned to drive on a 1926 (28?) Studebaker. Two wheel brakes , no electric start. Dad said- "once you can start it , you can learn to drive" Took me two weeks nearly broke my arm. His idea was that I ought to learn in something that if I could drive it I could drive anything. It was actually quite a nice car. My own first car was an 1947 Humber 10. I have fond memories of it , despite a top speed of only 40 mph. I sold it to buy the Velo. Then bought a PA Velox that put me off cars completely for years.
I loved my PB, but then it did have ball joint suspension and a full syncro 'box better than the same year Holden/Falcon and the obscure but quite good Valiant system
The PB (from vague memory) was a MUCH better car than the PA!. A friend had an EIP which was also quite good , and I think the PC was even better. The PA was a dog.
my dad had a velox.....column shift model?....i loved the way the colours changed on the speedo......actually i remember as a kid opening and closing the doors when we first got it because it was the first car we had with "real" read thick...doors......after the Austin......
I started my driving on an Honda 65 that my dads mate gave me. Used it for hooning around farm, nearly garotted myself a couple of times hitting electric fences strung across tracks when cows had eaten the plastic tied to them. Also responsible for my 1st broken colarbone, riding in deep snow downhill at a fair old lick and dropped in a rut, footrests dug in and I did the old flying v over the bars when I picked myself up, the bike was still wedged upright. 1st car experience was dads old MG magnette ( the posh version of the Cambridge, Oxford) that I got after it failed it's mot (wof). I must have been about 8 or 9. Used it as field hack, eventually backed it into a ditch and the chassis folded in half (so THAT was why it failed ) There was also all the farm stuff to drive, started driving on road with tractors when I was about 14.
The Magnette was indeed remarkably notorious for rust ! A pity because otherwise by the standard of the day they were a nice car
I always wanted the Wolseley 4-44 version,but they were always too expensive,and still are.I had a few lessons in my mother's Mini,but that wasn't working,so bought a '54 Morris Minor and taught myself to drive....I was a pretty good teacher,and even today I am a far better driver than anybody else.First time I saw a gravel road (now some very expensive suburb out the back of Pakuranga) I lost it and ended up in a tree.The locals wanted to call the cops,but I managed to talk them into pushing me out,and I was gone.The little 803 was 2nd gear up the Harbour Bridge,and a snick into 1st up Kitchener St....we used to do a mad dash down King St and just manage to get up the other side.Never attempted Liverpool St in the Morry,but used to do it in other cars...and bikes.Shit,doing a wheel stand on Liverpool St was panic stations! One time we went up Liverpool St in my mates Trekka with the roof off....and he missed 1st gear!....and started to roll back,the brakes wouldn't hold,he started to turn it into the curb...it was all going horribly wrong! But,I'm still here so it must have turned out ok.
