First car
I suppose you never forget your first car.

Mine was a 1972 Vauxhall Viva three door in red. She was called Brunhilda (fuck knows why!) In hindsight, the number plate (prefix PAL)was probably worth more than the actual car which cost the princely sum of £70.
Anyway, this car had an amazing engine and gearbox, but in common with other 70's built British motors it suffered a motley of faults.

The windscreen leaked, the linear speedo had a kink in the speedo cable which manifested itself in reading a speed of anything between 30mph and 70mph. The washer pump was a hand pump affair (I jest not) which suffered from a split diaphragm one day soaking me completely in washer fluid.
The handbrake cable had three take up brackets throughout its length and you still had to pull the handbrake almost vertical to apply any sort of braking to the back wheels.
Brunhilda's demise was unexpected. Whilst T-Cutting the bonnet one day, I put my hand straight through the wing and ended up with my hand resting on the front Tyre!

Brunhilda was 17 when she went to the big scrap yard in the sky.

Gee I miss her.
(frightfullybored, Sun 25 Apr 2010, 10:43, 1 reply)

First car I bought myself was a Viva GLS
1978, 1.3 engine, four-spot headlights, even had a rev counter. A real fanny-magnet in 2003.

But those engines were DIRE. OHV, the owner's club told me it would lunch itself at 70k miles. I bought it at 69k. It did 1050 miles before throwing a rod and killing the engine, and I was too skint to transplant a new engine on it.

It's still on the road somewhere though.
( Grrrmachine the indifference engine, Sun 25 Apr 2010, 11:11, closed)