alastairq

I'd wait until the wobbled to the right, then nip past on the left. They won't realise until its too late, because the Dellow's exhaust exits on the left, so they won't hear me coming.

More suited to this topic [I don't inhabit the 'other' driving thread..I found it too easy to get wound up by many of the inane posts therein]....I have received an email from the Highway Code people regarding changes and additions to the [UK} Highway Code as of 29th January 2022. I include the link therein, for your casual perusal. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/the-highway-code-8-changes-you-need-to-know-from-29-january-2022?utm_source=dvsa&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=dvsa-direct I believe that the occupants of this old car topic might be more likely to be using the narrower roads & lanes more often alluded to in the new rules, when out in our old cars? Distances-off, etc are now stated...and there will be issues regarding the passing of pushbike riders on narrow lanes....whilst complying with the Highway Code. One advantage of the old car when compared to today's ugly-pugly apologies for motor cars is one of ''width''.. My Dellow is barely 4 feet wide.....so I will still be able to pass a cyclist, whilst retaining compliance with the new Highway Code rules regarding distancing...on most , if not all, of the narrow lanes around hereabouts. I am more likely to be held up b the driver of a modern vehicle, who, being unable to gain the requisite distance off when passing, will have to simply, follow behind the cyclist! Simply because their cars are too fat! I am aware the new rules also emphasise that there is an onus on the pushbike rider/'orsegalloper to keep a weather eye on what is behind, and to pull over and/or stop where it is convenient, to allow vehicles to pass. The problem will be, getting the pushbike rider to bother themselves? Also with the Dellow,being barely 4 foot wide..whilst , in traffic, push-bike riders are now able to pass either side of me...I fear I will not be permitted to do my usual when I come across cyclists riding side by side...and pass between them... Still no mention regarding the Dellow's side-exit exhaust, and the melting of lycra as I overtake? So there's hope for the old brigade yet. Are we allowed to describe modern cars as ''obese?'' Or, will their AI take offence?

Environmental reasons?

In those days, I ate what I was given! No choice in the matter, it was either, eat, or don't eat. No option to try something else. Mind, lads usually wore short trousers until mid teens anyway....Knees would be calloused and scarred.....

Mostly nasty pongs in my day

Ummmm..didn't have such things as 'videos' when I was at school....

Or, at the time, typical bedsit land?

I rent...now. At age 70-plus, and techncially retired [IE, a Not-work!}....I found some 13 years or so ago, life presented me with little choice. Back in the mid-1970's, at the start of my first marriage, I found there was little choice but to buy a property, simply for somewhere to live. At the time I lived in a 'seaside' area, full of retirement homes, and with little to rent aside from out of season holiday flats. Actually trying to buy a house, on a bus driver's income, proved to be incredibly difficult in the jumping-through-hoops area. There was local authority housing...but for most folk, actually getting onto the list, let alone being offered a property to rent, was nigh on impossible. Right-to-buy eventually saw the almost total demise of local authority housing to rent! Then came Maggie Thatcher's promotion of property ownership, and good-life [Ford Capri?] ownership, for the more mundane so-called 'working' classes...those that actually were in work, that is. Property rental went down through the floor. But, actually obtaining the wherewithal to get into the property market became easier and easier, until by the late 1990's one was virtually having money thrown at one! But then, life can throw curve-balls at one's best laid plans....stuff like divorces, redundancies, etc. All conspiring to shove one back to square one...almost....in property ownership terms. Then [after the last financial crash] came the latest divorce...and efforts on my part to sort out an unseen debt situation... Starting from square one regarding home ownership, for a reasonably affordable cost, in one's early 60's isn't perhaps a viable idea...Not if one didn't want to foresee paying off mortgages until well onto one's 70's..or later. So I looked to the rental market, for a home. Surprisingly, locally, the rental market was quite vibrant. Eventually I happened across a home which had all the facilities that I, as a retired person of limited means, but esoteric interests, wanted. I know I would not have been able to 'afford' to be buying something similar......but, there we are. I am on the LA housing list...but not quite qualifying for any of the regular LA or State benefits...and I mean, not quite...I don't hold out any hope. But then, most LA housing is confined to small areas where one's neighbours aren't going to be the best that one could wish for. Such are the criteria over the years for receiving LA housing. I hope my landlord does not increase my rent in the foreseeable. When the topic has been raised, I have made it clear that any raise would be unaffordable, given my limited income. Plus, should I have to give up the tenancy, then the LL would be presented with the problem of finding new tenants that were prepared to look after his property as I have done. Not easy given that folk who rent tend to behave in an entitled manner, according to the local rental agencies. I have in fact, enhanced his property value...but solely for my own purposes...IE, my own quality of life. Round here there are significant private tenancies ...mostly owned by farm estates..... But, what of the future? What of my future? How long will I live? How able will I be, in my 80's or 90's? What choices will I have, over where I will eke out my days? The LA, quite simply, do not want to know! Because I cannot tick all, or any, of their 'boxes.' The usual response I get is , 'you should have bought a house', etc....For that is the direction our society wishes all & sundry to go down. No wonder Japanese pensioners, on very limited incomes, decided to go out, commit some sort of ''crime'', in order to get shoved into jail...where one gets three hot meals a day, medical care, a warm room, entertainment is one so wishes.....and even get a modest stipend for the duration.

As a local lady pointed out, when her's made a bid for freedom, ''Roombas cannot swim.'' It was last seen heading for a large pond....

Someone's granny now,like as not?

Gollygosh!! I could have been voting in the '60's...

I thought the visas were free with 5 litres of petrol?

The tory MP who 'defected' to Labour, begs a question on my mind? Was he [she?] one of the tory newbies who were trampled into power at the last election? Plus....how happy would his/her electorate be? Did they vote for the individual as an MP? Or did they vote for the party that they realised would get us out of the EU's clutches? If the latter, how happy would they be to wake up & find they have a 'party' they didn't vote for initially? Indeed, should they even be woken up at all?

3 rail? Or, stud contact, with that long skate?

Well, acid was mentioned................

Well, the thread was half way there....with the mention of water, there would be a link to a Smiths Float[er].....albeit substitute milk for water..Or, pints of orange squash? [Or orange milk, as I thought it was, a long time ago?] Mind, could we kindly keep off the subject of drugs?

Entitlement is one thing.....Doing what is advisable is something else....and preferable...or certainly was during my many marriage experiences..

I wonder what several boxes of PP3s weigh?

LAst football match I ever spectated., AFAIR, would have been a match at Villa's ground during the 1966 world cup! One of the World cup teams was billeted at a hotel near Sutton Coldfield at the time....again, as far as I can recall. I was but a lesser spotted teeny ager at the time.....Entry tickets acquired via my school, I suspect? Or maybe the BoySprouts?

The simplest voting system is where one does exactly what one's wife tells one to vote. Is that the Australian system?

The main issue I believe, is, finding one? I know where a LHD 1300cc Moskvich is still for sale........

Apparently, Australia is now full, and they're having to send potentials back....

On the topic of 'football', and school, I managed to get around the topic, and what it entailed, when asked what 'team' I supported, I replied, ''Brechin City!'' That usually confused them, or else, shut them up.....seeing as Brechin City rarely if ever won anything [and no longer exist as such, I believe?], , nobody bothered trying to engage me in a pi$$ing contest. I had issues back then, anyway..and managed to get myself expelled from the posh, all-boys, fancypants ancient grammar school that was my first secondary school. Expelled with the forecast of not likely to achieve any O level passes at all... I attended another local , but 'mixed' grammar school and achieved good grades in 9 O levels...All in less than 18 months. Girls added a whole new dimension to school for me. Then I left!

To be fair to the Marina....just what the 'ell was wrong, with the Morris Minor suspension anyway? The entire Marina concept was sound enough. The understeer was largely down to having the B series boat anchor [for that is what they are, or were]...All that useless weight up front, a recipe for understeer. Other makes/models also had exactly the same issues, when an overly heavy engine was placed up front. Fiesta diesels, anyone? Skoda Felicia, with the VW/VAG engines? [Spotty dog handling with the Skoda 136 engine] Don't forget, the MGC had a similar design of front suspension, due to space issues with having to use a lorry engine instead of a boat anchor? The Marina front suspension was modified in more or less exactly the same way as Ford [USA] had done a few years earlier [or rather, Carroll Shelby, with Ford's nudging]. NAmely, the main suspension arms at the front mounted a bit lower down at the inboard end, to gain [restore, in Ford's case] some negative camber to the front wheels. For old Mustangs [aka, classic Mustangs], up to '69 or so, the mod is known as the Shelby Drop, and involves drilling two new holes in the turrets, and remounting the UCAs...Back to where Ford originally had them, but had to move them to deliberately introduce a good dose of understeer into the handling, for the safety of the young novice drivers who would be out there buying them new. The Marina having lever shox up front was a problem, that even BLMC recognised, and later got altered to teles... I had experience of Marinas back in the day, and was impressed by their performance in 1300 cc form for ordinary driving..One hire car coupe 1300 lugging five larger than average adults all over North Wales in the 70's without a murmur , & without a struggle, impressed me too. Anyway...as far as the original question is concerned, the bad [underserved, in my view] reputation Marinas have currently, might make a sound but basic car a cheaper buying option when compared to a 1100/1300 Escort, for example? If one could be found without much rust, I'd also suggest the FIAT 124, or Lada Riva... All would be good for the 40mpg target consumption.... But in my past experience, the 1100/1300 Escort might struggle in that respect. MAybe my right foot was heavier....but I used to get really car sick in Escort Mexicos.....something to do with the fumes emanating from Ford's plastic dashboards? The most crash-resistant car I ever owned was an old Hillman Super Minx estate....Even an unobservant school teacher couldn't prevent it from getting me there & back again, after being rammed roundly... I also did 12 car rallies in it.....fuel consumption was abysmal though.....But it managed to carry quite a few other competitors back to the finishing pub after they'd got rearwards into ditches in their enthusiasms...We often finished, along with another crew or two.....Never got an award for being most likely to finish complete with car though.. That sort of thing came later.

Marina 1300. perfectly sane, useable car, despite the larfftah from so-called 'enthusiasts'..... Also I agree re-Triumphs above...