The year is 1982 and I have just graduated from Durham University and ridden back home to the folks in Preston on my Honda CBX. The bike story so far is covered here : Bikes – The Early Years. I am due to start work at Ricardo Consulting Engineers at Shoreham-By-Sea in Sussex in mid-August and need some transport to get me there. I need to sell the bike and buy a car…
I also need a driving license…
Fortunately, I had managed to sort that one out earlier in my final year. I applied for the test, scraped together as much spare cash as I could find and went to the driving school in Durham. The test date was two weeks away and I only had enough funds for 5 lessons. Of course I had a lot of experience on bikes but had never driven a car before – amazingly I passed !
My experience of cars was somewhat limited… My brother Tim had owned a Mini and now had a Triumph 1500. I think my Dad was driving a Renault 16. The lads at Durham had a Mini and Escort Vans, although Steve did upgrade to a VW Scirocco in his final year. The other guys I knew from my time working at Leyland Vehicles (who sponsored me through University) tended to favour British Leyland – MG Midget, Austin Allegro, Austin Maxi. The most exotic cars around were a tuned Mini and a Ford Escort RS2000.
So it was against this background that I had to decide what car to look for – no Google to help with research in those days. The sensible option would have been to look for something small, economical, reliable and cheap to insure and run. But if you’ve read any of my bike history you’ll know that I seem to be drawn to the fastest thing I can get my hands on. Probably not a good idea for someone with only a few hours of driving experience…
So I sold the bike and bought the fastest car I could find – a Ford Capri 3.0 S. This was a 1977 Mk2 model and cost me £1500 cash, which in today’s money is around £5.5k – a lot of money for a 22 year old to be spending on anything…
The Ford Capri was first introduced in 1968 and promoted by Ford as “The car you always promised yourself”. It was based on the mechanicals of the Ford Cortina and you’d have to be even older than me to remember them. CAR magazine unkindly called the Capri a “Cortina in Drag”. They had lots of engine options (all petrol) and even had a 1.3l which must have been a real dog. Having said that it weighed less then 1000kg – todays base model Fiesta weighs 1150 kg. It is now a modern classic – even Jamie Oliver has one..
Insurance ? Didn’t seem to be as much of a problem in those days, although I did only insure it TPF&T – quite a risk to take with an expensive car…
The picture shown is not the actual car as I can’t seem to find one, but it was white. I can’t remember if it had the vinyl roof and mine had steel wheels instead of the alloys shown – otherwise it looked pretty much the same. My mate Paul Robinson who lived opposite the old folks had a Mk1 3.0 Capri – so maybe there was some influence from him ?
I think Tim gave me a lift to Manchester to collect the car and I remember the drive back – on the Motorway for the first time and in “control” of a powerful car without really knowing what I was doing. And the bonnet on the Capri was so long you had no idea where the front of the car ended. Although I did find that out the first time I parked the car in my Dad’s garage and put a dent in it by running into the workbench at the end.
I’d like to add more about the car and the driving experience and my impressions but :
a. I had nothing to compare it to – apart from motorbikes
and
b. I can’t remember anyway
I seem to remember liking the instant response and good mid range torque of the V6 engine and also that it wasn’t great at going round corners which I had a habit of tackling as if I was still on a bike. Definitely some tyre squealing involved.
Before long it was time to load up the car with all my worldly possesions – one suitcase, a rucksack and a tool box – and head South to start my new job…
I was “in digs” with a guy called Derek in Shoreham – just a short walk across the footbridge to work – and this is where I met my mate Dougie who was also lodging there. I was a long way from home and even further from Durham so didn’t really know anyone – but there was a guy called Tim who lived near Brighton who I shared accommodation with in Durham – at the Shafto Arms. One evening I drove over to see him, taking the back roads to make the drive more interesting, very interesting as it turned out…
I was on a country road and ahead was an open right hand bend, it had been raining so the road was damp but not soaking. Not sure how fast I was going (officer), but I wasn’t pushing hard, just enjoying the drive. At the apex of the bend the rear lost grip and started to slide… As a novice driver my reactions were slow but I did start to apply some opposite lock – too slow as the car started to cross the white line and by the time it was coming back into line I was in the middle of the road. If the road had been clear all would probably have been OK…. But it wasn’t ! There was a car coming the other way and there was nowhere for him to go as the road sloped down into a ditch on the inside.
We hit each other head on… My car then bounced off to the left ran up a slope on that side of the road, rolled over completely and ended up facing the way I had just come. The other car was stopped on the road. The door wouldn’t open so I climbed out through the space where the windscreen had been. I seemed to be all in one piece so walked back down the road to see if the others were OK. The other driver extracted himself and walked towards me. I said “Sorry about that” and we shook hands. No-one was hurt but both cars were write-offs.
Dougie very kindly towed the car back to Derek’s where it sat forlornly on his drive (much to his disgust). I went back to look at the corner where I lost it and discovered that the road had recently been resurfaced – I had been driving on a resurfaced section but the resurfacing came to an end – just at the apex of the corner. The damp, worn tarmac was very slippery compared to the newly surfaced section.
I’d only had the car a few weeks, it had cost me all the money I had and was now a write off with only Third Party insurance. I hadn’t even had my first paycheck… And I needed some transport as I didn’t want to lodge with Derek and had the opportunity to rent a farm cottage with a couple of other guys, but it was 8 miles away…
I needed to find another car, soon and cheap…