h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

We have a 1988 Honda Accord Sedan that is painted with spray paint stencils. Our names are stenciled on, there are various messages, there are flowers and swirls and duckies and handprints. We've been meaning to get our daughter's name on it as well. We like it a lot, but it is not quite as interesting as the other car we had- a 1977 Honda Civic hatchback that somehow took to the painting better, maybe because it was a real hippie car to begin with. We miss our Ermengarde, but Flotsam-Jetsam is almost as good.

a most interesting name for a car! I love it. My car is simply: The Buick, she's a 1988 Park Avenue with a whole bunch of gismos and gadgets that I've put in it- CB, fuzz buster...if I only had enough money for a thermal camera I'd be set

Yeah, it's sorta funny because we've got a 10 CD changer in the trunk, and really good speakers, and then this old car... Someday soon we'll get a car that has less than 240000 miles on it...

I have a radio in my 1970 Morris Minor. And it has windows that wind up and down, and a dial that says how fast it's going (not very in general - it tops out at 75mph and I don't usually exceed 60). And the doors lock. It also has a device which is alleged to be a heater, but it has little discernible effect on the temperature in the car. And that's pretty much it on the equipment front.

I still love it though. Even though the head gasket blew last night and gave me some new plans for my weekend.

I also love my 1961 Hillman Minx that hasn't been touched since September but still started first time and took me to work this morning.

The two of them together can only boast 180,000 miles though.

Those sound like fun cars! Are they British? And have you ever had a Ford Prefect?

They certainly are! You can find out more about Morris Minors here - A600977 (shameless plug) - I must get around to doing an entry on the Hillman Minx - for now I'll tell you it's a medium size (that's small to you!) 4-seater family saloon. Looks a little like a Studebaker Golden Hawk that got shrunk in the wash - it had the same designer. I've had mine since 1985 when I bought it from the original owner, so I know all its history.

I've never had a Ford Prefect, but my sister's first car was a 1961 Ford Popular 100E, which she bought in about 1971 for around £100. This was very similar to the last Ford Prefect - the same basic body shell and engine, just a little less trim and 2 doors instead of 4.

The 100E Prefect, Anglia and Popular were quite basic cars - they had an 1172cc sidevalve engine (that's about 71.5 cubic inches), a top speed of 70 mph and a 0-50mph time of 20 seconds. The first models came out in 1953 and cost £511 to £560 brand new.

The thing I remember most about them was the windscreen wipers - they were vacuum driven from the inlet manifold. This meant that the harder you accelerated the slower they would go - if you really put your foot down they would stop. And when you took your foot off the gas they'd go really fast. Hilarious!

See what happens when you ask me about old British cars - you can't shut me up!

That's cool! Vacuum driven windshield wipers. What a concept. I don't mind you going on and on; I like to learn new things. About car size- I think it's slightly ridiculous the sizes of things here in America. The SUVs in particular are way too big for everyone except a football (American) team. I saw a very funny comedy skit about how big these cars are. And most of the time those who drive them are not very polite and tend to think they own the road... Very annoying. Hope I don't make someone mad with those statements But I think British cars are very cute. Like the one Mr. Bean drives in his show is great.

Yeah, we have the SUV phenomenon here, although they're usually referred to as 4-wheel-drives. They seem to spend most of their time on the school run or visiting supermarkets. Marge had one in the Simpsons, a 'Canyonero' and promptly turned into the driver from hell.-

It had a brilliant advertising jingle - started like this:

"Can you name the truck with four wheel drive,
Smells like a steak, and seats thirty five?
Canyonero! Canyonero!"

Even the name is brilliant!

Those who want to seem marginally less extreme go in for MPVs (multi purpose vehicles), also known as people carriers, which makes me wonder what other types of car are for. Not sure what you'd call one in the States, but the Chrysler Voyager is the only American example I can think of.

Not all British cars are quite as small as Mr Bean's mini, but you wouldn't argue that my Morris is anything but a small car, even by British standards. The Hillman seats 4 in comfort, though.

For cars with little or no creature comforts you'd be pushed to beat the two Westfields I've owned. They are kit car replicas of the Lotus Seven, and were very cheap. No radio, the seats didn't adjust let alone the steering column, the windows didn't wind up or down (in fact they didn't even have doors, just these sort of removable sidescreen thingies). The indicators didn't self cancel. The things leaked like sieves even with the roof in place. Climate control was simply roof on or roof off. And yet...

Cornering was phenomenal. Acceleration, even with a 1.6 litre engine, was on a par with sports cars costing ten times as much. The noise made my kids cry. And they were both an eye-searing shade of yellow. People used to point and stare as I drove past.

Now that I think back, the best and only extra that these came with was a grin that it would take surgery to remove. My hair, alas, was mostly whipped out by the airflow.

we used to have a Westfield 11, which didn't even have the option of a roof

I saw one of those at the Westfield factory one time. Gorgeous looking thing and well worth the discomfort, I'd imagine.

the main trouble we had with it was that it was so light we had trouble getting the tyres to wear in right, and if it rained you were in trouble.
dad and i once camme back from soping to find two policemen looking at it an we were afraid we'd left the car too long on the ticket or something but they were just interested in what it was. We also confused the hell out of people by putting an MG badge on the front as the donar car had been our old midget.

Now that car was a whole other story about interesting cars....

Talking of crap cars that are great, my first car was a Ford Fiesta MK1 no real comforts, no speed, no excellaration, nothing much although it did have windows that wind and a heating system that was ineffective in the winter and a cooling system that was ineffective in the summer. But it was a great car the only one I regret selling nothing went wrong with it. I will one day get another. My uncle had a Robin Hood another Kit Car copy of the Lotus Seven and raced this a few times at race days. A have since purchased a Westfield for my Scalextric and this is the quickest and best handling car I have. For the poorer ones here I recomend the scalextric track to feel the racing spirit these cars have.

Just to bring you all down and drag you a few posts back, I am Australian and we have our very own legend car here, its the FJ Holden. We have had one in our family for over 30 years, it is a 1948 model and it too has vacuum driven wipers which always fascinated me as a tiny kid, the concept of the faster you go the slower they go was something my little brain fought with for many years from the back seat.I never asked Dad about it until I was a bit older, I just sat queitly in the back, deep in thought trying to logically figure it out.

j888
(still in therapy trying to get my inner child to grasp the concept)

Me thinks your innerchild is still dealing with toilet training!

Me thinks your innerchild is still dealing with toilet training!

I think you should address that terrible stutter

j888
(defiant)

play nice please children, this is supposed to be a friendly place to chat about all things autmotive not carry on whatever differences you may have.

Im very sorry Mrs Cloud, it seems I'm being followed, wont let it happen again.

hello all.
Its kind of funny, but every car I driven I fell in love with. First it was a Big Dodge Van, than it was a Station Wagon, now its a 2001 Dodge Stratus. Though I must say that The last one is the most loveable one. Because of it I almoust fought a truck driver who drove away after scratching my bumper (I caught that bastard in less than 2 min) and I also wash it every week. Wax and Polish is an every two montsh thing.