Crap Cars of the 70's


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Answering my own question in #191 . We did have a baby seat when ours were young .

See photo below of our eldest from 1974 in the back of a '68 Vauxhall Victor but they weren't like the ones of today , that they have to use up to the age of 12 .

After our kids out grew those babyseats , as far as I remember they were left to their own devices , rear seat belts for kids weren't mandatory till the late 80s .

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Chap went into Halfords and asked "have you got a pair of windscreen wipers for a Lada?". The sales assistant thought about it and then replied "we normally ask for cash, but that would be s fair swap

Just looked back at this post of yours Mick...can you imagine today? "I shall have to warn you sir that those three kids not safely restrained in safety belts are gonna cost you,as is the missing num

My Dad had a vauxhall victor,he had it for donkeys years ,he loved that car,A strange thing is after he died,my daughter came downstairs (she had just looked through her bedroom window)she said 'grand

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Hi Tutanic,

Your thread about the 1600E is a little flawed. They did not have a Lotus Engine in them, the running gear was the same as a 1600GT. The Lotus Engine was a twin cam that may have shared the same block but the heads were totally different as was the carburation. Hope this helps.

Sent by jac47uk's son

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I bought a second hand Mark 3 2 litre Cortina around 1984. It went like the wind but the overhead cam followers didn't half kick up a racket. My missis could hear me coming home from 2 miles away (slight exaggeration LOL). It was a real luxury car and a pleasure to drive. Trouble with used cars in them days, the first owners used to drive the hell out of them.

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Jac! Lotus Cortina! Nah yer talkin'!!

I used to rally a MK II in 1975. I think it had just over 100HP which is less than a modern Fiesta. Amazing for it's day although I soon switched to Minis which I could get the same HP out of with a lighter car and better roadholding.

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"Trouble with used cars in them days, the first owners used to drive the hell out of them"

What makes you think they don't now? worse if anything! faster faster faster!

At least you don't have to run a car in now. I bought my first ever brand new car in the late 80's and was amazed when I was told I could drive it normally straight away. The thing is nowadays, you can buy a car with 60,000 on the clock and it will still drive like new. Back then, 60k was a death sentence on the starter, alternator and timing belt. You might need a decoke and a new head gasket. My wife's car has now, in 5 years, done 100k and we've spent pretty much nothing on MOT's or servicing yet.

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Last year I got rid of my trusty old X reg 1600 Zaffira sports. Reluctantly because I just didn't have the money for the many repairs needed, especially after some young idiot drove into the back of me at the lights on Porchester Road and tried to blame me for the damage to my car.

That old Zaffira was bought one year old by my son and he sold it to me 5 years later. In the time it was in my family it only had one change of clutch and that was over 250,000 miles. It drove like a dream and saved money on family outings when we didn't have to use 2 cars. Its capacity for tipping rubbish was amazing, and great for car-booting. We could even get a 2 seater settee in it with the seats down.

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Well I don't know much about cars from the 70's except that my dad had a 1600E, which my brother now owns, and in 2011 went through Europe with the Cortina Classic Cars Club, on the "Cortinas to Cortina" Road trip, with a couple of little jaunts around The Hochenheim and the Nurburgring tracks and no breakdowns at all. Not bad for the old girl (The car that is not my brother)

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Cortinas were easy to repair and always plenty of parts in scrapyards. I remember climbing up onto the top car of a four high stack when looking for parts. They didn't half wobble when you tried to undo a radiator or something. Not allowed now. Summat to do with Elfnsafety.

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My Uncle had a Lotus Cortina and swapped it for an Austin 1800 Mk1. No wonder he hated the new one.

I had an Austin 1800 Mk 2 and if it went for two weeks without major issues I'd be amazed. It eventually blew up (literally) when the con rod and piston shot through the engine block. I once had a Volvo with 255K (miles) on the clock. It was given to me by Mick Robertson (Magpie) when I worked on his house in West Bridgford.

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Agree about how easy they were to repair. When the cambelt went on my Mk4 2.0, I got it towed home and left on the road outside my house.

Took me about an hour and a half to fit a new one, in the dark!

Can't do that with modern cars. For one, the valve gear would have been wrecked when the belt went, totalling the top end. For another, you couldn't get the specialised tools. And then there's the hooking-up to the computer....

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Another inconvenience with the Ford Cortina Mk4 and Mk5 Pinto engine was that if the oil feeder rail blocked the cam would become noisey and need replacing. If someone at Dagenham had thought ahead they would have designed the cylinder head the other way round so that the old camshaft could be drawn out towards the front of the car. Instead to remove the camshaft you had to remove the cylinder head which meant new head gasket and while its off you may as well replace the valve stem seals and collets and if you were really flush you could take the head up to Old man Lindley's motor engineers on Furlong Street Arnold and get the head skimmed. Happy Days

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Another inconvenience with the Ford Cortina Mk4 and Mk5 Pinto engine was that if the oil feeder rail blocked the cam would become noisey and need replacing. If someone at Dagenham had thought ahead they would have designed the cylinder head the other way round so that the old camshaft could be drawn out towards the front of the car. Instead to remove the camshaft you had to remove the cylinder head which meant new head gasket and while its off you may as well replace the valve stem seals and collets and if you were really flush you could take the head up to Old man Lindley's motor engineers on Furlong Street Arnold and get the head skimmed. Happy Days

The oil feed problem was fixed by using the "GT" oil pipe (bigger bore". Standard fitment on later Cortinas.

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That may explain why I didn't have that problem with either my Mk4 or my Mk5.

Both engines were fine, although I had to get rid of the VV carb off the Mk5 - it was better as a doorstop than it was fuelling the engine. (D&B were spot on when they suggested changing it for a Weber)

Both cars died from terminal rust, unfortunately.

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The oil feed problem was fixed by using the "GT" oil pipe (bigger bore". Standard fitment on later Cortinas.

Might have been the fact that the previous owner of my MK4 was a big believer in Molyslip it was supposedley great for some engines but if the oil wasnt changed often enough Molyslip tended to mutate into a really thick gloopy substance which again blocked oil feeder pipes and back to square 1. Only I didnt realise that is what he had used until I completely stripped the engine and found this thick almost sticky wallpaper Paste mixed with sand and banana skin substance sat in the bottom of the sump and a half full container of molyslip in the boot compartment. In the end I sold it to a mate who fitted it with 2.3ltr straight 6 and a 5 speed box

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Thank heavens,

The video shows mark 1 Lada Samara which is in fact a 1980's car, The production of last incarnation of the Lada Samara only ended in 2013.

Truly a rubbish car whichever decade it was built.

Forward looking dash cameras are very common in Russia, anyone have one in the UK?

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Thank heavens,

The video shows mark 1 Lada Samara which is in fact a 1980's car, The production of last incarnation of the Lada Samara only ended in 2013.

Truly a rubbish car whichever decade it was built.

Forward looking dash cameras are very common in Russia, anyone have one in the UK?

A Dash Cam or a Lada Samara ?

Seriously, my next door neighbour bought a brand new Lada Samara, what an absolute pile of crap !

I have a front & a rear mounted dash cam in my car,

Our firm have started installing them in our wagons too.

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