Early family cars

[Keith Webb]

Will need to find some pics but one of our first cars I can remember my mother having was a 1948 straight 8 Buick. She used to inherit cars from her father, sometimes it was his old personal car (like the Buick) or sometimes one of the office cars like a clapped out Austin of early post-war vintage.
My father had a range of interesting cars including Amilcar and 30/98 Vauxhall. The first one of his I can remember was a Rover 5 light which belonged to his mother and had almost no paint left. I was embarrased to be driven to school in it until he sold it and bought a Bugeye Sprite.
But the car I grew up with was a 1959 Pontiac which we kept into the mid 70s.
Pics to come in due course.

[Mike K]

Thats great Keith,

Pics would be interesting.. 59 Pontiac was called Strato Chief or similar ? Other cars I recall neighbours having : a rare 1950ish NASH with its flamboyant curvy body style . A Citroen light 15 , a Ford popular ute and numerous Holdens like FJ's .

Mike

[Keith Webb]

Originally Posted by Mike Kelly

Thats great Keith,

Pics would be interesting.. 59 Pontiac was called Strato Chief or similar ? Other cars I recall neighbours having : a rare 1950ish NASH with its flamboyant curvy body style . A Citroen light 15 , a Ford popular ute and numerous Holdens like FJ's .

Mike

Ours was a Laurentian - I think the other names were for cars of the mid-50s.
The other model was the Parisienne. I can still remember the little 'body by Fisher' plate on the sill. It was powered by a Blue Flame motor.

[Mike K]

Originally Posted by Keith Webb

Ours was a Laurentian - I think the other names were for cars of the mid-50s.
The other model was the Parisienne. I can still remember the little 'body by Fisher' plate on the sill. It was powered by a Blue Flame motor.

OK .. this link will interest you Keith

http://www.ozgm.com/1959_retro_1.htm

And.. another link
http://www.chevcarclubvic.org.au/pho...s59pontiac.htm

That is a fancy looking car .. is it your old one ?

Mike

[Keith Webb]

Originally Posted by Mike Kelly

OK .. this link will interest you Keith

http://www.ozgm.com/1959_retro_1.htm

And.. another link
http://www.chevcarclubvic.org.au/pho...s59pontiac.htm

That is a fancy looking car .. is it your old one ?

Mike

What an interesting article - also to see that GMH were still using the same letter code for the different assembly plants.

The car in the link is the same model as ours, rego HBF 789 I think it was, although ours was a creamy white with red leather upholstery. It had the sludge-o-matic transmission and power steering which was quite a novelty at the time.

My grandfather, the previous owner bought it directly from Holden as he had close business ties with them as a customs agent. I can remember him going on about the engine being the 'truck' version so it probably was the 261 mentioned in the article. It certainly was quite adequate although the 'aircraft carrier' handling was dreadful. Sometime in the late 60s my mother rear-ended another car in the wet and the Pontiac was almost written off until we found one with good front end metal in a parts yard. The other thing which gave up was the differential - we bought the last one GMH had in stock - I drove to Dandenong in the Sigvan to pick it up.

[hrpearce]

The oldest vehicle I know of in our family was Great Grandfather's 18 bullock bullock wagon My Grandfather did the 30 mile mail run from Adelong to Yaven Creek in a Model T Ford, with 20 odd gates each way it would have been a days work. The run is longer now and the round trip is done in around 4 hours. Grandfather also ownd a Summit, there is a restored one at the Birdwood Mill Museum, I'll try and find a copy of the book on the restoration to scan a picture.

[Geoff Winnington-Ball (RIP)]

You're taking me back here!

I remember when my father bought us a 1957 Jaguar Mk.VII (in '59 I believe) and drove it for a couple of years. The only problem is that it cost him as much to maintain it over two years as it cost to buy the damned thing! Nice car, though, leather and real wood, as well as those door-frame pop-up turn indicators.

After that it was an early Plymouth Whatever with the slant-six engine and a push-button transmission. When my parents divorced in '66, he bought my mum a 1957 Morris Minor, which I got my driver's license on in 1969. In '70 I bought my first car - a 1959 Austin-Healey ('Bugeye') Sprite, for $100... I sure wish I had the damned thing now!!

After that I got into motorcycles...