Talk Morgan Forums Community Vehicle Talk (non-Morgan) The first vehicle you drove ?

Here's the first car I drove. This was in 1969, a Ford Popular 100E. Cost me £40.

Apparantly, a 1172 cc sidevalve engine producing 36 bhp, a top speed of 69.9 mph and acceleration from 0–50 mph in 19.6 seconds. Couldn't come to much harm in that! The thing I remember most about it was the vacuum-powered wipers. The faster you went, the slower the wipers went, just when you needed them the most. The trick was to momenterally take your foot off the accelerator when they would thrash across the screen, then revert to a snails pace when the gas was re-applied!

This was my first motorbike, a Francis Barnett Fulmar Sport. This is a library picture, mine was a piece of cr£p.

It was a two stroke which I did not understand and above 48mph it would cut out, refusing to start again untill it had cooled down. I bought it in 1976 because my car was having accident damage sorted and I felt this was my last chance for a m/c. I passed my bike test after a few weeks and intended to buy a Honda 400 4. However, I left the showroom with a Honda 750 F1.

That was what a motor bike should be. Surprisingly, I lived to tell the tale.