You know you are getting old when:

[Edward]

When in maybe fifteen years, the majority of your favorite aging radio hosts from your favorite radio channel will not more be on air. Maybe, some will do until they fall from the studio chair, who knows?

I know them since 12 years. They youngest of them are in their late 40s.

(Public) Culture radio channel, you know!

I have the opposite issue - I can't listen to BBC Radio 2 because it's full of the same "yoof" presenters that drove me away from BBC Radio 1 in the 90s!

 

[tonyb]

I don't know, I preferred the pre-75 models without the rubber bumpers (and the "improvements" they made to the rear suspension alongside those), though I know that were occasioned by new safety laws, particularly for the US market. Always loved the Rostyles, though - I'd prefer those over the wire wheels that were considered an upgrade any day! The sweet spot was probably the, from memory, 1967 model which was the last year leather seats were the standard. I did love the black honeycomb grille that came in on the nose around 69, though... My dad drove a 66/67 red B GT before I was born; in the 90s, he bought a teal blue '73 B GT. I loved that car. Lovely thing to drive, once I got used to not being able to do the straight-upright driving sitting position I preferred.

Me too. The rubber bumpers and raised ride height were to meet U.S. standards (the “5 mph bumper”). It didn’t do its looks any favors, nor its handling. And then there were the U.S. emissions standards, which lowered its horsepower.

In that vein …

The early Jaguar E-Type is, to my eye, far more elegant than the later iterations. Simpler, smoother, sexier.

 

[Trenchfriend]

Going to smalltown's yearly city fest on FR/SA/SU?

Aah, kiss my a... Enjoying my peace at home, with my selfmade caffeine-free icecoffee.

 

[belfastboy]

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You are definitely getting old when you see that the Chinese company S.A.I.C. who now own the MG marque, produce a new sports car. The kind of car that has young men wetting their pants, yet an oldie looks at it and thinks: "whatever!"

I am pretty sure I have posted this previously. Old age is finally having the financial wherewithal to afford a sports car but not the physical ability with which to enter and exit gracefully....if at all. .

 

[GHT]

I am pretty sure I have posted this previously. Old age is finally having the financial wherewithal to afford a sports car but not the physical ability with which to enter and exit gracefully....if at all. .

Now there's a very good point. The market that can afford to buy, run and insure such a car, would probably need one of those hospital hoists used for lifting patients with mobility difficulties.

Whether it's old age or not I do find that my brain and tongue have difficulty synchronising and often what comes out is gobble-de-gook. I know what I want to say, and my tongue works just as perfectly as it's always done, but somehow it's as though said tongue is in a reef knot.

 

[Zombie_61]

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You are definitely getting old when you see that the Chinese company S.A.I.C. who now own the MG marque, produce a new sports car. The kind of car that has young men wetting their pants, yet an oldie looks at it and thinks: "whatever!"

That silly piece of junk looks like the kind of car a third grader would draw in his notebook while the teacher is attempting to teach the class whatever it is they teach third graders these days.

 

[ChrisB]

The older models of MG are definitely the more desirable, but finding one that isn’t badly rusted is difficult. Mine is a 1980, the last year they were made.

 

[tonyb]

I am pretty sure I have posted this previously. Old age is finally having the financial wherewithal to afford a sports car but not the physical ability with which to enter and exit gracefully....if at all. .

As I’m pretty sure I’ve posted before, the reason I can afford a sports car is because I don’t buy things like sports cars.

It’s not that I wouldn’t want a car that, truth be told, would be as much a toy as a means of transport. It’s that I know myself well enough to know that the novelty wears off quickly. (That wasn’t always the case. I used to be much more impulsive.) Even with the thing bought and paid for, the expenses continue. It’s kinda like cocaine that way — the initial rush is followed by a crash, and the longer the habit goes on, the shorter the rush and the harder the crash.

 

[belfastboy]

As I’m pretty sure I’ve posted before, the reason I can afford a sports car is because I don’t buy things like sports cars.

It’s not that I wouldn’t want a car that, truth be told, would be as much a toy as a means of transport. It’s that I know myself well enough to know that the novelty wears off quickly. Even with the thing bought and paid for, the expenses continue. It’s kinda like cocaine that way — the initial rush is followed by a crash, and the longer the habit goes on, the shorter the rush and the harder the crash.

Given that I have no children or heirs of any kind.....the trick shall be to write that final cheque the day before I pass and have it bounce!!! That is the ultimate in financial planning!

 

[belfastboy]

As I’m pretty sure I’ve posted before, the reason I can afford a sports car is because I don’t buy things like sports cars.

It’s not that I wouldn’t want a car that, truth be told, would be as much a toy as a means of transport. It’s that I know myself well enough to know that the novelty wears off quickly. Even with the thing bought and paid for, the expenses continue. It’s kinda like cocaine that way — the initial rush is followed by a crash, and the longer the habit goes on, the shorter the rush and the harder the crash.

Not only would I not be able to enter or exit the sports car entrusting me to drive it properly would be such a waste. I just bought a new Hyundai SUV, one of the big knocks against it was it is underpowered. For me who rarely exceeds the posted speed these days it has more than enough power to suit. So it would just look silly for me to be driving a sports car in the slow lane 15 MPH under the posted speed.

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

That silly piece of junk looks like the kind of car a third grader would draw in his notebook while the teacher is attempting to teach the class whatever it is they teach third graders these days.

Doubtless third-graders would try draw that car, only my classmate Wally Boyd could actually draw it so It looked exactly like that. Wally's family moved out of town sometime during our elementary school years and from time to time I wonder what became of him. No exaggeration, he actually could draw it exactly like the photo.

 

[Edward]

Not only would I not be able to enter or exit the sports car entrusting me to drive it properly would be such a waste. I just bought a new Hyundai SUV, one of the big knocks against it was it is underpowered. For me who rarely exceeds the posted speed these days it has more than enough power to suit. So it would just look silly for me to be driving a sports car in the slow lane 15 MPH under the posted speed.

I've always found an appreciable irony in how many sports-car guys spend a fortune on something with serious performance.... and then they spend more time than not sitting around in carparks with it on display, checking out other such cars.... must surely come a point where they realise a nice looking hot rod with a vastly smaller performance (nobody really needs a v8...) would do the same job...

 

[GHT]

Given that I have no children or heirs of any kind.....the trick shall be to write that final cheque the day before I pass and have it bounce!!! That is the ultimate in financial planning!

With you on no kids, what a smile the thought of the cheque bouncing brought. I love it!

Not only would I not be able to enter or exit the sports car entrusting me to drive it properly would be such a waste. I just bought a new Hyundai SUV, one of the big knocks against it was it is underpowered. For me who rarely exceeds the posted speed these days it has more than enough power to suit. So it would just look silly for me to be driving a sports car in the slow lane 15 MPH under the posted speed.

The silly grins that we get when driving in the "slow" lane with our vintage MG underlines your very sentiment.

Doubtless third-graders would try draw that car, only my classmate Wally Boyd could actually draw it so It looked exactly like that. Wally's family moved out of town sometime during our elementary school years and from time to time I wonder what became of him. No exaggeration, he actually could draw it exactly like the photo.

The pond is three thousand miles wide, bu I tell you, I sat next to Wally Boyd at school.

I've always found an appreciable irony in how many sports-car guys spend a fortune on something with serious performance.... and then they spend more time than not sitting around in carparks with it on display, checking out other such cars.... must surely come a point where they realise a nice looking hot rod with a vastly smaller performance (nobody really needs a v8...) would do the same job...

Oh come on Edward, a poseur is a poseur, is a poseur! You must look at at my huge phallic substitute, come on man, it cost me a king's ransom.

 

[tonyb]

The older models of MG are definitely the more desirable, but finding one that isn’t badly rusted is difficult. Mine is a 1980, the last year they were made.

Yeah, they are prone to rot. And they’re unibodies, so rusted sills (rocker panels, over in this side of the pond) and other sections can compromise the structural integrity.

It’s been quite some time since I kept up on British sports cars, but I do recall British Motor Heritage offering entire replacement MGB bodies, made on the original tooling.

 

[Edward]

It’s been quite some time since I kept up on British sports cars, but I do recall British Motor Heritage offering entire replacement MGB bodies, made on the original tooling.

Yip. Not cheap, but they are around. I've encountered some purists who would sneer at them, but as time goes on, it's often that or lose these old chariots entirely....

Interesting how trends go in the car thing. Thirty years ago, changing the engine in anything much pre-1970 was seen as abhorrent (this in the days when the monthly vintage mag would have at least six snidey digs at "custom car butchery" over anything from a hot rodded engine to painting the body a non-standard colour). I don't mean dropping a v8 into a Mk1 1 Cortina, I mean any change - even the most correct engine if it wasn't the one with the original matching numbers. Back then, you put a 1098 A series other than the block that it came with into the nose of a Minor, and it hit the value. These days, that's all gone. Sure, "all original" commands a premium, but it's not the be all / end all it once was. Of course, tempus fugit. I remember the first Triumph Herald 13/60 I ever saw. About 1976/77, our neighbours had one for a while. I was fascinated by the tailfins - although I'd practically been born in the back of a 1936 Austin 7, I think that Herald was the first time I really noticed tailfins, sitting in next door's driveway. They'd have been about eye-level with me at the time. I called it the Batmobile - the Adam West era Bat conveyance being my visual reference point for tailfins at the time. In those days of course it wasn't a hobby car, but a standard, second hand motor. Morris Minors were less than a decade out of production at the time and still common on the roads; folks who lived opposite my grandmother kept driving their A35 baby Austin as a daily car well into the 80s; our local librarian drove a Minor she'd bought in the early 70s until she retired (and I suspect long afterwards, though I'm sure she's long passed on and that car's in other hands now). I once interviewed the librarian for a car magazine we ran for a bit when I was around thirteen.

Me, I've always been of the philosophy that if something's super-rare, it's nice to keep it all original, and if you want a modern performance motor buy one.... but I also love a good hot rod built with period-appropriate parts, and if it's a motor there's a million of around.... Beyond that, if a five speed box dropped in makes the difference between a Minor rotting in some guy's garage and being regularly driven and enjoyed, then....

 

[GHT]

Me, I've always been of the philosophy that if something's super-rare, it's nice to keep it all original, and if you want a modern performance motor buy one.... but I also love a good hot rod built with period-appropriate parts, and if it's a motor there's a million of around.... Beyond that, if a five speed box dropped in makes the difference between a Minor rotting in some guy's garage and being regularly driven and enjoyed, then....

Whilst I do agree on the point of originality, if original compromises safety then I go for safety. This photo of Tina and I on the New Forest run had quite a few comments of derision. You have to be a keen eyed purist to guess why.

The car's handling and braking is so much better because I had the crossply tyres replaced with radials. The foaming at the mouth that caused.

 

[tonyb]

Yip. Not cheap, but they are around. I've encountered some purists who would sneer at them, but as time goes on, it's often that or lose these old chariots entirely....
…
Me, I've always been of the philosophy that if something's super-rare, it's nice to keep it all original, and if you want a modern performance motor buy one.... but I also love a good hot rod built with period-appropriate parts, and if it's a motor there's a million of around.... Beyond that, if a five speed box dropped in makes the difference between a Minor rotting in some guy's garage and being regularly driven and enjoyed, then....

Among my favorite cars ever is (was?) a postwar-style hotrod belonging to an older fellow I met at a car show in a city park more than a decade ago. It was a Model A Ford with very little on it authentically Model A Ford. The fellow had built it mostly from after-market reproduction components. It was powered by a flathead V8 out of an early ‘50s Mercury, if memory serves. It had no fenders, a canvas convertible top with wooden ribs, stamped steel wheels with baby moons. It was the car the fellow wished he’d had when he was a youngster, several decades earlier. I was happy for him.

As to rarity …

I’ve long been a fan of the GMC PD-4501 Scenicruiser highway bus, which came on the scene about the same time I did, back in the mid-1950s. There were only 1,001 built. It is estimated that about 200 remain, and that maybe 50 are roadworthy.

Greyhound ran the things well into the 1970s, so while there were only a thousand (and one) ever built, they were not an uncommon sight.

But my owning one would have a person questioning my sanity. Thing is, they were far from the most well engineered and constructed buses. Their monocoque bodies were given to fractures, which necessitated extensive and costly retrofitting. Drivetrain problems, especially on the earliest versions (which had TWO engines) were many and varied and also necessitated retrofitting.

And I really don’t have a place to put a bus. I once did, back when I owned a ‘47 Dodge school bus. That was kinda nuts, too, but nowhere near as nuts as even thinking about restoring a Scenicruiser.

 

[Edward]

Among my favorite cars ever is (was?) a postwar-style hotrod belonging to an older fellow I met at a car show in a city park more than a decade ago. It was a Model A Ford with very little on it authentically Model A Ford. The fellow had built it mostly from after-market reproduction components. It was powered by a flathead V8 out of an early ‘50s Mercury, if memory serves. It had no fenders, a canvas convertible top with wooden ribs, stamped steel wheels with baby moons. It was the car the fellow wished he’d had when he was a youngster, several decades earlier. I was happy for him.

As to rarity …

I’ve long been a fan of the GMC PD-4501 Scenicruiser highway bus, which came on the scene about the same time I did, back in the mid-1950s. There were only 1,001 built. It is estimated that about 200 remain, and that maybe 50 are roadworthy.

Greyhound ran the things well into the 1970s, so while there were only a thousand (and one) ever built, they were not an uncommon sight.

But my owning one would have a person questioning my sanity. Thing is, they were far from the most well engineered and constructed buses. Their monocoque bodies were given to fractures, which necessitated extensive and costly retrofitting. Drivetrain problems, especially on the earliest versions (which had TWO engines) were many and varied and also necessitated retrofitting.

And I really don’t have a place to put a bus. I once did, back when I owned a ‘47 Dodge school bus. That was kinda nuts, too, but nowhere near as nuts as even thinking about restoring a Scenicruiser.

Well, there is that - though if hobbies were logical I doubt we'd have them.

If ever I had the space, I'd love to have a couple of tube carriages tucked in the garden, rearranged like a sun room.... Alternatively, I've long had a fantastical notion for having the shell of an Airbus A380 turned into a house. cut off the wings to save space, of course, and have the luggage lift thingy set up to lift a vehicle up to an on-board garage of sorts. On the upper deck, I'd keep some of the overhead bins up both sides for storage... It'd be a gas, though unless I was very lucky would probably cost way more than a house that size!

 

[GHT]

Did you know that 2022 is as far apart from 1970 as 1918. Now if that doesn't make you feel old...........

 

[tonyb]

Well, there is that - though if hobbies were logical I doubt we'd have them.

If ever I had the space, I'd love to have a couple of tube carriages tucked in the garden, rearranged like a sun room.... Alternatively, I've long had a fantastical notion for having the shell of an Airbus A380 turned into a house. cut off the wings to save space, of course, and have the luggage lift thingy set up to lift a vehicle up to an on-board garage of sorts. On the upper deck, I'd keep some of the overhead bins up both sides for storage... It'd be a gas, though unless I was very lucky would probably cost way more than a house that size!

There are houses (and other structures) made from retired airliners.

I once considered buying an old passenger rail car that had served as a construction and leasing office at a recently completed suburban office park. Wiring and plumbing were already in, so it was livable as it was.

It was an entirely romantic notion. I had no place to put the thing (it was a good 60 feet long or more, as I recall) nor a clue as to how to move it.

But, for a person with such resources, it would be a hit as a short-term rental (which didn’t really exist back then).

I’ve lived in a garret, I’ve lived in a converted chicken coop, I’ve considered living aboard a boat. But really, I much prefer living in a house built to be a house, on dry land, without wheels under it. And I like not sharing walls, nor floors, nor ceilings.

But man, there remain some waaaay cool trailer parks. Some of those vintage house trailers (as we called them then) are great eye candy. And while the residents might be able to touch their neighbors’ houses without getting out of their folding lawn chairs, at least they aren’t sharing walls.