Steve Waddingham: Working at Dad's garage, Grandad was a chauffeur in a Morris Minor, Aston Martin, Allegro and more. S4E1

[00:00:00] Welcome to My Dads Car, enjoy!

[00:00:12] Welcome to My Dads Car, a podcast discussing our personal relationship with automotive nostalgia.

[00:00:18] And you know what? It doesn't even have to be about your Dads Car.

[00:00:21] It can be your mum's, your grand's, your parents, guardians or even a neighbours.

[00:00:26] If it made an impression, let's talk about it.

[00:00:34] Hello!

[00:00:35] Hello, how are you doing? Alright?

[00:00:37] Yeah we're okay, you?

[00:00:39] Not too bad, not too bad.

[00:00:41] We're in season 4 now Jon.

[00:00:42] Yeah who'd have thought it? It's going along quite well isn't it?

[00:00:44] I think so, yeah we're sort of gathering momentum and we're probably now putting stuff out a month and a half in advance, something like that.

[00:00:51] Or recording and then putting it out a month and a half in advance.

[00:00:54] Yeah nice to get that, yeah another milestone under our belt really.

[00:00:57] Hi guys!

[00:00:58] How you doing Steve? You alright?

[00:00:59] Yeah, yeah.

[00:01:00] Perfect. We're straight into it, this is very efficient, thank you very much.

[00:01:04] Quick benefit of the tape, I think I reached out to you Steve, either you'd followed us or I saw your account on someone we knew and it just looked like you did some interesting stuff.

[00:01:14] Yeah.

[00:01:15] And I sort of reached out to you when we got chatting and it sounded like you did do some interesting stuff and you might have some interesting stories.

[00:01:21] So do you want to give us a quick rundown of what you get up to?

[00:01:23] Yeah, okay. Well the day job and my hobby are probably completely different ends of the spectrum really.

[00:01:30] So let's get the day job bit out the way I guess first.

[00:01:33] So the day job is I'm actually the company historian for Aston Martin Lagonda.

[00:01:37] Okay.

[00:01:38] So I've worked for Aston for a long time, I joined in 1990.

[00:01:42] I escaped for three years and then came back so I think this time around it will be about 14 years this year and about 16 and a half or so before that.

[00:01:51] So to call it about 30 odd years of service you know.

[00:01:54] Yeah.

[00:01:55] And then really as I kind of got older I suddenly realized I was, you know, people are asking me questions all the time at work about the good old days and so I kind of eased into the role of historian really.

[00:02:04] First of all I did it alongside my other previous job which was looking after customers when they were coming in to order cars at the factory.

[00:02:11] And then after the pandemic it became a full time job.

[00:02:14] Oh nice.

[00:02:15] This year will be that the fourth year, you know in the role full time and yeah it's great fun.

[00:02:19] You know it's really good fun looking at old cars and talking about old cars and actually cars aren't that old.

[00:02:24] You know as soon as we don't make something it comes over to me to kind of look after it.

[00:02:29] So yeah it kind of starts in 1913 and goes right away up to date.

[00:02:34] So yeah that's the day job.

[00:02:36] What would be, we're getting diverted already but I think it's fascinating.

[00:02:40] What's the typical sort of application for this? Is this like they'll dig up a car from a barn somewhere and want to know about it or?

[00:02:45] Well I always like in this job. It's a little bit like when I used to go on holiday as a kid every so often there'd be a bit of excitement because a yellow helicopter would appear.

[00:02:52] Okay.

[00:02:53] And it would pluck a kid out of the sea that had gone out too far and lie low and you think wow look at that.

[00:02:57] They've got like a special helicopter to rescue holidaymakers.

[00:03:00] So that's the bit that you kind of saw but the real job was to pluck airmen out of the sea if the planes crashed, you know.

[00:03:07] So that was what they were practicing for and it's a bit like this with this job.

[00:03:10] The bit that people see is me running around at car shows or you know sometimes I'll feature on my social media about a car that maybe I've looked at and investigated.

[00:03:19] So that's the kind of glamorous bit, the bit that people see but that's only a tiny tiny little bit of it.

[00:03:24] That's plucking the kid off the lilo out the sea job you know.

[00:03:27] So most of what I do is stuff behind the scenes and it's feeding the business with information about the past and you know we use it all the time.

[00:03:35] So if we're looking at a new model, we might want to sort of look back at a previous one and then draw comparisons to it or we might be looking for inspiration for a model name or a name for a color or we need to know how many of a particular car are left so we can work out how many parts we need.

[00:03:50] So all sorts of things really.

[00:03:52] Nowhere near as exciting as the analogy of going off and rescuing somebody which in this case is doing something really glamorous like dragging a car up a barn you know but it does happen and I have been in a few barns and I've been in some weird places with it.

[00:04:05] So it's a lot of fun you know.

[00:04:07] So in complete contrast to that your sort of weekend car is?

[00:04:11] Yeah well so I kind of thought about it and I was looking for a classic and I had a, I've had various things over the years but the last car I had before this one was a Mazda Unos, so a Mark 1 Unos with a pop up lights and it just wasn't getting used and you know we've got blended family I think they call it nowadays.

[00:04:29] We've got grandkids, we've got kids of various ages you know so I hardly ever had a chance to use it and it was also a car that I'd have to tax and you know all the costs you have with an extra car.

[00:04:39] So I thought well why don't I get an old car again? Why don't I go back to a proper classic, something I can potter around to the pub in it or go to all the local car shows because I live in Warwickshire right on the edge of the Cotswolds.

[00:04:51] So around here is like a kind of a posh Motown really, there's loads of, we've got Caffeine and Machine, Diltz Cafe, loads of cool stuff going on but you kind of feel a bit of a fraud.

[00:05:01] You know if you turned up in a 90s car like five years ago you know the guy on the gate would go yep the car park's that way and he'd go no no I've come to be in the show and then oh okay how old is it then you know and I got fed up with that so I thought right let's get a proper old car.

[00:05:15] So I started looking for a Morris Minor, a car that I'd never had but as a kid we had one in the family so I guess I'm jumping the gun a bit on this one.

[00:05:23] But anyway so I thought looking for a Moggy and I was really underwhelmed by all the cars I looked at they were patchwork quilts and dodgy welding and you know cars that have got no shine on the paint and I thought no I can't spend five grand on a Morris Minor and it not look amazing.

[00:05:38] So I decided to look for something different and I literally went onto eBay typed in classic car 20 miles or whatever it was and up comes an Allegro and as soon as I saw this little Allegro and I read the description and I thought can I get away with driving a legros you know how would people react to that.

[00:05:57] I have a wicked sense of humor so I thought that would be really funny I could turn up all sorts of things in this why go and have something that's a little bit rubbish why not just get the worst car ever made you know allegedly and be completely opposite end of the spectrum to the day job.

[00:06:13] So that's what I did so I went and looked at the car and I could see that there was a fairly good history but I thought I bet I could have some fun with it so I bet I could investigate my own car and go and find some of the bits that are missing you know so that appealed to me.

[00:06:25] So next thing you know I was dragging my dad along to come and have a look at it with me as well on another occasion and it was quite funny because I've had an Allegro as an ordinary car back in the 80s.

[00:06:35] Okay and the last time I bought that my dad went with me so we did the same thing again like however many years later and he said well it looks alright to me you know go for it so I did so bought the car and I've had so much fun with it but not in a way that you'd have fun in a sports car you know going out for a blast on a Sunday morning or whatever.

[00:06:54] You know it's obviously not that sort of car but wherever you go in it just causes conversations yeah so the kind of the opposite extreme really.

[00:07:03] I've also jump started an Aston with it which is also hilariously funny so yeah lots and lots of fun with it and it's become like a sidekick you know people now first thing they'll say to me is how's your Allegro?

[00:07:14] And I'm like yeah it's okay thanks but can we not talk about your DB5 for a minute you know whatever it is.

[00:07:21] It's just really weird that the first thing that comes out of people's mouths is how's the Allegro?

[00:07:26] So yeah I've got to a point now where I can't really get rid of it because if I get rid of it I spend the rest of my life explaining why I got rid of it so I might as well just keep it really just be easier you know.

[00:07:35] Yeah.

[00:07:36] Should we bring ourselves back on topic?

[00:07:38] Yeah sorry have I completed I do this all the time.

[00:07:40] It was wonderful we'll keep it all in I think it's great.

[00:07:43] What's your earliest car or earliest motor in memory?

[00:07:47] Well my first word was car I think I said that before I said mum or dad and the first car that my dad had was an Austin Cambridge.

[00:07:55] Okay.

[00:07:56] So an A55 Cambridge which was a two-tone.

[00:08:00] Nice.

[00:08:01] I think it was either white or a very pale dove grey over like a turquoise blue so the rear fins were like a turquoise sort of blue colour and that's what dad had and he loved it and it got a few little bits he'd done to it to make it a little bit nicer.

[00:08:15] Okay.

[00:08:16] So it had a Phillips radio so one early memory is sitting in the back of the car at night time and they'd have radio Luxembourg on because that was about the only thing you could find at night time on medium wave or whatever long wave whatever it was where it actually played pop music you know.

[00:08:29] And all you could see was this tiny little green light kind of glowing to show the radio was on because in those days nothing lit up did it you know you didn't have a dash all lit up so I always remember looking at this little green light as we were driving along and yeah so I have lots of memories of that car and also had a chrome horn push you know like the old horn ring you know on the steering wheel which even then at a young age I must have been only probably you know as I remember things like that probably two or three but I'd sit on my dad's lap and I'd look at this steering wheel you know.

[00:08:57] Are they bench seat in the front those?

[00:08:59] Yeah like a split bench.

[00:09:00] Yeah.

[00:09:01] The backrest was split and then the rest of it I think was one piece or maybe two very close together I can't quite remember that far so my dad's one was an A55 Marina Cambridge and my granddad had an A60 or equivalent it was a Morris rather than an Austin so it would be a Morris Oxford Mark 6 or whatever it was at the time.

[00:09:21] Okay.

[00:09:22] So in other words the little bit later shape without the rear fins on it and that was a dark blue one I seem to remember so those were the two first cars I really remember seeing and actually going out in and then my granddad then went on to a Marina so we had two Mariners one after the other.

[00:09:37] Yeah.

[00:09:38] That lasted years actually and then after the Marina my dad convinced him into buying a brand new car and he bought an F-Redge Metro I think it would have been a city or something in here in Ape Beach and then that was it that lasted him until he wasn't around anymore you know.

[00:09:53] He stitched him up there didn't he?

[00:09:55] Well my dad was fed up with welding the Marina but my dad was like oh god you know every year he'd have to do like MOT welding on it and I think he put a pair of front wings on it and the car was always looked amazing they were always polished and my grandfather was ex-army so everything was polished and he always wore a tie every day and that sort of thing.

[00:10:12] So the Marina was always polished but it was rusted away underneath so my dad convinced him to buy this Metro but funny enough before the Metro finally happened my dad was trying to persuade him to look at something more modern so one weekend came home in a Maestro so my dad worked in a car trade as well and occasionally they'd get cars in for sale and somehow this kind of opalescent green Maestro Vanden Pla of all things appears with the torquey and dash you know.

[00:10:41] So we went out the idea was to take them out for Sunday lunch in here and hope that my nan would say oh this is really nice let's get one of these you know but for whatever reason it backfired it didn't quite work but we had a nice weekend in a Maestro and then my dad sort of shouted at it because he couldn't work out how to turn off the computer because if you go around a corner it would tell you that the fuel was low or something you know and then eventually discovered there was a volume control but of course we all thought it was amazing because it had a digital dashboard in it.

[00:11:09] Yeah so that was my granddad.

[00:11:10] Sounds like there's quite a strong allegiance to British produced cars then Steve.

[00:11:15] Yeah and it comes partly from my grandfather, my grandfather was a chauffeur but he was a butler and a chauffeur after the war and he worked for a lady in a big house outside of London a place called Trent Park and he worked for a lady called Hannah Gubby and she was a distant relative of the Queen so when they had the coronation she said right you need to drive me to Westminster Abbey or wherever it was.

[00:11:38] But the car was a Morris Minor she was agoraphobic she didn't like I think that's the word big wide open spaces and although they had a big Daimler they never used it she would always prefer to drive in the Morris so they had a Morris Minor and I think they had an A30 before that.

[00:11:52] Fair enough.

[00:11:53] But my grandfather still used to wear the chauffeur's hat so you can imagine all this row of black limousines outside of the Abbey and then this one little Morris Minor about everybody wearing the same uniform you know so that was quite cool so my granddad always liked cars and my dad and I we worked for a while.

[00:12:08] And sometimes at lunch time we would drive over and see him for lunch and we would go in a car that was being road tested and we used to work for garages that did Rolls Royce and Bentleys so sometimes we'd turn up in an old Rolls or something and he'd always come out and inspect it you know right let's come and look at this car then you know and he'd come out and have a look at it.

[00:12:25] So yeah he always took an interest in motoring and in cars in general and I think that rubbed off on my dad really and then of course on to me you know.

[00:12:32] Fantastic yeah I picked up on the British Leyland thing what was it about the Metro that kind of ticked the boxes that the Maestro didn't tick?

[00:12:40] Yeah probably because he was quite sort of straight talking you know and he didn't do anything frivolous and also my nan and granddad or even though the whole time I knew them they never worked in service but they still had this subservient way about them and they thought oh no you can't drive a posh car you know because the people in the big house won't like that.

[00:12:57] So I think they always knew their place in life and didn't want to be seen driving anything bigger than they needed.

[00:13:03] Okay.

[00:13:04] You know so the Metro was deemed to be big enough it was one of the face lifted Metro's so it would have been an F-Reg and I remember it being beige I can't remember if it was a special edition you know it was quite smart and it had a pop up sunroof but it was beige.

[00:13:18] Yeah.

[00:13:19] He would turn up in it wearing his grenadier guards tie and a blazer.

[00:13:22] Nice.

[00:13:23] And booming out of the radio or at the cassette player would be like a brass band you know like a big military band you know and he'd be like here he comes and that was my granddad and of course all of the cars he had and liked were Leyland or previous BMC brands.

[00:13:39] He used to say all the time that he didn't like Fords and the reason he didn't like Fords was the first car he bought was a Y type so side valve Ford you know a 30s Y type and he said it was unreliable and it was this that and the other.

[00:13:52] So that put him off of Ford for the rest of his life.

[00:13:54] Fair enough.

[00:13:55] So he always used to have a British Leyland or BMC type car and then that kind of rubbed off on us as well my dad was the same he preferred BL cars to Fords.

[00:14:06] So thankfully we used to have a caravan which meant we had a fairly big car to pull it so the cars I remember growing up with that my dad had as in the name of the podcast were Triumph 2000s.

[00:14:19] Okay.

[00:14:20] So there were actually two Mark II 2000s and then a Cortina in between and then we went back thankfully to a Triumph 2500s which was a really nice bit of kit but the only problem was the company cars where they weren't brand new because it was a gallery so just

[00:14:35] buy something and we'd end up with it and there was no choice of what we got when the right type of car turned up we got it.

[00:14:41] So the 2500 was a honeysuckle beige color which you know was looking a little bit old fashioned in the early 80s.

[00:14:49] Yeah.

[00:14:50] So the car would have been an S-Reg and this must have been when I was eight or nine so it was probably about 1980, 81 you know and everybody else's dad had got a Cortina Mark V or whatever you know but we had this Triumph but we liked it and it sounded good.

[00:15:04] But of course it was rusting away as everything did back then and the big joke was the first owner was British Steel.

[00:15:11] So the very people that created the stuff that was going rusty were the first owners but of course I used to wash it and polish it for him and that's how I got into working on cars initially was cleaning cars and making tea and I started working with my dad I think when I was about 11.

[00:15:28] Okay.

[00:15:29] I used to go on a Saturday morning and go in and wash cars make tea sweep up that sort of thing and gradually because it was a car restoration shop I got involved in like paint stripping and all the nasty jobs really but also got taught how to use a spray gun.

[00:15:43] Oh cool.

[00:15:44] And we used to make repair panels so my job on a Saturday morning was to lay all the panels out that made in a week and then paint them so spray them with red oxide primer and I'd have to go in the corner of the spray booth or wherever there's a bit of room to lay these things out.

[00:15:58] And on one occasion but that's it you have to go outside there's no room in here so use the old oil barrel so I've got this old big massive barrel that I'd laid the panels on and I was outside with the airline of the gun spraying away and suddenly it's like snowing.

[00:16:13] So I tapped on the window and my dad appeared and went what and I went it's snowing he went oh you better come in then.

[00:16:21] And it was like don't tell your mum you know so it was everyone was like don't tell your mum you know so basically don't tell your mum how dangerous all the things you've been doing at work are because there's no health and safety back then you know.

[00:16:31] So yeah there were snowflakes on at least one panel that I painted but yeah it was really good fun I loved it and that's where I developed a passion for classic cars really working amongst these mainly 1950s cars and occasionally we'd get something coming in that wasn't a Rolls or a Bentley so things like the Tribe Stag and we had a brand new Lotus Esprit Turbo turned out.

[00:16:51] To have the decal was put on the front of it so whatever reason the guy bought it brand new and they haven't put the big Lotus roof on the front you know so my dad had to do that yeah so we did get to see all sorts of really cool cars in that period.

[00:17:04] But then of course all of the ordinary cars that were coming and going and now the cars that we've seen as being classic cars you know we used to look after the St John's ambulance next door which was an old Bedford CAF ambulance and so yeah there were lots of ordinary cars coming and going and we had a petrol station.

[00:17:20] So cars would come in for fuel okay do you have to go out and fill them up yeah yeah so my job was serving petrol most people come in and say fill it up and you'd fill it up and one guy would come in and say I want 40 litres exactly what's a litre and we didn't know what litre was back then.

[00:17:37] So you have to watch the other gauge on the pump you know and I remember once being really impressed by watching this guy pulled up he got an HJ SV12 and he went fill it so I went okay and he stood there in his camel coat and looking really cool.

[00:17:51] Nice. And there I am putting the petrol in and watching the noughts going round and I thought bloody hell it's gonna run out in a moment it got to like 50 quid and then in those days the pump would stop you know because you don't really want any more do you know and he went no keep going so carried on

[00:18:06] and he just sort of like non-tonally came into the office and signed for the fuel on his account and just went thanks very much and walked off and I thought wow it's just done over 50 quid petrol you know that was a huge amount of money back then.

[00:18:19] He could buy cars couldn't he for less. Yeah exactly yeah and he got in his Jag watching go up the road with this big kind of like vapour trail coming out of the towel pipe so as it was burning off the first sort of gallon you know.

[00:18:30] But yeah so things like that was wow amazing big V12 Jag and the broke just didn't blink an eyelid at how much fuel it was gonna guzzle you know. What did he do? Did you find out anything else about him? Well I guess he must have been a chairman of this printing company and they had some really I mean this is in the 80s don't forget this is probably about mid 80s so in the background on the radio you've got the human league blaring out things like that so we're properly you know like stranger things but in real life and then there's all these cars coming and going and the cars that that company had they had a BMW

[00:19:00] 325i which was again wow you know amazing and the guy who drove that looked like James Bond he looked like he looked like Roger Moore and he'd be stood there absolute gal blowing nothing would be out of place it wouldn't be a single hair out of place you know.

[00:19:14] And then there was another woman who drove a white Golf GTI convertible all colour coded which was pretty amazing and then I think the other people who worked in the company had things like Escorts and Sierras but they all would have been you know fairly new cars and the reps and people like that.

[00:19:29] So yeah there were some really cool customers in the local village that came in we had a magistrate who was a lady who was always drunk so she could get out of the car so you have to wonder how many people had the license to go off somebody that was never ever sober when she drove you know and her son had a fire engine and he collected fire engines old fire engines so he'd turn up in the fire engine as you do you know.

[00:19:52] We had another company that they had the Lotus Esprit and then that went and there was an XJS convertible appeared brand new one and he had an ex-wife and she used to drive a Land Rover but you could tell she was very horsey always dressed up for going off to see the horses and she drove this battered old series 3 Land Rover.

[00:20:11] But she obviously had you know helped herself to fuel it was obviously part of the arrangement so there was always a fill it up you know and the jerry can as well you know so obviously making him pay every penny so that was always quite funny and her daughter would come in and flirt with us and all that sort of stuff you know so that was quite funny.

[00:20:28] And then he had a he had an old two-door Range Rover Vogue before it became a model you know I think it was like a limited edition and I think she'd had it and he had it back off her and the reason being that they bought a boat and he wanted to tow this boat out to Mallorca so across land you know and the idea was to make the Range Rover fit for a one-way journey so in other words it didn't matter what condition it would be and when it got there it just had to drag a three and a half ton trailer and boat across Europe so we had this thing in and must have serviced it.

[00:20:58] And every job we could think of to make it fit for the journey and that was it we never saw ever again.

[00:21:04] So yeah there were lots of lots of funny moments back then with the local cars coming and going and that was all before I joined us in which was in 1990.

[00:21:13] Going back to your room traveling around in your parents cars or your dad's car did your mom drive as well or not.

[00:21:18] Yeah yeah so that was a big thing because back then most of the mums didn't drive you know when I was a kid.

[00:21:24] Okay.

[00:21:25] If you had somebody who had a mum who could drive well that opened up all sorts of opportunities that meant you could all go to the Wimpy for someone's birthday.

[00:21:32] The mum could drive you know.

[00:21:34] So my mum she learned to drive in about I guess about I would have been about four or five and the car that my dad bought her was a Reliant Regal.

[00:21:44] A free wheel van.

[00:21:45] A free wheel van.

[00:21:46] Yeah exactly but the saloon version with the reverse back window and that's what she learned to drive with and had as her first car.

[00:21:53] And then it must have only been about a year or so later my dad found a Morris minor convertible for sale on the paper and he went and bought it for about 200 quid and then fully restored it for her.

[00:22:03] Okay.

[00:22:04] So it was a 1955 Series 2 split windscreen minor convertible.

[00:22:09] Nice.

[00:22:10] And it was black red leather but my dad always had to change things a little bit so he painted the wheel and the same with our bikes actually if we had a new bike we'd tell him what we wanted and he'd get one and paint it whatever color we wanted.

[00:22:22] So that was our sort of life back then.

[00:22:24] So the Moggy had maroon wheels at the grill slats were painted maroon as well.

[00:22:30] Okay.

[00:22:31] Obviously non-standard but it kind of really looked quite smart and looked good on the car and it had a color maroon color roof.

[00:22:37] But it had a 1098 engine in it so my dad took the late 03 out of it put a 1098 A Series in there.

[00:22:44] Yeah.

[00:22:45] And as a result if we ever went to a car show you say oh come on dad open the bonnet.

[00:22:49] He'd go no no no no it's not original and I'm not opening the bonnet.

[00:22:52] You know he was really like nope no one's looking at it don't want to get dissed for having a non original car because back then if you went to a car show most things were just as they were.

[00:23:00] You know it was all about originality and the car was at that point it was 20 years old so it was kind of morphing from being an old car into what was the classic car scene as it was getting going in the early 70s really.

[00:23:12] And one day we went along to this car show I think it was Stanford Hall and it was called the Morris Minor Owners Club.

[00:23:20] And I think it was the first ever Morris Minor Owners Rally and we were there as kids you know with about I don't know how many cars were there but there was a number of cars.

[00:23:29] So yeah we were kind of as a family we were right in the beginning of what is now known as the kind of classic car movement.

[00:23:35] And in those days you could buy a magazine called Furobe and Classic Cars and that was pretty much it.

[00:23:40] You know there weren't all the other publications that we've got now.

[00:23:43] So yeah I kind of grew up with that and then by the time I was at that age in the 80s when I was tinkering with stuff then I was an avid reader of practical classics.

[00:23:52] That was my absolute Bible you know that was where I knew I could read about cars and I was a fan of classic cars.

[00:23:58] I could read about cars that I could maybe one day buy myself but I'd also read the classic car magazine as well for the more glamorous stuff you know.

[00:24:06] So yeah I was right at that early age I was into cars that I knew I could one day have but also interested in the cars that I was working on you know.

[00:24:14] Were you an only child or have you got siblings? A few of you rolling around in the back of the Reliant?

[00:24:19] Well yeah I've got a younger brother two years younger than me and he doesn't do cars at all.

[00:24:25] You know he absolutely doesn't do cars. His son does and it's quite funny because he always says I've got your son.

[00:24:31] So Louis really should be mine. Louis is a big classic car man but they live in the middle of nowhere in Belgium.

[00:24:37] So poor old Louis doesn't get a chance to see a lot of cars so when they come to England we always try and do stuff with Louis and show him things.

[00:24:43] My dad's still got an old car as well he's got an MGB.

[00:24:46] Oh fantastic.

[00:24:47] So yeah so we always make sure Louis gets to go out in one of the older cars but it looks like it's going to go into another generation in the family.

[00:24:54] Which would be great you know I know that grandfather would love that if he could see that you know.

[00:24:58] So Tony and I would be in the back of the Morris you know no seat belts of course.

[00:25:02] I don't ever remember wearing a seat belt as a kid they weren't invented really.

[00:25:06] So we were in the back and the heater in a Morris Minor wasn't particularly brilliant.

[00:25:10] It was like a biscuit barrel that was underneath the dashboard.

[00:25:14] And it just had a single knob that apparently just turned it up and down but it never did anything other than make a noise really.

[00:25:21] It's more like a pebble polisher if you remember one of those.

[00:25:23] So it would make a funny clattering noise and occasionally you might feel a little whiff of heat if you were right on top of the air vent.

[00:25:29] That was the wiring.

[00:25:30] Yeah probably before the wiring building out but there was no heat in the back whatsoever so my mum my mum knitted a blanket.

[00:25:37] So we had like a knitted blanket in the back of the car which if it was cold that was what we wrapped around ourselves to keep warm you know.

[00:25:45] And you said it was a cabriolet is that right?

[00:25:46] Yeah.

[00:25:47] So there's wind getting in from every direction.

[00:25:49] It's like the worst tent you've ever been in.

[00:25:51] Yeah everywhere oh yeah.

[00:25:53] It was always drafty you could feel the drafter around your neck.

[00:25:56] But to be fair you know I love that car and when I passed my driving test my dad said go on then take the Morris and go out for half an hour.

[00:26:04] Don't do anything silly and then come straight back.

[00:26:07] So yeah yeah of course and in those days you couldn't text your mate and say I'm on my way so I just thought I hope he's in and then shot down to my mate's house.

[00:26:15] Beep beep beep beep beep you know on the horn bang bang bang on the door.

[00:26:18] He comes running out he knew obviously that I took the test and he was waiting to see what the result would be.

[00:26:23] Yeah.

[00:26:24] So he jumps in quickly unreleased the hood drop the hood back you know and then off we went dashing around the village in this thing with a roof down.

[00:26:31] Literally a lap of the village then back dropped him off put the roof back up and straight back home before anybody had missed me you know.

[00:26:37] So that was my first ever solo in a car you know or legally anyway I might have occasionally drifted onto the main road at work because where we worked we had a forecourt.

[00:26:46] And my job is to be the help put the cars away at night time.

[00:26:49] And sometimes accidentally on purpose I'd overshoot the forecourt and then have to drive up the road turn around and come back.

[00:26:56] So I had driven on the highways but without a license but only just moving cars around so driving the moggy was the first solo really.

[00:27:03] What happened to that car in the end Steve?

[00:27:05] Gone for a while or?

[00:27:07] Yeah so we had it for a while and then again my mum had a metro so my dad said right I think it's time you know the Morris is getting on a bit you need a more modern car.

[00:27:15] So we had a D-Reg Metro which would have been probably about three years old and it had come from the Channel Islands.

[00:27:21] It's been a rental car so very very low mileage like four thousand miles on it or something.

[00:27:26] And so she had that and then the Morris was then laid up in the neighbour's garage and then occasionally would come out for a quick blast around the block but pretty much didn't really move for a while.

[00:27:36] I was going to buy it myself and then suddenly I was shown a car or somebody at work said I've got this Ford Pop.

[00:27:43] Okay.

[00:27:44] And it's really original and he was going to hot rod it but as soon as he realised it had got the original engine in it he changed his mind so if you want to buy it it's 200 quid.

[00:27:51] So I ended up buying this Ford Pop which was a Ford 100E popular so like the square shaped one.

[00:27:57] And so because of that, that meant I couldn't have the Morris as well so I ended up letting the Morris go.

[00:28:03] Fair enough.

[00:28:05] So I think I've just left school and I've been fixing up lawn mowers painting them up selling them for 50 quid.

[00:28:12] Yeah.

[00:28:13] So I've sold enough lawn mowers and had enough money to buy the Ford.

[00:28:16] And I always remember we would go back at lunchtime to go and fiddle with this thing to get it to run because at first time I saw it wasn't a runner.

[00:28:24] So we managed to get this thing up and running which involved a fairy liquid bottle and a pipe because there was no fuel from the back of the car.

[00:28:31] So we managed to rig this thing up and we drove it during one lunchtime from the village down the road to the village where the garage was.

[00:28:38] And we pulled onto the forecourt and it was like a patchwork quilt.

[00:28:41] It had been brush painted silver on the two-tone sort of section.

[00:28:44] Front wings were black, there was rust everywhere so all the guys in the workshop came out to have a laugh and have a look.

[00:28:49] And everybody was cheering and laughing and suddenly my dad disappeared and my dad was really cool.

[00:28:54] Everybody else wore brown coloured overalls but my dad wore white ones because he was the boss.

[00:28:59] And he comes out and he's like Clint Eastwood, he's got a cigar in his mouth and he sees the car and he goes, you know, it's a big long drawn cigar.

[00:29:08] And everybody is just looking at him, everybody stops laughing and all looking at him and he just goes, just blows the smoke out and just shakes his head slowly and walks away.

[00:29:18] And I'm like, I think that's a yes.

[00:29:21] And that was it, he knew there was no way he could talk me out of it so unfortunately for him that was coming home basically.

[00:29:28] And it was delivered on the back of a Ford Transit 3.0 litre car transporter so really kind of rough looking thing this.

[00:29:36] And the engine that had gone into it was the engine that was going to go into the pop.

[00:29:40] So the story was the V6 engine that this guy had got was going to go into the 100E and then he opened the bonnet and saw the side valve.

[00:29:47] Stuck the engine into the very vehicle that was going to deliver it and drop it on the driveway, you know.

[00:29:52] So yeah, that was that. And then for the next year or so my dad and I restored the car at home.

[00:29:57] Or rather my dad did, well I watched him really if I'm being honest.

[00:30:00] I did all the labouring and my poor old dad lay underneath this thing with it spitting, you know, it's like brazing and welding it all back together.

[00:30:07] And it's welded and stuff was spitting all over him and he just sort of shake his head and look at me every now and again.

[00:30:12] But it was fantastic, he did a lovely job on it.

[00:30:16] Painted it at home as well, sprayed it at home, but to like, you know, flat and polished like a Rolls Royce would be, you know.

[00:30:22] So it did look amazing when it was finished.

[00:30:24] And then basically I had that on the road for only a few months.

[00:30:28] And then one day another car trader came in and said that he'd got this Ford console and he didn't know what it was worth.

[00:30:35] Would I go and have a look at it for him?

[00:30:37] And I was only about 18 at the time.

[00:30:39] So I went over to look at this car and looked at it and thought, wow, that looks amazing.

[00:30:44] It was a big black Mark 1 console, red leather, column shift gear change.

[00:30:49] And it has got about 19,000 miles on the clock.

[00:30:53] So it was a real time warp car, you know.

[00:30:55] And in the end one thing led to another and I decided to buy it.

[00:31:00] So for 1250 quid I bought this console.

[00:31:02] So we had to sell the 100E and then yeah, the Connie was my second car.

[00:31:08] So in hindsight, Steve, do you wish you kept the Morris?

[00:31:10] Oh yeah, of course.

[00:31:11] Yeah.

[00:31:12] I mean, I wish I'd bought the Morris.

[00:31:13] I wish I'd kept all of them and the Ford was great.

[00:31:16] The 100E was really underpowered.

[00:31:18] I mean, if you've ever driven one, they are so, it's only got three gears and being a Ford of that era.

[00:31:23] So the gearbox is like first, second and fourth.

[00:31:26] So you've got nothing in between and you can't really rev it that much.

[00:31:30] So you try to get any real momentum going was quite tricky.

[00:31:34] And I also reverted it back to vacuum powered wipers because I thought it'd be original.

[00:31:38] But I realized why it had been converted to electric because when you went up a hill, the wipers stopped.

[00:31:43] The more you accelerated and the more the engine labored, the more they slowed down until they stopped completely.

[00:31:49] But that didn't matter because you were going so slowly.

[00:31:51] It didn't really matter if anything was in front of you because you were never going to hit anything because you weren't going that fast.

[00:31:56] So yeah, that was it was a great little car and I wish I'd kept it.

[00:31:59] But actually, the console was a much better car for an 18 year old to be rocking around in.

[00:32:04] And then I got a girlfriend.

[00:32:06] So I had a girlfriend who lived in Leicester and that was quite a commute between where I lived and Leicester.

[00:32:10] So my dad said, you know what?

[00:32:12] You need to get yourself a run around really and then keep the console for the weekends.

[00:32:16] And that's what really led to this Allegro, which was being sold by somebody we knew.

[00:32:20] 450 quid, I think it was.

[00:32:22] And so my dad said, well, let's go have a look at it.

[00:32:25] So we went down to look at this thing and again, it was beige.

[00:32:28] It had a vinyl roof on it, but the vinyl had faded so it looked like a leather jacket.

[00:32:33] At that time, very popular fashion thing was like these kind of dark tan colored leather jackets that were like a motley effect.

[00:32:40] Sort of stonewashed almost, weren't they?

[00:32:42] Yeah, that's it. Like a sphere like that but on leather.

[00:32:45] My dad had one, I'm sure.

[00:32:46] Well, my vinyl roof was like that.

[00:32:48] I think Curly Watts had one in Coronation Street in sort of late 80s, early 90s.

[00:32:52] That's it. You're right. Yeah, you're right.

[00:32:54] It's worth a Google if anyone wants to know what that is.

[00:32:57] We'll have to have a look at that.

[00:32:59] And so my vinyl roof was like that.

[00:33:01] So it had this kind of quite cool looking mottled vinyl roof.

[00:33:05] One of the selling features of the car was it had a sticker in the back window and it said,

[00:33:10] Evening Telegraph through the local newspaper.

[00:33:12] And the logo on the newspaper was Evening Telegraph.

[00:33:15] It's right up your street.

[00:33:16] But the guy selling it to me was probably in his 20s had peeled off some of the letters.

[00:33:20] So it said, Up yours on the back of the car.

[00:33:23] And it was like, Look at that.

[00:33:25] And I'm like, Oh yeah, wow.

[00:33:26] You know, so that was like a selling feature of this car.

[00:33:29] And because it drove all right, you know, 450 quid change hands.

[00:33:32] And that was my modern day car, you know, it actually drove all right.

[00:33:36] The only problem was it smokes like a Red Arrows jet.

[00:33:39] So if I went down a road and put my foot down, the smoke coming out the back,

[00:33:44] that'd be like a curly kind of vapor trowel like a Red Arrows jet,

[00:33:48] like a smoky kind of blue color.

[00:33:50] And you could see it hanging over the road in my view mirror.

[00:33:53] If you're on a long road, it was really, really bad.

[00:33:55] Amusing that today that kind of smoke screen things so sort of synonymous

[00:33:59] with Aston Martin and James Bond given your day job that you were there first.

[00:34:05] Yeah, exactly. Little did I know.

[00:34:08] Fantastic. Yeah. Thank you very much for sharing some brilliant tales with us.

[00:34:12] I think they've been some wonderful stories.

[00:34:14] Really good. Good stuff. Brilliant.

[00:34:16] We enjoyed it. Yeah, I have a habit of talking too much.

[00:34:18] So sorry about that. Hopefully you can edit something out of it all.

[00:34:21] Absolutely. Yeah, there's a lot of good stuff in there.

[00:34:23] I think we'll keep a lot of it.

[00:34:24] It would be fascinating to chat with you for hours and hours and hours.

[00:34:27] Brilliant. Well, you know where I am.

[00:34:29] So if you want to talk about something else another time,

[00:34:31] then give us a shout, you know.

[00:34:32] Fantastic. We really appreciate it.

[00:34:34] Thanks, Steve. Brilliant. Thanks ever so much.

[00:34:36] Really nice to meet you both and best of luck with the whole thing.

[00:34:38] You know, it's really good. Enjoy listening to it.

[00:34:40] Cheers, Steve. Take care. Bye bye.

[00:34:42] Cheers. Bye bye. Bye.

[00:34:44] There we go.

[00:34:45] That's some tales there, wasn't there? Really good.

[00:34:47] Yeah, loads of them.

[00:34:48] We ended up on some tangents, but they were good ones, weren't they?

[00:34:51] Yeah. Yeah, definitely one of those people, Steve.

[00:34:54] You could literally talk to him all day, couldn't you?

[00:34:56] And he'd just go off story after story.

[00:34:58] I felt a bit bad calling him to a halt,

[00:35:00] but we've got other things to do today.

[00:35:03] Well, yeah, that's it.

[00:35:07] At some point I've got to edit this.

[00:35:09] Yeah, it's true.

[00:35:11] That is good. It's funny, the British Leyland sort of allegiances.

[00:35:16] Some people were really kind of into it, weren't they?

[00:35:19] And would never sort of leave it for anything.

[00:35:21] Whereas I think my dad, for whatever reason, was strongly against it.

[00:35:25] Like he just wouldn't dabble with them at all for whatever reason.

[00:35:28] Maybe he got his fingers back or something at some point.

[00:35:31] Yeah, I think so.

[00:35:32] Maybe it was, I don't know,

[00:35:34] whether back in the day you kind of either went to a Ford garage

[00:35:36] or you went to a Rover garage and potentially they didn't cross over.

[00:35:39] So actually, if you're a chosen mechanic, kind of specialised in British Leyland,

[00:35:43] then naturally you'd buy the one that the mechanic was best suited to.

[00:35:47] Yeah, love that old sort of throwback as well to older people

[00:35:52] being prim and proper and just having a car that's big enough

[00:35:55] and don't need anything bigger than that.

[00:35:57] That's just silly.

[00:35:59] Quite the opposite to modern day world really, isn't it?

[00:36:02] The image of him turning up kind of in a suit

[00:36:06] or kind of a shirt and tie with a brass band playing

[00:36:09] at this kind of juxtaposition of this tiny beige Metro.

[00:36:13] Yeah, I look forward to seeing what AI can do with that one.

[00:36:16] Yeah, yeah, that sounds quite funny, doesn't it?

[00:36:18] Sounds almost like a Benny Hill sketch following this.

[00:36:21] Crossed with sort of Mr Bean or something.

[00:36:24] Yeah, very good.

[00:36:25] Nice reference for Wimpy after we kind of touched on Happy Eater the other week.

[00:36:29] Yeah, yeah.

[00:36:30] Or sorry, Little Chef, didn't we?

[00:36:32] Have you got any Wimpy's around your way?

[00:36:34] I've still got a few around my neck of the woods.

[00:36:36] Yeah, there's still one in town, yeah.

[00:36:38] Yeah, I think I drove past one earlier in the week, funny enough,

[00:36:40] and sort of thought it was worth a mention on the podcast at some point

[00:36:43] and lo and behold, there it is.

[00:36:45] I remember having a birthday party at Wimpy actually

[00:36:47] and they had a Mr Wimpy, there was a character.

[00:36:49] Was there? I didn't know that.

[00:36:51] Like Ronald McDonald.

[00:36:52] I think he looked a bit like a beef eater, you know,

[00:36:54] like you get the Tower of London.

[00:36:55] Right.

[00:36:56] McDonald's must have been fully booked Andy that week then or something if you were...

[00:36:59] I did have some McDonald's ones as well,

[00:37:01] I think the Wimpy obviously with the knife and fork element,

[00:37:03] maybe slightly more high brow.

[00:37:05] Yeah.

[00:37:06] I wouldn't say that we were posh but...

[00:37:08] I don't know if all the McDonald's were the same

[00:37:10] but there was a ship in our branch.

[00:37:12] I thought you said something else there.

[00:37:14] No, SHIP.

[00:37:18] And that was the thing, I think you'd go in and...

[00:37:21] Oh, like an adventure playground thing?

[00:37:23] Yeah, yeah, it had a spinning wheel,

[00:37:25] that's obviously like the golden seat to be at the wheel.

[00:37:27] Oh, okay.

[00:37:28] I think you've got a little tour of the kitchen as well perhaps.

[00:37:30] Yeah, I remember the McDonald's used to have seats that looked like mushrooms.

[00:37:33] Yeah, that's it, yeah, yeah.

[00:37:35] They sat on those and then...

[00:37:37] It was a real treat.

[00:37:38] Yeah, you got a tour of the kitchen

[00:37:39] and then someone came out dressed as Ronald McDonald,

[00:37:41] sometimes the Hamburglar.

[00:37:42] That's it, yeah.

[00:37:43] I don't know if you...

[00:37:44] I kind of remember as well when Burger King launched in this country

[00:37:47] and I think I had or attended a party there.

[00:37:50] Okay.

[00:37:51] And there was a guy, I think he was called Kid Vids.

[00:37:53] Okay, don't recall.

[00:37:54] And he would come out

[00:37:55] and he'd be dressed in all this ridiculous sort of 90s gear,

[00:37:58] again, worth a Google,

[00:37:59] along with Curly Watsons jacket.

[00:38:03] Yeah, I remember that.

[00:38:04] Good times.

[00:38:05] Fantastic, yeah.

[00:38:07] 80s and 90s eateries.

[00:38:09] Yeah, some brilliant stories from Steve,

[00:38:11] very grateful for him coming on

[00:38:13] and yeah, a real mixture of kind of stuff between his day job,

[00:38:16] obviously for Aston Martin and pottering around in Austin Allegro's.

[00:38:20] Yeah, I was expecting to talk about Aston Martin's for half an hour,

[00:38:23] but instead we were talking about Allegro's

[00:38:27] and smoky things.

[00:38:29] A nice break from his day job

[00:38:31] and I think actually for what we do,

[00:38:33] probably more fascinating and more interesting.

[00:38:35] Yeah, yeah.

[00:38:36] It would be interesting to know the stories behind cars

[00:38:38] he's pulled out of barns.

[00:38:39] Definitely.

[00:38:40] But yeah, the tales of kind of what his mum and his dad were driving,

[00:38:43] I think probably have more value.

[00:38:45] Yeah, you could almost do a part two, couldn't you, with Steve

[00:38:48] in a different recording?

[00:38:49] Yeah, yeah, possibly.

[00:38:51] We'll see.

[00:38:52] See how it goes, yeah.

[00:38:53] One day when we book out the Royal Albert Hall

[00:38:56] for My Dad's Car live, the 20th anniversary or something,

[00:38:59] we'll get him along to speak on stage.

[00:39:01] We'll have a brass band just for the mention of his grandfather.

[00:39:05] Cool.

[00:39:07] OK, we'll wrap it up.

[00:39:09] All right, I'll let you get on.

[00:39:10] Roll the credits.

[00:39:13] Thank you for listening to My Dad's Car.

[00:39:16] I hope you enjoyed the show.

[00:39:19] Please support us.

[00:39:22] Buy us a coffee and subscribe.

[00:39:26] And tell all your friends.

[00:39:31] Bye!