Journeys with my Gun

(58) The Way of the Car

Photo (1993) My Nissan 300zx ©️🆎

Nobody has wasted more money on cars than me, I try to rationalise the affliction with spruiking that cars were our way of travel and entertainment when we were young and broke.
We have travelled much of Australia and a lot by car, in some cars that were horrors from hell as that was the pommy car period of badly built versions and at that time, not much better here.
I immediately think of my 'Commer' which I finally dumped where I thought it might find a good home, it was guilty of doors flying open in flight and like many other beasts, it was hard to start.

I then had a nasty little grey 1960 Morris Minor 1000, riddled with rust, my first car after finally settling down after Vietnam.
I could drive cars in the 'Morris' days thanks to my outback experience and I dragged it around town until I thought I was ready for a driving test and so it was.
I am reminded now of the Morris Minor 'Traveler' Military Police Patrol cars in England, although they are a collectors item now, I hated the bloody things.
Anyway, next for me was the seasick green Frog 🐸 which lived with us at Wagga Wagga in the mid 60's.
It resided at the top of our steep driveway which I may have mentioned earlier, however it had to be clutch started by rolling it down past the house at terrifying speed into the backyard, missing the washing line and back fence whilst hoping not to get bogged.
The Frog was a Holden of the period which seeped gunk onto the surface of wherever it sat and for an encore, the bloody thing rolled over near a rail crossing on my way back home from football in Cootamundra NSW.
I may have helped it a bit, my mate Red was asleep on the back seat and remained so when the Frog righted itself and continued home. That event followed a rugby game with a frozen chook outside a pub in the town.

The Frog eventually found itself sitting on the road outside of 'Hartwigs' car sales in Wagga where it was traded in on a nice grey and white FB Holden which behaved itself for a few years and got us to Adelaide and back to Wagga in the Army days, as well as all over the Riverina district and up and down to Sydney whilst I was posted there and Rhonda was still in Wagga.

There however, was a small problem, when overtaking in the rain, the useless windscreen wipers would have to be manually operated by Rhonda putting her hand under the dashboard and moving the connected bar to and fro. Acceleration robbed the wiper motor of power.
It was the first of many cars I should have kept.
A bad experience was with the first of my two HR Holdens, the local garage failed to replace the motor oil and weaselled their way out of it .
My first car prior to Vietnam was a fast back Vanguard, one of the dreadful Pommy 'landcrabs' which had one gear missing ! I bought it from a mate in my Army training days for approximately  $50 and I used to just sit in it when it rained.

One of my favourite cars was a RX4 rotary Mazda, well before it was declared that the rotary engines were a disaster.
Rotary engines due to poor engine design caused incomplete combustion which increased fuel/oil consumption and pumped out high emissions. I was fortunate with my RX4 as I never had any problems and of course rotary engines eventually found their way back into the Bathurst 1000 race.
Notably Alan Moffat raced an RX7 successfully as well as other teams.
Now it has been reported that rotary engines are installed in some electric cars as they supposedly increase fuel range.
Farewell to my yellow RX4 as I couldn't help it ! then into a V8 Ford during the great days of their reign, that thing of mine was very fast and included a wind back sun roof so that 'Rommel' our gorgeous German Shepherd could stand on the back seat, sticking his head out of the 'turret'whilst menacing anyone who came close. He did look like the WW2 Rommel in action.

Cars appeared of course in our time in England, an aforementioned mini clubman and a nauseous green Basil Fawlty car.
Then after arriving home from two years in England we picked up our jackal coloured, brown vinyl roof XC GXL Ford the forerunner of the mighty Fords of Moffat/ Bond fame in the 1977 Bathurst race.
My ford was known as an 'orphan' in dealer circles, as it had a 6 cylinder engine which I had ordered whilst in England, I think in that configuration it was rare.
Anyway although looking good it leaked like a sieve and nothing seemed to stop rain pouring in through the top of the doors. So it was given its marching orders.
A friend of mine also returning at the same time from England purchased a Ford station wagon but it wasn't long before he hit a horse, writing the thing off and looking at the damage if he had his wife aboard, it would have been a terrible tragedy.