by 8 boston square » 14 Jul 2019, 03:04
The photo was taken in the summer of 1966 in an un- made Boston Square, my first car! A Ford Cortina 1200 de luxe from King's in Tower Street, Kings Lynn, next to the Model Shop. It cost 465 pounds 2nd hand and for those of you watching in black and white the colour was Imperial Maroon and Ascot Grey. I had a vacuum guage fitted, oil pressure guage and amp meter as well, just like a GT without the rev counter and the performance! Top speed was a claimed 77 mph, 12.7 seconds to 50 mph.What this did was give me options on a Sunday night so my Kit Kat days were now in decline. I could have the weekend in Peterborough with my brother or lure a young lady out for the night. It had done 28000 miles when I got it, it originally belonged to a local farmer I was told, BPW441B are you out there?
I sold it in 1969, I was living in Bedfordshire by now and the Kit Kat was now just a good memory and working as a relief manager for John Collier, Saturday nights I used to call in at the area manager's to see where I was going the next week, remember not many people had telephones in those days, he did and only one shop on his area did. As I drove down I saw a car for sale in a drive way for 310 pounds, it was a Ford Corsair V4 in turquoise/blue and a white roof, had done 66000 miles and a plate of CBM657C it had a 2 band radio as well!! Went for a drive in it and paid 305 pounds, what a car, the engine was almost silent, I had to wind the window down see if it had fired up and the suspension was very soft, the front used to lift on take off like those American cars did, small gear stick and well back changing gear was not quick but a lovely car to drive, top speed 88 mph, this was really living!!
It only lasted until 6th of January 1970 when I was driving back to Flitwick on the A6 dual carriage way when some teenager driving an Austin Healy 3000 lost control in the other carriageway and jumped over into mine and stopped, I ended up in a field and lucky to survive with just a broken wrist, the car was write off naturally, I was off work for about 2 months till the cuts in my knees healed and then I got another Corsair this time a 2000E-Marroon with a vinyl roof and cream coloured interior, top speed 99mph, I think we should call it 100!
This of course takes us well past Kit Kat days but I expect that many of you out there will recall your first car and changing them as you went through life, a time for relection.