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50th Birthday question :)


Jeffds1360

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I've just found out that my car was built on 4/12/70 !!!

Plum was first registered 15/6/71.... so..... shall I have two 50th parties? One belated and one in hopefully better and warmer times? Oh... decisions decisions   :) 

Is it not unusual for a car to sit about for 6 months I wonder?

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Born and raised in Coventry all the car factories had parking lots around city for the new cars, in some cases just before moving them to become a showroom queen.  My GT6 came off the production line 21 Nov 67 but first registered 1 Jan 69.

Nothing new:

https://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/standard-motor-company-history-coventry-15803806

But this perhaps a bit Covid extreme!

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8290433/Old-RAF-airbase-packed-35m-worth-cars-wants-amid-covid-19-crisis.html

Dick

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On 06/12/2020 at 17:43, Jeffds1360 said:

I've just found out that my car was built on 4/12/70 !!!

Plum was first registered 15/6/71.... so..... shall I have two 50th parties? One belated and one in hopefully better and warmer times? Oh... decisions decisions   :) 

Is it not unusual for a car to sit about for 6 months I wonder?

Belated happy birthday wishes to Plum.!  

Of course, it was not usual (..in my family) to celebrate ones own registration certificate with the Office of Births and Deaths, nor even the day we might have been Christened - so why celebrate the registration date of your car ?  That said.. I do with my old bikes   :P

Pete

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I recall being on a Summer holiday job, sub-apprentice and floor sweeper at a local MG Dealer - they did six or eight apprentices in one dealer in those days!

One day, the apprentices and I were told to report early next morning.  We were bussed to Oxford, where the company had a pound - that had become a pond, flooded with sewage (!).    Dozens of MGBs had been flooded, up to the windscreens.   Our job was to strip out the trim, and throw it in a skip, while our foreman went around with a big battery and a plug spanner, turning all the engines over to expel the water.   It was like a school of whales!

The cars went back to the trim shop and were retrimmed and sold, so if anyone has ever come across a B, that even faintly smelled of poo in bad weather, you know why.

JOhn

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Thanks Bfg. Of course it is the Build/Birth day we should celebrate!. Not many peeps get that car information though. Plum got some new additions.... reversing and rear fog lights. It starts on the button and purrs now I've sorted the throttle return. All I need to do now is sex it :( . No idea where to start.... it's not an iit.pleased I've never had a B JOhn :) ATB all.

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16 hours ago, Jeffds1360 said:

Thanks Bfg. Of course it is the Build/Birth day we should celebrate!. Not many peeps get that car information though. Plum got some new additions.... reversing and rear fog lights. It starts on the button and purrs now I've sorted the throttle return. All I need to do now is sex it :( . No idea where to start.... it's not an iit.pleased I've never had a B JOhn :) ATB all.

Plum is a great name..  Like yourself I find naming a vehicle isn't necessarily based on 'its' registration number,  for example my '66 S-type Jaguar was beautiful, exceedingly elegant and tbh dressed in red - a Flirt !  ..and so that became her affectionate pet name.  Conversely, a 1955 Sunbeam motorcycle I sold just a couple of years ago was registered HVS and so was known as 'Hovis'  ..quite appropriate for the era.  Another bike came from Renfew  (Scotland) and so that name stuck. 

Both my present 1953 Sunbeams each have the registration NXN and there was no way I would name a British motorcycle Nixon !  ..so I was pondering about this on the way back from collecting her, taking her home with me inside my Chrysler Voyager.  The bike's front wheel was poking through between the driver and passenger seat, and as the drove back the wheel gentle nudged against my elbow.  It was just like a little old grandma, a little excited in the back seat going out for a jolly ride, nudging me when she wanted to say something.  The name 'Nudge' stuck. 

Six months later I brought home her sister, which is also NXN.  Although also a '53 Sunbeam, she is the S7 model with fat tyres.  Perhaps a little teasingly she became known in the family as 'Pudge '.  I also owned a very sad looking project bike (yet another Sunbeam) and she was known as 'Grudge '.  And so it goes on.  I had fourteen motorcycles and two classic cars at one time so naming them was the only way we could keep track of what we were talking about.  They are all feminine, but perhaps that only because it sounds less daft to me ..being affectionate towards the fairer sex.  Mind you - they can also be bloody obstinate ..in only the way 'the fairer sex' can be. !  B)  

I did however have a military-green coloured BMW at one time who was a Herman.  I had a huge respect for the power and stance of that bike, but not a lot of affection.  It was very much a He. :ph34r:

Pete

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2 hours ago, Pete Lewis said:

whats yours called  ?????

Toby and Tessa were both names inherited from the previous owner. The GT6 doesn't have a name. Of the old ones, Harry came from the registration (HRY173L), as did Spike (SPK844M) and my brother's old Felix (FEL585D) and Gordon (GDN500D).

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