This "story" starts in october 2011 , with the chance offer to purchase a classic 1970 camper van from France , not a replacement for the Pop , but the chance to go back to owning a vehicle that we, as a family could use for holidays and weekends away. Sadly, this did not happen and with the engine problems on the Pop in may 2013 , we found ourselves with no transport. Things could change, but we have no intentions of selling the Pop, and hope to get her back on the road in the near future . But we decieded that after 9 years, it would not hurt to have a change for a while and we also decieded that we did not really want to go back to modern car ownership , if we could stay with a classic car/vehicle , we were all happy. The problem being, we are not rolling in money, and the classic car market at the moment is showing a lot of very high prices, for what is often total rubbish, or cars I would not want to own. I will try not to be drawn into too much detail of cars i have tried to purchase , but the first seller I tried to deal with, email contact was fine, but despite giving me his phone number and a time/day to phone , either did not answer , or sent me a text to say he was driving, and I never once managed to speak to him and thus never purchased the car which sold for less than I was willing to pay through ebay. The 2nd car, again on ebay ,contact was about 50% , but i did manage to go over to see the car 130 miles away by train. Sadly, it really wanted too much work for the description and price asked, and I really dont think we would have made it home the 130 miles without having to call out the AA ! Also to have put it right would have needed extra money which we did not have and trying to find parts , some of which could have been very hard to find. Maybe I was wrong, but with one chance money wise to get a decent motor, I was not willing to take the chance. It also cost a fair amount to get back home, as we had only purchased single rail tickets, as I had expected to be driving the car home. On 2nd june 2013, I visited a classic car show in Nottingham, but there was nothing for sale that was of interest. Also ringing up about a car advertised on a classic car website proved a waste of time as the car had been sold a while ago , I wish people would take the trouble to take the listings off when a car is sold. The vehicles concerned were a Renault Estafette , Rover 2000 P6, Saab 96 and a Vauxhall Victor FB , ranging from 1962 to 1973.
Austin Cambridge 1954 to 1971
Introduced in 1954 as the A40 ,The Austin Cambridge went through various revamps to become the A60 in 1961. 276,534 A60'S were built along with the Morris, Riley , Wolseley and MG versions, which were all part of the Farina type built by BMC. All you could ever need to know is in the following links.
MCY168B is a Austin A60 Cambridge, first registered on 21 01 1964 .She was purchased from Launceston , Cornwall on 3 june 2013 and collected from Exeter St Davids station on the 7 june , and driven problem free the 220 miles to get home. The previous owner had put the following parts/conversions on it- The engine had a new heavy duty alternator and proper lucas 45dm4 electronic distributor instead of a cheap chinese ebay kit. To compliment the new engine, he had an exhaust system built for it from the manifold back (manifold is a BL special-tuning long centre branch type). At the same time, a recon 4 synchro MGB overdrive gearbox was fitted , which is accessible through a removable transmission tunnel which he had built for it. This setup has made the Cambridge usable even as an every-day car, infact it is quite nippy. In early 2013, all of the front suspension was stripped and all bushes replaced , and rebuilt it with MGB kingpins which were milled down to fit (as can be seen in photos). This lowers the car, gives it a slightly wider track and most importantly, allows discs to be fitted to the front to get rid of the old drums, but instead of fitting MGB discs and calipers, It is fitted with MGB V8 discs and Rover SD1 V8 big 4-pot calipers with larger Transit pads. In addition to the standard lever arm shocks, she is fitted with aftermarket MGB Spax gas telescopic shocks. He also fitted heavy-duty Vauxhall Astra ARB drop-links in place of the originals. With all of these bits and pieces on the front end, it handles quite well and stops like a new car. Before he purchased her , the previous owner put new inner and outer sills on it .
OUR OWNERSHIP A starting fault was cured by having the starter motor rebuilt and she now starts on the first touch of the key. Non working brake lights were fixed with a new switch and two cigarette lighters were fitted and she was ready for her first trip out, which was the Amerton steam gala. A few days later and we set off to France for the annual trip to the Le Mans 24 heures race . Whilst there we attended the "classic British welcome" at Saint Saturnin, where she drew a lot of attention and comment. The 800 odd mile return trip was a pleasure to do ,cruising speed being around 70mph and she did not require any oil or water. A attempt to set her up to run less "lumpy" was made and she was tuned on a rolling road and fitted with a new needle in the Carburetor , resulting in a minor improvement. A trip to the kirklees light railway resulted in having to use the AA to get home, as a brake pipe had fractured , after catching something on the road , and rather than risk any problems from it, I used the safe option.
EVENTS/RAILWAYS VISITED. JUNE 2013. Amerton steam gala. Saint Saturnin classic British welcome [France] Le Mans 24 hours. [France] JULY 2013 Abbey pumping station railway gala ,Leicester. Cloud 9 cars classic car gathering ,Giltbrook Notts. August 2013. Belgium trip Stoomcentrum Maldegem Belgium . Romney Hythe and Dymchurch railway. September 2013 . Kirklees light railway. 2014 BELGIUM TRIP Kirklees light railway gala . 2015 Stanton gala ,Rutland rly museum. Appleby Frodingham rly . Midland rly centre Butterley. Abbey light railway remains [closed] Leeds industrial museum. Chasewater rly Peak rail Matlock . Ketton cement works , Rutland. Derby model engineers society . Lutterworth carnival. Middleton railway Hunslet gala . Holland trip. Breda Gelderse Smalspoor Stichting , Holland. R.T.M. Ouddorp Holland . Stoomtrein Goes-Borsele Stoomtrein Katwijk Leiden , Holland Bure Valley railway Kirklees light railway gala. Rudyard Lake steam gala.
2016. HOLLAND TRIP . BREDA hotel . Day 1 RTM Ouddorp . Holland. Day 2 Amstel park Amsterdam . Day 3 STOOMTREIN KATWIJK , LEIDEN .