Our first car - a 1929 Austin 7 special, registration NV 111. Bought for £52 in London in 1958 and worth at least half of that!

I didn't know a lot about old cars, but it only took a couple of days to find out that there was no effective clutch. The operating fork was so worn that bracing myself against the seat and pushing with full force would just make it slip when in gear. As for engaging first when idling - forget it. Fortunately, it had a good starter and battery, so I rolled up to traffic lights, slipped it into first and swiched off. When the light turned green, heave down on the clutch, push the starter button and away to go!

Took about a week to realise it had no effective brakes - emergency stop was not something the car understood, particularly downhill. Luckily, it was quite a narrow car and I could usually squeeze through the widening gap left by panicking drivers of new cars.

Setting off into the West End to Ballads & Blues one Saturday evening, a guy pulled alongside at traffic lights and said the rear wheel was wobbling. He was right, and I drove slowly to the local garage and said I thought the halfshaft had started to fail. The mechanic said they didn't do that - they just broke and the wheel fell off. He told me to push it over to the side (easier than using the non-clutch) and he would look at it. Anne sat behind the wheel, I pushed - and the wheel fell off! I carried a spare halfshaft after that, and twice replaced it at the side of the road.

Leaving London in 1960, I filled the tank up for the first time (it took almost 4 gallons!) checking carefully with the mahogany dipstick notched with 1/4 gallon marks. Poor thing wasn't used to a full tank, and the SU electric fuel pump alongside the tank decided to stop every 50 miles. Pulling onto the verge to encourage it to work again (a sharp blow with a hammer did the trick) I managed to split the silencer on a rock. We had a much more sporty exhaust note for the rest of the journey.

Sadly, a young family and lack of money to restore it meant that we had to sell it in 1963 - for £75, including a few better parts I had acquired.

Seriously, I would love to have it now - I have the time and money to make it work as it should.

I will post a photo when I find it - note the pressurised radiator (a non-standard feature). If there were any warning signs of steam after a fast run, you simply operated the soda-syphon cap to reduce the pressure - simplicity itself.

Phil