Please! – No More Old Cars in Old Magazines

More paper-bound time capsules!

We’ll round off this short series of articles with something slightly different – Collections.

A rather significant proportion of car fans also seem to be avid collectors of ‘stuff’ – whether it’s memorabilia related to your favourite vehicles or just things from the period your car is from, we do like to accumulate things, especially garage related.

Back in 1983 / 1984, Marshall Cavendish combined those two things and produced a 72 part collection of 65p weekly magazines called ‘Car Fix It’ which was subsequently expanded and re-released in the following years.

It was aimed at the ‘potterer & tinkerer’ rather than the full blown mechanic but provided a good insight into what it took to maintain a vehicle in the early 80’s (which generally meant a mid to late 70’s car!).

Where else would you begin other than the perennial ‘why won’t it start?’ 😉

There are pages devoted to such things distributors, points & condensers that the younger motorist may not even have heard of and the Ford Sierra XR4i with its double spoiled is held up as an example of aerodynamic modernity.  

When was the last time you heard a vehicle Cd number mentioned, and yet it was all the rage in the 80’s as the wind tunnels informed car design – many would claim it eroded the uniqueness of individual models and led us to the ‘Euro-Box’ design we have now.

Further on you will find another popular 80’s pastime mentioned – fitting your own car alarm!

As I recall it, the thing most of us were concerned about was could it close our doors and windows remotely and make a show of itself as it locked & unlocked.

The more things change, the more they stay the same.

The talk in the 80’s was all about the future (sound familiar?).

The Maestro was sporting a futuristic electronic dashboard and the chat was all about Electric Vehicles taking over the roads.

It’s only taken another 40 years for that to become a reality!

Look at the quoted range of the electric vehicles – You would struggle to go to Glasgow and back from Ayrshire for a shopping trip.

Maybe not a bad thing….

What about the latest in mobile communications?

This was before mobile phones were mass market, so the thing all the cool kids had in their cars was a CB Radio, replete with a very long spring mounted aerial.

Breaker 1-9……

We’d all seen Convoy I guess.

I can’t imagine there being a market for a collection like this for modern cars as they actively dissuade the user from tinkering by design – some don’t even have dipsticks these day.

Hope you enjoyed this little series – get in touch if you have any ideas for future articles.

All the best & Stay Safe!