Guy, what kind of hobbies do you have?

[Kirbstone]

On the diving front Milfmog is the guy to talk to. He seems to be very experienced at it. On the music front I'm gobsmacked at the range of instruments you mention apart from choral singing. I find it difficult to give more than one or two instruments enough time to practice them to any sort of useful standard.
On the languages front I'm also gobsmacked. I'm not a linguist at all, but in my middle age I had to take a lot of German aboard in order to run my own business there for eight years. Some of it stays, as I regularly visit my friends there who don't speak English.
Morgans....Now you're talking. After a sail in Turkey I was accommodated overnight by one of my shipmates at his home near Guildford in S. England. He drove me back to London Gatwick airport the following day to catch my feeder flight to Dublin in his pet Morgan plus 8. This is in British Racing Green with wire wheels and has a 5.6 liter vee- eight under the handsome long bonnet. He warned me that 70 mph would feel like 100, and 100mph would feel like 140. He was right! It was a blazing late June day and we had the top down. He has a peaked cap with an under-chin strap specially for that car so it won't blow off at speed....he briefly touched two miles-a minute on the M25. (illegal of course). As he pulled in to the terminal building drop-off place a lady entering the building shouted to him that she'd go anywhere with him in that car.....A real bird puller, that's for sure !

Keep yer hat on! Tom K.

[Mugs-n-such]

That's really interesting, Kirbstone! If I ever get rich and famous (ha, ha, like that's going to happen) that's the car I'd buy, a Morgan. I was talking about them to a friend of mine who is really into cars and he said the wood on a Morgan will rot out from the inside fairly quickly, even if you keep it painted and waxed. I wonder if you had ever heard of that? I thought the wood would last as long as steel, but maybe not...
Speaking of German, I want to keep my German up because I have a friend in Germany I'd like to visit before one or the other of us dies, we're neither one of us really young anymore. She was a really good friend when I was stationed in Bayreuth, lo! 30+ years ago.
You got to ride in a real Morgan! (that's supposed to be read as a smiley of 'green with envy'). Wow, how I do envy you! I had read that they put V-8's made by BMW I think in them. What I think is cool about the Morgan is the body is straight out from the '40's or '50's but the chassis and motor are modern. I wonder if the electrical system is by Lucas? In America (maybe in UK too, I don't know) we joke about "Lucas, the prince of darkness". Of course, to be fair...or at least try to be fair, some of the MGB's problems and other cars that had Lucas may have been leaking water into the car from the not-always-watertight tops, which would not help any electrical system of course.
I drive now a '07 Hyundai Accent, and I also have as a fun car a '94 Mazda Miata. I just had a new top installed as the old one was pretty beat-up, and leaked water too! I love my Miata but a friend of mine has had hip surgery and I think he doesn't want to ride in it anymore because it's just too hard for him to get in and out of, especially out of. It's even a bit hard for me to get out of after my accident, my legs are probably only about a third as strong as they were, if that. I'm guessing.
Some of the people on this site are into sailing. I think that would be a totally fascinating hobby, but I guess even that can be dangerous, I've read in Guideposts magazine and others I think about sometimes people getting caught in freak storms or one thing and another and losing their lives. Of course it has happened in the big passenger ships too. Statistically I wonder if sailing might not still be safer than getting in the old road vehicle though...hardly anything more dangerous than the "nut behind the wheel".
Now that I think about it, I guess that's not really funny, especially after an accident...well I guess I've ranted and raved enough for now. 'Til next time, then, thanks for your post and for sharing the Morgan experience! (Morgan company owes you some money now for the advertising, lol)

[Milfmog]

You got to ride in a real Morgan! (that's supposed to be read as a smiley of 'green with envy'). Wow, how I do envy you! I had read that they put V-8's made by BMW I think in them. What I think is cool about the Morgan is the body is straight out from the '40's or '50's but the chassis and motor are modern. I wonder if the electrical system is by Lucas? In America (maybe in UK too, I don't know) we joke about "Lucas, the prince of darkness". Of course, to be fair...or at least try to be fair, some of the MGB's problems and other cars that had Lucas may have been leaking water into the car from the not-always-watertight tops, which would not help any electrical system of course.

There was a time when I liked the idea of owning a Morgan, a friend cured me of that though; he bought one, a 4/4 with a 2 litre Ford engine. I have to say that after a few short rides I was hooked, but then I saw how much time and money he spent on keeping it running and on one occasion we decided to take that to Plymouth for a diving weekend instead of my Volvo. Bad call. Noisy, uncomfortable and in practice far slower than the modern car because driving at any speed over 60mph in it was so harsh and noisy that aches and pains forced us to slow down again after a few miles.

The rot problem did not seem to affect the frame members (that "modern chassis" you speak of was made from ash) which survived our climate well enough but the floor panels had to be remade (they were supposedly marine ply, but given how fast the originals rotted I suspect interior ply). At least it was easy to make parts for the car, a sheet of ply for floor parts and, when we changed the gearbox we discovered that the transmission cover was made to fit the car so buying a new one actually resulted in the delivery of a pre-painted sheet of metal that we had to cut and drill to fit and then apply a little judicious bending.

After a few years he got rid of it and bought a V70. The Morgan had been fun on occasions, but was only suitable for a play car and certainly not something to try and live with for daily transport. Stuarts final comment on the Morgan is that it taught him immense respect for modern car designers who can produce something faster, more comfortable, more reliable with better handling and economy for less money. He is unlikely ever to buy another hand built special from any company, although he did toy with the idea of a TVR for a while...

Have fun,


Ian.

[Kirbstone]

As Milfmog says, A Morgan has to be just an extra fun car, not serious long-distance or daily transport. My friend who has the Plus 8 normally drives a Beemer 5-Series Estate waggon, which is the car he drove me to his house in the night before from Gatwick.
On a previous sailing trip in North Biscay (France), starting at Croesty, near the Mobihan, we motored there from London (Via Ferry) in two cars, the Beemer 3-liter TDI Estate and a Merc. 3.2 liter TDI Estate. We had 4-up plus sailing gear for a week. 'They' had five up. The Merc out-pulled the Beemer on every hill and long slope all the way there, even with the extra bloke aboard.
We met our tenth participant there, hired two identical 'Feeling 39's, five crew in each boat, and had a great week's sail, island-hopping along the coast. But that's another story....

Talking about danger & sailing &c.....Those of us who are still here posting after 50-60-odd years have refined the art of self preservation and don't take unnecessary risks. Sailing is supposed to be fun, so shipping weather forecasts are part of it.

[crfriend]

Talking about danger & sailing &c.....Those of us who are still here posting after 50-60-odd years have refined the art of self preservation and don't take unnecessary risks. Sailing is supposed to be fun, so shipping weather forecasts are part of it.

Hear hear!

It's not just "self preservation", mind you; it's also about "risk assessment, and that tool can be applied to most things in life including what we decide to cover ourselves with and where we do so.

Every once in a while we'll get called upon to do things that aren't so much fun, and when that's the case we tend to pick the best way to get the unpleasantness over with with the least misery; however, other than that, if one can't have fun with most things then it's a drab slog of a life. Take happiness and joy whenever you can! (Being out on the water is just one option.)

[Mugs-n-such]

Thank you Kirbstone and Milfmog and Crfriend for your inputs! I think you cured me of the desire for a Morgan. I mean, I think they do look really incredibly cool, but I am a bit of a comfort freak, so...I'm guessing that even my Miata would be more comfortable than a Morgan. Not to disparage Morgan, I still think it's a wonderful car, but it sounds like it is even more of a fun toy than my Miata. I do drive my Miata quite regularly, mainly to save putting miles on the Accent. I've had the Accent for about 3 1/2 years now and I have just over 16,000 miles on it. I drove it to work one day and when I came off work, somebody had put a dent in the passenger side just behind the door (it's a two-door) (or actually three door if you include the hatch) so I don't drive it to work anymore, I drive the Miata which already has a dent in the right front fender (was there when I bought it I believe).
As you say, there are risks to everything and even if a person were to stay home all the time, they could still get killed by a chunk of ice falling through the roof or falling down in the bathtub and so on. Having said that I think it's good to be cautious and it sounds like you folks are, I think the weather report before sailing is a wonderful thing. Life and being alive will never be 100% safe I reckon. Just enjoy the day and as a friend of mine said, every day you wake up is a day to be thankful for.
I had thought about trying to build my own car, I mean like taking the chassis and engine from a salvage yard and then trying to build my own body to look like a '30's or '40's roadster, or something like an early MG or something, but that takes time and money and a place to work on it, so I doubt I'll ever do it. At one time I wanted to build my own airplane but for the same reasons, I doubt I'll ever do it. I think it would be fun though.
Well I guess I've rambled on about enough. Thanks for the inputs though. Ciao!

[crfriend]

I'm guessing that even my Miata would be more comfortable than a Morgan.

I drove a Miata once -- it belongs to our friends in Florida. I'm tall enough that I wound up looking over the windscreen rather than through it.... Sadly, pictures do not exist.

[Mugs-n-such]

I drove a Miata once -- it belongs to our friends in Florida. I'm tall enough that I wound up looking over the windscreen rather than through it.... Sadly, pictures do not exist.

I enjoy my Miata, but no one could justly accuse it of being overly spacious. Two of my friends don't really like it because it is just too hard for them to get out of, one of them has had hip replacement surgery, and the other one has problems walking, let alone getting out of a rather low-slung car. I even have problems getting out of it, but, it is fun to drive!
I have a book on the history of the Miata by Brian Long with a Foreword by Takao Kijima, the chief engineer. He mentions that they got the name "Mazda" from
1) A slight change on "Mazdah" which I think is a lord of light and wisdom in Persian mythology (they just dropped the final "h") and
2) Almost sounds like the Japanese pronunciation of "Matsuda", the founders of the Mazda marque.
They say your first car is the one you love the best. I think there's some truth to it, my first car was a '62 Plymouth Savoy with the automatic push-button transmission. I'll always remember that car, but I think my second car was my favorite: a three-in-the-tree '52 Chevrolet. What a car! I guess that's why I like the old-time car body looks. I guess they are making a comeback in such cars as the PT Cruiser but I prefer real separate fenders, not just suggestions of them. I feel the fenders on cars like the PT cruiser are more like just suggestions of the old separate fenders. Anyway, I guess I've gone on long enough...better give someone else time to "speak". Ciao!

[Big and Bashful]

My motoring history, no classics I'm afraid, just a lot of old metal:

fiat mirafiori 1300; yellow peril
Fiat Mirafiori 1600 green heap spares for the above
Citroen 1200 GS; till I kicked it to death!
Volvo Estate 245DL; good motor
Volvo Saloon 244DL; spares for the above, cut the roof off this one, but it sagged a lot.
Ford Granada estate 2.8l; engine was sick, terminally
Datsun 280C; Rusty but good engine although had a habit of cutting out which we couldn't cure, sold to collector
Ronnie the Rover 3.5 Vanden Plas
Reggie the Rover 3.5l
Yellow Rover 2600
White Rover 2.3
Purple Rover 3.5 restore all Rovers traded to a local guy for some money and my first guitar!
Cavalier red 1600
Yellow Cortina 1.6; briefly, didn't like it, just a trade
Cortina Estate 2.0; A true banger, but worked,
Yugo Zastava; A thing of horror, but I needed some wheels after destroying my first motorbike, it's ok I kicked this one to death as well!
Ford Sierra sapphire 2.0; it worked but I couldn't like it, Ford are good at ugly motors, only car I ever bought from a garage!
Volvo 760GLE 2.8l; Great machine and stuck to the road much better than it should have.
Saab 9000 2 litre turbot; bad auto box, good engine, till it blew up. It lives on as a trailer!
Cavalier White 2.0l; Gone, and forgotten
Renault 11 1.7 l; It worked, not a thing of beauty but it was ok.
Volvo 244 auto 2 l; Mobile scrap, owned it for 24 hours then sold it.
Daimler Sovereign 4.2 l; True thirst, never had it legal on the road though.
jag XJ40 2.9l; Great machine, a few happy years with this one, when the other car was a Shogun this was my economy motor!
Bmw 320 2.0l; Aren't they small?
suzuki sj413 1.3l; A true novelty motor, 40 mph was very exiting. Pity it died.
Porche 924 2.0l; Never got this one on the road, needed money spending I didn't have, traded for a boat.
Ford granada silver 2.9l; Had this for a few years till the rot set in, literally.
Volvo 440 1.7l; Low mileage, always started but it didn't like wet weather, used this for economy alongside my Shogun which was far more fun.
Bmw 520 2.0l; handled well, 35 mpg, but kept on needing bits which all cost a lot, still got it, now it's a shed though.
Mitsubishi shogun 3.0l V6; Great short wheel base 4*4, had many good times, great off road, handled well on the road, even with mud tyres, pity many bits broke but I suppose playing in peat bogs will hurt any motor. Also lucky to get 20 mpg with this one.
Hyundai sonata 2.0l; Surprisingly good motor, more comfortable and a better drive than Ford Mondeos 8 years newer. Just needed more power or a better auto box. A good motor.
pink capri; Think this was a 1.6 l car, don't remember much more about this one, just know I didn't like it at all.
range rover 3.5 l; Bought to turn into an offroad beast, then I didn't.
range rover 3.5l; As above, did nothing with it.
landrover 2.25l deisel; And again, got rid of it once I needed to get some space back!
Grand Cherokee 4.0l LPG convert; My current chariot, a fine steed and ideal for where I live and what I need to do.

[crfriend]

B&B, now that is one heck of a lot of tin! My historical inventory positively pales in comparison.

More or less in chronological order, starting in 1978 when I was first licensed to drive:

1971 Plymouth Duster (scrapped 1992)
1980 Plymouth Horizon (wrecked 1982)
1983 Plymouth Turismo (wrecked 1984) (I'm glad that's behind me!)
1968 Dodge Dart Convertible (acquired 1983, sold 1988)
1984 Plymouth Voyager (died, 200,000 miles, original clutch, 1990)
1990 Plymouth Grand Voyager (died, 305,000 miles, 2004)
1990 Nissan 240SX (my late father's car, still in daily service)

All had/have proper names. It's just the right thing to do.

As proof positive that Murphy's Law applies to automobiles, in the mid 1980s I had three vehicles registered in my name, and at one point all three were out of service simultaneously due to mechanical faults. I was not amused.

[Kirbstone]

Motors....Who'd be without 'em. My word, B&B, You've been through more metal than they used to build the Eifel Tower! & Gummug's not far behind.
While still a student (postgraduate) I took over my father's old 1955 Ford Zephyr to tow boats for my rowing club. Its asthmatic 6-cyl. delivered 20 mpg at best, but it did the job.
My first was a new 1966 Triumph Vitesse 1600, again a 6-cylinder. I drove it to Turkey and back and had the voltage regulator fixed efficiently in Plovdiv in (then Communist) Bulgaria.
I acquired a convertible Triumph Herald with my wife, and attempts to service both cars came up against the brick wall of the need for 'special tools', so I rapidly abandoned that. Then the family arrived & with it the need for Estate cars.
Triumph 2.5 PI Estate: Smart, under-engineered and short-lived machanicals.

Enter the Alvis 1928 Vintage open four-seat Tourer straight 6, twin-cam. Former Le Mans competitor (with 2-seater bodywork), which we drove there for a race in the late '70's. It rained and blew a gale and the side screens were no real protection from that. It went well enough (up to 60 Mph), but stopping it.....Now that was quite a problem. One double-declutched down through the gears using engine braking and approached roundabouts & or traffic lights with the sort of forward planning used for interplanetary travel. ALL other motorists in modern cars had Atomic fall-out in their boots/trunks !! It was a lot of fun & I didn't bend it at all in the nine years I had her. I eventually sold her for School Fee money to my next-farm-neighbour who still has her, I think.

Peugeot 405 Estates, two of them in series. Starting problems in both and water-soluble bodywork, but good family luggers.
Three Citroens: GS Estate with flat four engine in front. Best Citreon bought and sold well after some years. Two CX-s, Stunning lookers for the time, drove well, but water-solubility and vertical depreciation 'curve'. This led to my first Audi, a 2nd hand '80'. Totally different construction standard to the French and Brit. cars. No rust. Sold it for more than I bought it, admittedly against a larger 5-Cyl. '100'. Great advanced well-built motor. Served me well in UK & Germany, alas written off in the ice by a skidding Dutch lorry-trailer while parked at an Autobahn service station.
Next an Audi A6 2.8 Twin Turbo. Great steed for the unlimited German Autobahns. With this, one could join the big fellahs in the outside lane cruising normally at 200Km/h plus between cities. This period of emancipated fun motoring ended with my return to Ireland, which at that time (1995) had about 550 yards of motorway in total, and my left-hooker Audi was a bit of a Dinosaur, so after a couple of years I sold it back in Germany (sad day).
Now to my present transport. A second-hand Merc E-Class Estate 1995, which after a dozen years' service still drives like a new limousine. Our M-way network has meanwhile stretched to connect all our major towns, but are limited to 120Km/h, which is fine for here, and for an 'old man' like me, so I saunter along at about 80Mph and no-one bothers me now. We also put a lot of miles in in the wife's VW Campervan, 2,7 diesel, which is a bit of a cliff to look at, but gets us around well enough. Not 'fun', of course.

[Mugs-n-such]

Wow! Since we seem to be on that subject, let's see if I can even remember them all.
1962 Plymouth Savoy...wish I still had it, totalled it out on glare/black ice.
1952 Chevrolet ? sold when I went into the Army for the first time.
1962 Chevrolet Impala? driving back home after discharge but it konked out on me so traded for a '55 Plymouth
1955 Plymouth, was supposed to be red but the sun had bleached it to pink
1962 Buick LeSabre..should have kept it, had 20,000 or so miles and was in pristine condition
1948 Chevrolet...bought because I missed my '52 Chevy, then I wrecked it running through a red light. I was still little more than a kid.
1968 Oldsmobile Cutlass..had it about 3 1/2 years, good car. Gave it to my brother when I went into the Army for the 2nd time
1970 ? Simca...bought in Germany
1974 ? Simca...traded it for the '70 plus some $$ of course when the '70 needed complete new brake lines and was cheaper just to get a newer Simca
1972 ? Mazda RX2 ? Station wagon, white. I really liked it, but the shops I took it to never repaired it properly when I took it there like about 3 times so I sold it.
1975 ? (been so long can't be sure of the year) Mercury Marquis. At the time you were supposed to pass inspection and the Marquis wouldn't pass, needed like $500 repair work which I didn't have so sold it.
1964 Ford Galaxy ? I was sitting at a stop light and rear-ended from behind at about 35 miles per hour. I was only carrying liability so I sold it.
1969 Ford Opel. Spent tons of money (almost) getting it to run right.
1974 ? Nissan...it got wrecked (shame on me)
1982 Pontiac T2000...always in the shop so I sold it for a
1979 Honda Civic. It needed work, I got burned on this one too, so sold it for a
1982 Buick Opel. Excellent car, but at the time I had a job delivering Chinese food so the delivery work kinda ran it into the ground.
1978 Toyota Corolla. good car. Used it for delivery also.
1979 Honda Accord. It had some engine problems. I wish now I had kept it and had it repaired.
1976 Oldsmobile Cutlass...good car
1980 ? Pontiac Sunbird, one of the other delivery men sold it to me.
1984 Nissan...had it for about 3 years
1970 Toyota Corolla...bought it cheap but had lots of problems
1995 Honda Civic...bought brand new but couldn't keep up the payments
1984 ? Dodge Aspen, had transmission problems, and other problems
1986 Mercury Cougar...it also got totalled out (oh no you all are going to think I'm a reckless driver)
1992 Ford Festiva...I loved this car, had it 8 years and would have kept it but at the time I was moving to Oklahoma City at my sister-in-law's behest to help baby-sit, so didn't have time to get it repaired so I sold it. I've always kinda regretted that too.
1980 MGB. I only got to drive it once, when I drove it home from the dealer, it needed carbeurator work and I just put it off too long. Sold it when I went to Oklahoma City.
1989 Pontiac Safari. Good car, but had a leak and they didn't fix the leak properly and I put it off too long, it kind of ruined the engine.
1996 Kia. Bought for dirt cheap but died after 2 days.
1997 Hyundai. It also died after a few days, made the mistake of buying it from the same dealer.
2007 Hyndai Accent. Traded the Safari and the older Hyundai in on it, bought brand new, still have.
1996 Mazda Miata. That's my fun car.
*whew* and somehow I still missed a 1989 Honda I had between the Festive and the MGB, I think. Anyhow, I think that's all. That's finally done, thank goodness.
Now that I think about it, even with that list, I realize I missed at least a couple...like a '76 ? Fiat and an '84 ? Mazda... oh well... *shrugs*

[phathack]

Lots of interest but never enough time and energy to pursue it.

Ham Radio, Computers / Electronics. Photography, Dancing - Latin and C&W, Sailing - Catalina 22, Camping / Hiking / Outdoors, Shooting / Reloading, Bicycling, Cooking, Sewing, Home-brew, DIY Handyman

[couyalair]

You guys really live in another world.
I always thought a car was just a vehicle to get to out-of-the-way places. Certainly never thought of it as a hobby, a word a associate first with creativity, then with physical or mental exercise.

Martin

[cessna152towser]

Can't say I have ever collected cars though I have taken plenty of photos of them at rallies.
I do collect kilts and skirts for men, and OO scale model trains though.
Did a bit of private flying when I was younger.