Haha. Yeah. I can recall the registration number of my dad’s Austin All Aggro from 1977 but I can barely remember what I did yesterday.
And who could forget the Allegro "Quartic" steering wheel? Just wouldn't you have loved to be a fly on the wall in that design meeting ? "Hey guys I've a knockout revolutionary idea for the interior of the new market leading Allegro. It's wonder no one has thought of it before."
His was a Mk2, which had a round steering wheel. Apparently the “quartic” design came about because, in true British Leyland fashion, the chaps who designed the dash didn’t liaise with those who designed the steering, and so when the prototype was finally half-heartedly lashed together by communists assembled by diligent craftsmen, it turned out that the top of the steering wheel blocked the driver’s view of the speedo. One of my all time favourite motoring facts is that in the end BL gave up trying to sort out the numerous leaks from the door and windscreen seals, so they just told the dealerships to drill holes in the floor in order to let the water out.
NB: my dad had a special talent for choosing terrible cars as he’d previously owned a succession of Reliant 3 wheelers on account of the fact that he only had a motorcycle licence, and then, when we were finally rid of the All Aggro, he bought an Alfa 33. He finally and thankfully wrote off that abomination when he accidentally floored the accelerator instead of hitting the brake (a common occurrence as the pedal box was designed by and for simians) and launched it into the back of a Transit van in Liverpool city centre. After owning a series of perfectly acceptable Beemers, now in his late 70s, he has decided to go for one last crap car hurrah, and so he is currently the owner of a Jaguar XF which spends more time off the road than on it as it enjoys such novel design features as immobiliser and central locking software which corrupts and won't recognise the key if the battery is disconnected and, IIRC, the battery has to be disconnected in order to replace the rear brake pads. Genius!
A mate of mine works in the design department at JLR and often the older designers would wistfully remember the cars they’d had design input in during their days at BL/Austin/Rover.
There was nothing cool about that seventies era of cars, they were shocking. We lost so much in the seventies, our bike industry, our cars were crap, fashion was appalling, I suppose the music was alright and we had a good summer in 76.
I thought this would find you - i couldn't remember who had one. Did you ever visit Roger Morrish at Abinger near Dorking? https://mikaniki.com/article/fun-co.../1977-triumph-stag-the-ultimate-grand-tourer/
Ha-ha-ha... that gave you a permanent hunch when putting both hands in them... and who could forget snorkel parkas
Back then they didn’t make platform boots in child sizes, or I would have had a pair! I recall I spent the 70's falling off bicycles with high rise bars and falling off skateboards. It put me in good stead for crashing motorcycles later in life!
Apparently flared trousers are making a comeback for fashion victims, hopefully flares the size of boat sails so we can all have a good laugh (again) ;-)
