Cars in 1980's Ireland !

The Muppet

I had A 1.6l Chrysler sunbeam mid eighties that was a nice car for a youngster on the prowl until i wrapped it around a truck that is. Insurance cost me £600, i I was 19 at the time and on a prov license.

glynf

unkel wrote:

And the very luxurious TX in your picture, if I'm not mistaken. Leccy windows complete novelty for normal cars at the time

Lol. you know your Renaults

mike65

The Muppet wrote:

...until i wrapped it around a truck that is.

Tree or elephant?




An evergreen Frenchie and (whisper it) prolly better than the 2CV in the "Massiff Central Yeomenry" league.

Mike.

unkel

mike65 wrote:

And that was my Dad's car before the Simca 1100!!

dcGT wrote:

Doesn't the front of that Renault look uncannily like the front of a Dodge Charger...

Now you mention it! Lovely 70s yellow/black two-tone on both cars anyway :rolleyes:

2 Espressi

Wow all these cars are really bringing back some memories!
My Dad had three cars that I'll always remember growing up that I'll always remember.
Fiat 127 Sport (black, just like the one above)
BMW 520 (canary yellow, 'very thirsty')
MK2 Escort (1600, don't think it was anything special like an RS, but cool!! )
Built in Cork, thrashed in Limerick!


I also remember the GTI's, (both the VW golf & Pug 205). Great Stuff altogether! Nearly wet my (short) pants the first time I sat into a Golf GTI, possibly the first car I was ever scared in! (well I was only 7!)

Plenty of Mini's , Beetle etc. as well....

My nana had a Datsun Cherry, it sounded like it was in reverse, even when it was going forward!!

mike65

The mum of a friend had one of these for a few years. It did'nt matter what speed it was doing or what gear it was in, this bambino always sounded likit was teetering on the edge of a loud nervous breakdown/small explosion.



Mike.

Silvera

.........a slightly better datsun Cherry !
(These cars were actually bought back by Nissan because of faulty/rusty rear chassis !.......even when the cars were 10+ years old !!
I know because I sold one to them back in the early 1990's!)

And we shouldn't forget the venerable Toyota Corolla KE30 !

Silvera

Another pair of 'forgotten' 70' cars..........but not by everyone, I photographed these two at Trim Car Show in July 2003 !

Remember these ?

Fiat 128 3p coupe (1975)
Toyota Corona 2000 MkII (1974 ?) (complete with original Kildare 'BZW' reg. I hadn't seen one of these cars before)

Enjoy !

unkel

Silvera wrote:

Remember these ?

Fiat 128 3p coupe (1975)

Indeed I had forgotton the 128 coupe. Thanks for the pics, Silvera

mike65 wrote:

The Bambino

FIAT at it's core competence

So sweet and imo a true successor to the original cinquecento, but it never reached that level

Fabritzo

Did anyone like the Alfasud, word has it they had a flat four engine, some lad's dad up the road from me used to have one, twas very exotic!

Silvera

Yes, I was - and still am - an Alfasud fan !

A very rare sight nowadays. Most fell foul of the dreaded 'tin worm'.
I remember Alfa's used to rust in the roof area BEFORE the rest of the bodywork rusted ! :eek:
Most cars of the period rusted from the bottom up - not from the top down

........I suppose cheap russian steel didn't help Alfa's case.

1977 Alfasud.


This is my favourite Alfasud model - the early 80's version (in black!).
(I will buy one of these someday !)

unkel

Silvera wrote:

Yes, I was - and still am - an Alfasud fan !

This is my favourite Alfasud model - the early 80's version (in black!).
(I will buy one of these someday !)

Yeah!!! The Alfasud was a great car. If memory serves me right, it had more bhp per liter than any other car (excluding supercars) on the market. One of my top 5 favourites at the time was the other car in your picture, the Sprint Veloce. Here's another one

unkel

Cold shower alert, the Alfasud Giardinetta :rolleyes:

mike65

A charmer I always thought. Can't remember when I last saw one though!

Mike.

Victor_Meldrew

Maybe I'm just a silly nostalgic bastard, but does anyone else feel a bit sad that none of these cars are around anymore? The scrappage scheme of 1997 killed most of the early 80s cars off, and then the NCT probably killed the rest of them.

When's the last time you saw...

a) A Datsun Cherry

b) A Ford Cortina

c) An Opel Ascona

d) A mk1 Toyota Starlet

During my childhood, they were some of the most commonly seen cars on the road. Now there's none, or at least very few left. Maybe there's still the odd preserved Cortina around, but I haven't seen a Datsun Cherry in at least 7 years.

Silvera

I agree, it's a pity that so few original Irish reg 1980's cars are still about.

Most 1980's cars at shows are usually recently-imported 'new style reg' cars

If you want to see loads of 1970/80's cars in everyday use, you would have to go to New Zealand.

Here's a 80-83 model Starlet I photographed in NZ in August this year. (It's the 'facelift' Mk 1 model)
Loads about there - even for sale in garages !......I saw a 1981 Stralet in a garage for $1250

Victor_Meldrew

I've heard that there's some reason why cars tend not to rust in Australia and New Zealand. Can't remember what it is though.

One more question - Are there any surviving Datsun Cherrys in Ireland? Surely they're not all gone

Silvera

Re: Aus and NZ - probably because of less rain !

Datsun Cherry's were bought back by Nissan from c.1991 because of rusty/faulty rear chassis. I know because I sold one to them c.1992 !
(Perhaps they were wary of possible lawsuits )

Therefore this probably cleared out most (all?) of the surviving Cherry's.

Having said that, I thought I saw one somewhere in Ireland within the last few years - don't recall where it was though
(I do spot one now-and-again in UK mags)

I recall driving the 'coupe' version. Strange gear set up - Reverse gear was where 1st would normally be :eek:

Did you see my Cherry pic above ?
If not, here it is again -

(Is this the model you are thinking of ?)

cheapthrills

when i was a youngster a friends dad got a brand new one of these....
it was the coolest thing i'd ever seen

BrianD3

The 1977-81 RWD Mazda 323 was also a very common sight on Irish roads. These started off with round headlights which were changed to rectangular after a facelift. The front indicators on the round light cars must have been quite vulnerable to damage as they were usually broken on the cars I used to see.

Victor_Meldrew

Silvera wrote:

Datsun Cherry's were bought back by Nissan from c.1991 because of rusty/faulty rear chassis. I know because I sold one to them c.1992 !
(Perhaps they were wary of possible lawsuits )

My grandad had an '82 Datsun Cherry which suffered the rear-chassis problem. This happened around 1989 though, and rather than buy the car back, Nissan repaired it for free. In 1993, he eventually replaced the car with a bland, two-tone (wine & silver) Nissan Sentra (basically a Sunny with a nicer name). Ever since, I've always had a soft-spot for Datsun Cherrys and their lovely beige interior. If I saw one for sale now, I'd honestly buy it for nostalgia's sake.

Anyone remember the Datsun 120Y, with its cake-tin hubcaps?

BrianD3

Victor_Meldrew, check out this page for some pics of Datsun Cherries and other 70s and 80s Datsuns.
http://www.datsunplanet.de/html/modelle_deutschland.html

BrianD3

Silvera

You guys remember this car ................

dcGT

Victor_Meldrew wrote:

Anyone remember the Datsun 120Y, with its cake-tin hubcaps?

*lol* I do indeed. I posted a few pics of one of these in the Corolla thread. Here are the pics...

http://www.geocities.com/rte38.geo/121cars.html

Silvera, great pics of the old Celica. I remember a few of these around the area when I was young. Quite a fancy car for its day Also, they made the rear look a bit like the old Mustang!

DC.

alias no.9

BrianD3 wrote:

The 1977-81 RWD Mazda 323 was also a very common sight on Irish roads. These started off with round headlights which were changed to rectangular after a facelift. The front indicators on the round light cars must have been quite vulnerable to damage as they were usually broken on the cars I used to see.

Most of those 323's suffered a worse fate with rust than fiats or alfas of the time. The wings in particular suffered badly. Rumour had it that dealers were secretly replacing the wings when the cars were in for service.

Silvera

dcGT,

The Celica pictured was fully restored by a Toyota dealer in Germany in the last few years (hence the german reg). Great job too, by the looks of it !

The hatchback (as pictured) was/is a great looking car - in contrast the saloon was downright ugly ! ........(to my mind anyway).

There are a few of these still about. I know one guy (in Saggart) who has both h/b and saloon versions.

mike65

In Cork today and saw on of these parked off Plunkett Street by the English Market.



Had to slow down to have a quick gaze...

Mike.

Silvera

Did you notice if it had an Irish reg, Mike65 ?

Funny, I wasn't too keen on those Citroens when I was younger, but they have 'grown' on me over the years !

mike65

Did you notice if it had an Irish reg

Yes, it was right hand drive UK import, 1984 (I think). A 2500 model.

Mike.

Victor_Meldrew

Slightly off-topic, considering it's not a car, but a common sight on Dublin's roads back in the 80s all the same...