A friend of mine bought a 1972 Austin 1300 advertised in Manchester so he asked two of us to go over to collect the car with him. Buying a second hand car nowadays has its advantages and disadvantages but buying a classic or vintage car is a great buzz especially when the owner describes it exactly the way it is . For years people have been importing cars from England, some good and some bad. but now I think the Irish have got alot cuter when it comes down to buying cars ,now we want cars close to perfect or pristine . It all started Saturday morning leaving Carlow town in the early hours when people were going home from a night out ,three of us were making a voyage to Manchester. Alot of people associate Manchester with football but we were collecting a 70s classic. We were met by the owner at the airport who had brought the car directly to the car park. From a distance we could see a retro orange coloured car, it stuck out from the rest of the cars in the car park. We approached it and gave it the once over and unlike Basil Fawlty from Fawlty Towers we didn’t have to hit the car with a branch to get it started, half a turn of the ignition switch and the BMC engine fired up.You can buy all the air fresheners in the world, but the smell of the old leather mixed with old timber is priceless, we fell in love with the little Austin. Without delay we paid for the car before someone else seen it and we headed for the boat to Holyhead. Driving a classic car on the motorway took a bit of getting used to after trying to set up the wing mirrors to see what was behind us, but all we could see in the mirror was our own reflection( some sight). A car like this sticks out on the road like any classic people have memories of the cars . They could be parked up beside a new merc or Lexus and people young and old will have more interest in pointed or curved wings on the older cars. Half way through the drive we had to stop at the picturesque town of Llandudno where the annual transport festival is held. We drove around it as if it was our local town. The Irish are Welcomed every year to this show in May and many return year after year.As we got out of the car to get some sea air, we were approached by a local couple ,they were fascinated by the little austin and how it was only half way home ,some might say we are mad.Leaving llandudno we drove along side the lovely welsh coast with its winding motorway and mountain tunnels we could have being driving through Monte Carlo and not knowing any different.Its amazing how good the Austin was on petrol at one stage we thought the gauge was faulty, it shows how Austin were thinking about emission levels in the seventy’s.At last we seen the tall chimney of hollyhead ,it was like reaching Everest when we drove onto the boat and all was left to do was designate a driver for Carlow so we could celebrate our journey.
Davy
