1984 Mazda 929

After a while of being married and my wife had gotten her drivers licence, we decided that it was time to get another car.
Something nicer this time.
When we looked around, we found a nice car that fitted the bill - I like rear wheel drive.\; my wife wanted something that was nice to be in and nice to drive.

We came across a white Mazda 929 sedan which we could "sort of" afford.

This was one nice car - light grey velour trim inside, electric windows, air-conditioning, fully independent suspension.
The downside (for me) was only a 2.0ltr 4 cyl engine - but it actually went quite well.

We still had the Subaru, so if we needed to go to different places my wife took the Mazda and I took the Subi. (The Subi was still fun, but, well..........)

But the Mazda was definitely the nicest thing we had ever owned - the FIAT 2300 was nice, but way older and so it didn't have all the mod cons....

The strongest memory I have of this car was when my wife was pregnant - I had gone to a men's breakfast at church, but half way through we got a phone call at church - this was before mobile phones - and my wife was really sick. Now you have to understand that we had already had several miscarriages, and when I found out that she had gotten suddenly sick, I knew that she would be devastated at the possibility - as I was.
I left immediately and raced - literally raced - home.
I was weaving through the traffic at high speed - and when I say high speed I mean that I saw the speedo on that Mazda hit 180kph - the fastest I have ever driven (even to this day) - and that speed was on a single lane each way road - I must have seriously scared some people, and I looking back it was so stupid.
I would be no use to her dead.
But she needed me, and I needed to be with her.

I got home safely - I have no idea how - the Lord kept the traffic out of my way I guess.
And as it turned out she was very sick, but it wasn't the baby - and our first son was born a few months later.

But that Mazda got me home safely, and although I was incredibly stupid, the car was faultless in its operation - I don't remember thinking that it was out of control at any stage - but in fact, I don't remember thinking anything but about my love and my baby.

Dumb, dumb, dumb, but that's what you do for your family....

1977 Subaru 4x4 part 2

That old Subi was a great thing for us - down to three bears to watch a mate surf, taking the short cut dirt track back to home instead of taking the long way around paved roads - it was a gazetted road so it was not actually illegal.
We saw an echidna along that track one day.

So many trips around the place and onto as many tracks as I could find.

We went on a "youth and young adults camp" one time, which was supposed to be camping in the bush - we decided to put a mattress into the back and slept in the car. The funniest part of that was that the hosting Pastor of the camp didn't realise we were married - I am not sure how he missed out on that piece of information, but we found out later that when he saw us both get into the car for evening, he just wasn't sure what to do - but his wife cleared up the misunderstanding, and he relaxed.

Our first anniversary also has a story with this car - We went on family camp down in Busselton, but while we were there, one of the core plugs in the engine blew out and we cooked the little thing before I realised it.
This was half way through camp and I had booked us into a nice hotel after the camp and we were going to spend a week in the area for our anniversary.
Well, one dead car put an end to that. We ended up going home in the back of our friend's ute at the end of the camp, and I used the money intended for our hotel stay to go and get the car a day later.
The trip back was great fun actually, because we rugged up in a sleeping bag in the back of the ute and watched the stars for the trip back. It was a lovely way to travel really - nice and cuddly.

But the next day I hired a car trailer and my brother and I went down to Busso and picked up the car.
The problem was that it was our anniversary that day.
I drove my brother mad getting him to stop at every petrol station so that I could try to buy a card and some small gift, but almost none of them had any cards at all, and none of them had anniversary cards, let alone a nice one.
So our anniversary day was ruined and I couldn't even find a card - in those days shops here were shut Saturday afternoons and some just didn't open at all.

So our first anniversary was ruined by this car, and to make it worse, my wife thought I had forgotten our anniversary. I think in fact she still thinks that deep down, although I have tried to explain it over and over.

I didn't forget, but the Anniversary present I had organised was no longer affordable or do-able, and try as I might, I could neither afford nor even find anything reasonable to give her.

I now know that even a nice bar of chocolate would have been better than nothing, but that was a lesson I had not yet learned. At the time I thought that such a chintzy present would be worse, but I now know that even that would have been at least an indication that I hadn't forgotten.

Anyway, as much as it upset her at the time, she stuck with me for some reason - and I still don't understand why.........

But we are 25 years married now, and she still puts up with me for some reason I don't understand.

1977 Subaru 1600 4x4

When we sold the 2300 we actually traded it on a 1977 Subaru 4x4 wagon.

Ours was orange, but pretty much like this one:

This was just before we got married, so my almost wife and I bought this together - well it was my money, but she came along to help me choose the car.
At least that was the premise - her choice was actually a Toyota Celica of about the same age - which I liked as well - but the lure of 4x4 adventure interested me.

So we bought the Subaru - which she said looked like an orange grasshopper.

But we had so much fun in that car.

We left our wedding reception in it - the guys had covered it in love hearts and teddy bear stickers, shaving cream, and toilet paper, with "Just Married" written across the back.

We drove from the reception to one of the flashest hotels in Perth - drove up to the front door, where we were met by the doormen. I wound down the window and asked where I was supposed to park, and was told that if I would like to get out of the car, they would park it for me! How cool was that!!!!!

And right as we were getting out, a pair of Rolls Royce's with a wedding party pulled up.The guy who got our car must have been seriously disappointed.

It was even funnier when we left the next morning and they had it waiting at the front door, all washed and cleaned and warmed up ready to go, with our bags back in it. That car was an absolute dog when it was cold, and needed to be heavily revved to get it away without stalling. They must have had some good fun getting it out of their private underground car park.....

Then we took it down south of the state for our honeymoon. we stayed in lovely place called "Tinglewood Lodge" for a few days, and then just toured across to Albany, and even slept one night in the back of the Subaru in a carpark by the ocean. In two weeks we went from top luxury to slumming it rough in the car.

But we had a great time.
Nearly got stuck twice on that one trip - once in the Valley of the Giants, we went exploring the tracks - got in OK but when we went to retrace our tracks back out we found that the little car did not ahve the grip to climb one of the hills we came down. No low range, and with just plain road tyres, not enough grip. We had to go another way, but with no maps and no such thing as GPS then, it was guess work. We did guess right though.
The other time was driving onto some cliffs at the ocean. We got onto this ledge - it all looked very simple and safe. We got out to the ledge OK and there was plenty of room and it was all solid. The view was beautiful. When we decided it was time to move on I turned around and then tried to drive back out - but the angles were such that we lifted opposite front and rear tyres, and when you do that in an unlocked 4x4 the lifted wheels just spin in the air. And there wasn't enough room to reverse and get a run up. I sort of rocked it back and forth as much as I dared and just - only just - managed to get it to rock far enough on one forward rock to get the lifted wheels to scrabble a bit of grip.
We made it, but I was not sure we were going to.

We went places and did things with and in that little 4x4 that ignited a fire fro the off-road that has never left.

I am not a full on 4x4 freak, but we always hanker for the dirt roads and the out of the way places.

Mind you the Subaru with it's little wheels, low ground clearance, and no low range taught terrible technique - if something looked sticky, you just gunned it and hoped you could bounce over the top of it - and normally we did.

So many things come to mind with this car, so many memories. This was really "our first car" together, and as such so much of our early married life happened with this car in the background.

1968 FIAT 2300

The third and last true FIAT (so far) in my list.

This is the first car that I ever bought.
After the little black FIAT was unceremoniously denied access to public roads, it was necessary to replace it.
I wanted something a bit unusual, and came across this FIAT - which to be perfectly honest, I knew nothing about. But when I asked my Dad about it, the vehicle he described was definitely interesting to me.

It was a 1968 FIAT 2300 Saloon - something like this:

Ours was very much like this one - same colour, same wheels.... I think it was exactly this model in fact.

It was sitting in some guy's garage, where it had stopped and wouldn't start again.
It turns out that this guy knew nothing about cars, and when the oil pressure light came on he figured it was low on oil and put more in - and did that a few times, until it just stopped running.

What he didn't know was that it had developed a head gasket leak and the oil pressure light was coming on not because it was low on oil, but because the oil was contaminated with water.

My dad had a good look around the thing and decided that we could fix it up with a bit of work, but not much real trouble.

I think the guy wanted $500 for it, and we might have offered him $400 - which he accepted.
But because it was a non-runner, we had to go and get a trailer. When we came back with it the guy wouldn't take more than $200.

Anyway, back at home my dad got to work getting it up and running - I think we got about 8ltrs of grey sludgy goop out of the motor,but the rings were totally shot.
We could get it to fire if we put some oil into each cylinder and then put the plugs in. It was enough to tell us that the motor was basically a goer, if we could fix the gasket leak and put in some new rings.

I should probably say at this stage that when I say "we" what I actually mean is my dad - I would stand around and try to look useful, but the reality is that my dad is a talented farm mechanic, and I can follow basic fix it book instructions.........

The long and short of it is that he got it running with the help of some Citroen rings which were a perfect fit and more easily available than the FIAT ones.

I can tell you right now that that vehicle was a beautiful way to travel.
Big, wide, comfy leather lounge type seats - or maybe they were really good mock leather - I am not sure.
An auto box that was so smooth you could barely feel the changes.
A 2.3 ltr straight six engine that was lovely and silky, and had a nice growl to it when you put the boot in.

It was a medium sized four door saloon car that was used as a limousine in Italy, or so I am led to believe.

In any case, it felt luxury, from the smooth way of travelling, to the interior appointments.

I loved it - it just made you want to relax and enjoy the trip.

Unfortunately, due the age and lack of care before we got it, and probably the amount of time that it sat with that goop inside it, it was never really reliable.

What it needed was a full restoration, but I was a young guy with other things on my mind, and didn't have the time or money for such a task.

But this car took myself and my girlfriend (now wife) on many long drives.
Probably the most memorable was a trip from Perth to Augusta and back one day - about 400km each way.

We hit a bird - didn't do any damage.
Shredded a tyre - the tread just peeled off of it. It was funny because we had this tapping noise that got slowly louder. When I stopped on the side of the road to check it, I rubbed my hand around the tyre that I thought the noise was coming from, and couldn't feel anything. Got back in and drove a bit more, and the tapping turned into banging and then stopped, but a vibration from that corner got really bad.
Fearing something had gone seriously wrong, we stopped for another look and found the tread missing a great section. when I stopped the first time, that part must have been right on the bottom...
Changed the tyre, and continued on our way. Had a nice lunch in Augusta, and then turned for home in the middle of the afternoon.
About 100 km into the return trip the car started blowing smoke - just a small amount at first, but it quickly grew to be a smokescreen of James Bond proportions.
Of course I stopped as soon as it started, and initially couldn't see anything.
As we approached Busselton, we passed a police car going in the other direction - they both craned their necks around as we passed each other, and although I couldn't see what they were doing, I just pulled straight over to the side of the road and waited. 2 or 3 mins later the police car pulled up behind us.
They asked us about it, I explained what had happened and that we were trying to get to Busselton to get it looked at. They very kindly told me to drive carefully to Busselton and then stop there until it was fixed.

I didn't tell them, but that was just not possible - we were not married, and as Christians it was just not going to happen that we would stay somewhere alone together overnight.

The mechanic who had a quick look said we had blown a plug to an oil channel in the back of the motor, and it was spraying oil onto the exhaust. He couldn't fix it, but he sold us some oil and said drive slowly and you might be OK.
So we drove from Busselton back home - about 300 km at about 45 mph (70kph). A long trip to be sure, but if we kept it below 50mph (the speedo was in mph) then it didn't blow much smoke - you could see it, but it was a shadow.
Over 50mph and I could see nothing but grey in the mirror.

I truly loved that car, and if we could have made it reliable I would never have sold it - and now of course I wish I hadn't sold it.

But it was no use to a young, soon to be married guy to have a car that couldn't be trusted.

But I still miss it.
So nice, so smooth, so comfy.... and that motor had a sound and an urge to it that was just magical.

FIAT 131 Mirafiori wagon

This one replaced the old brown XA falcon wagon.

Our was a light olive green colour, not the grey in this picture.

This was the car that shared the driver teaching duties with the little black FIAT - including for my wife.
When we got married my wife didn't have her driver's licence, but she soon realised how much easier it would make life for us, and with my encouragement she set about getting her licence. My Mother actually took her driving some as well, and it was in our green Fiat.
So we both learned to drive on this car.

But by the time that happened, I already had memories with this car. Like going up to Karratha to visit with my uncle and to go to the Wittenoom Gorges - now called Karajini.
The public reason for the name change was to return it to the Aboriginal name for the area, but I personally think it was more about distancing the region from the name Wittenoom, which was one of the largest Asbestos mines around. It was just convenient for them to "do the right thing" and return the Aboriginal name.

I think it is a good thing by the way, but I think the reason for it was political rather than altruistic.

Anyway, the Green FIAT wagon took us from Karratha along the heavily corrugated dirt roads to Wittenoom and through the gorge areas - which are incredibly stunning by the way

 - and back to Karratha - but half way back to Karratha we dropped the muffler off the rear of the exhaust. Drove the last hundred or so kms back to Karratha sounding like a truck.
My Dad and uncle used exhaust tape and putty to "fix" it, and we drove all the way back to Perth like that with no problems.

This car was like Old faithful - no matter happened to anyone else's car in our family, the Green Fiat was always there to pick up the pieces.

This is the funny thing about our Fiat's - in a time when FIAT came to be understood to mean "Fix It Again Tony", our Fiat's - both of them - just kept on going.

Granted, the little black one needed particular care, but it always got me home.
The Green one however was faultless - at least as far as I can remember.
I don't ever remember it giving up on us.
And everyone borrowed at one time or another.