John's
Musings

Cars

In 1967, John purchased a 1959 convertible Reliant Regal. This used an Austin 7 design, 750cc side-valve motor.
Later in 1967, John built a much more trendy beach buggy from a bog-standard 1200cc VW Beetle. Didn't need any performance tuning for it was so light. However, the engine went into valve bounce at 70mph!!!
1968, and time to buy a Ford Cortina MkI 2 door, 1200cc, chrome widies, racing shift (you know the type of thing!).
This lasted a very long time (for John!) until he moved to Sydney, Australia in 1971 and purchased a Holden HR Station Wagon. With it's 2 speed auto' it didn't "go" and without a heater was very cold through that winter.
Then, later in 1971 came John's first new car - a Valiant VG wagon (245 Hemi).
This is 1972; Carol with our second car (a 750cc Mini) purchased for $250 from a Wrecker!
Somehow John traded in a perfectly acceptable 4 litre Valiant on a Toyota Corolla fitted with 2 speed Toyoglide transmission later in 1972.
An Isuzu Bellet was purchased in 1973 as a "get to work" car - boy were those swing axles interesting when taking corners quickly!

Somewhere in here fitted a metallic gold coloured VH Valiant Regal .....

..... closely followed by a Cortina TD 2 litre Station Wagon which got written off far too quickly in a (not John's fault!) accident.
In 1976 John purchased a Mazda Capella RX2 - he just loved that rotary, but not much fun with the kids strapped in the back and having to wait for the motor to warm up before driving off - "she who must be obeyed" didn't like this one .....
...... so along came a Valiant VJ Station Wagon.
 And, at around this time a Morris 1100 became the cheap, get to work, car.
In 1981 it was time for something completely different.....
A "Daihatsu Wide 55" (as in inches!) fitted with seating for 6 (including two Recarro seats) and a 550cc engine! Very strange, but it seemed to cope with the load of two adults and three kids (around town!) no trouble at all.
When John was back on his feet after his motorbike accident (albeit pinned together in several places) an Austin Kimberly became his work vehicle. Didn't last long (surprise), but it was cheap!
John is obviously a slow learner re pommy rubbish and then bought a "nice" pink Marina 6 cylinder coupe. Very fast away from the lights, but ...
When Toyota released the Tarago in late 1982 John set his sights on one, and purchased one towards the end of 1983.

This was an ideal vehicle for a family needing to transport the sports team around!
Work cars around this time were a Suzuki Mighty Boy (1986) ..... and another Mini in 1988.
A move to Perth in 1989 and a new Holden Astra entered the garage.
The Astra was replaced with a new Suzuki Swift in 1991.
1992 brought along a (1987) Mitsubishi Colt for Carol.

In 1993 another Suzuki Mighty Boy was purchased to get to work.

These small cars were just fine around the south-west of WA, but John fancied something bigger for the large road distances in WA. A leased Ford Futura came on the scene in 1994.
In 1997 John purchased a Barina Joy for Carol.
Also in 1997, John believed the yarn that it would be great to do up an earlier classic. However, he rapidly discovered he could not afford to keep a Triumph 2500 S Mk2 in the style to which it would like to become accustomed!
  1998 and John gave up on the Triumph and purchased an old Mitsubishi Magna SE
Along came 1999 and John was able to get into another lease vehicle - a new, just released, model Ford Laser.

In March 2002 it was time for "John's new toy" ....... a beautiful Peugeot 206 GTi. It stuck to the road like you know what, and went ridiculously quickly.
2004 and a Peugeot 307 was purchased as the new family car.

2006 and a new Ford Escape was purchased - another part of retirement (to Broome!) planning.  John took this vehicle on a full day off road course when it was just 3 days old. Whilst this was a great course (and no damage done!) John's wife was not very impressed that he might have scratched it :-) 
If only John hadn't bought all those vehicles, he'd probably be a rich man - Probably!!!
 

Bikes

Well, doesn't everyone start with a push-bike? This was in 1959 in Suffolk, England.
After a mercifully brief interlude on a NSU Quickly Moped, John quickly progressed to his first "real" motor vehicle - a 1959 G12 Matchless, 650cc twin, with Busmar double-adult side-car, purchased in 1966.
A little 80cc Honda Dax was purchased for a bit of fun, and folded up to fit in the back of the Holden HR wagon.
The mini got traded in on a brand new Honda CB250 in late 1972. Wasn't a very "exciting" machine though!
John then gave away cheap second cars in favour of (newer) motor bikes. Hard work transporting the family though! This is a Suzuki GT250 in 1975.
This is where John nearly met his end in 1982 courtesy of a female driver going too fast on a wet road ...
Not much left of his Yamaha XS400 and John in a similar state of disrepair!

NB: for BMW aficionados, yes it is a CS, but it had a RS fairing fitted!

It had been a long time since any bike riding, and the old second childhood got to John in 2003, with a 1984 BMW R100CS - just imported from Japan and with only 31,000km on the clock. 

2005, and a Peugeot JetForce 125cc Scooter. The BMW was fantastic, but not very sensible for our future in Broome.
2007 saw an upgrade of the Peugeot scooter to a Bug Hawk 250cc model.
That's it for now, but with John's history I'm sure the above does not represent the last of his, possibly daft, vehicle purchases!