The Love Of Your First Car

The first car… It’s an interesting thing, probably not a technically great car, especially when most people paid very little. It gets abused, crashed and run into the ground but yet it is also the best car many of us will own. It is the car that started it all…

Direct Line are running a competition at the moment called First Car First Love, which looks pretty great. The premise is simple enough, most people loved their first car, regret ever selling it and would love to have it again, even if it is purely for the nostalgia trip.

Now I’m one of the few people that has never actually let go of that first car, the Capri is still in my ownership 11 years after I first plonked it onto my drive. I will however be sending this over to my uncle, he has had a some pretty amazing cars and I’m sure he would have every single one of them back in a flash if he could.

Below is a picture from when I first got the car home, a pretty decent standard car, and also then about a year or so ago when it was, IMO, at the peak of it’s life.

A first car is much more than just the first machine that got you places, it was your first taste of freedom and so much more, it became a big part of your life and depending on how long you had it, was probably involved in a lot of your early adulthoods big events.

Now that my Capri is tucked up in my parents garage while I pretend to adult and get a mortgage and a proper house, I feel like having a reminisce over all of the things the Capri has been in my life for…

• Went on my first non-family holiday – it was only camping about 50 miles away but at the time felt like absolute freedom and endless possibilities.
• Many many holidays and weekend car shows/camping since.
• Many long days and nights spent tinkering with friends. Learning important skills that have enabled me to keep old cars going for very little money.
• Lots and lots of car shows and meet ups. Not as ‘McDonalds car park’ as it sounds, highlights include turning up to vintage car shows in my wreck and being pleasantly surprised at the welcome reception it gets.
• Winning an award for best club stand on a stand I co-organised.
• Meeting lots of great people through the community, many of whom are now long time friends.
• Moving me out of my parents house and up to Cardiff for university, who knew my whole life could fit in a Ford Capri with the rear seats taken out.
• My first breakdown.
• My first on the road fix.
• My first blowout on a motorway – this was pretty scary! (pic down the page).
• Running out of petrol… a lot! The petrol gauge didn’t work for a good 3 year period.
• Transporting me to and from my first girlfriend’s house.
• Transporting said girlfriend’s life into my house on an icy winter day when she (mistakenly) agreed to move in with me.
• Being brave enough to put my girlfriend on the insurance and letting her drive it as well.
• My first burnout – I’m far too mature to do this any more (cough cough)
• My first 360 spin, if nobody saw and I didn’t hit anything I can tell people I meant to do it, right?
• Cat transporter – The cat was never a big fan.
• Dog transporter – The dog loves it, he gets to ride up front instead of in the boot like in normal cars.
• Learning how fun it is to drive down a road scraping on everything possible, crying from laughter at the stupidness of it.
• Learning it isn’t fun to be that low quite quickly and subsequently enjoying being able to get over stones in the road without wincing.
• Driving through a flooded back lane with water coming into the doors – relieved at the fact the car had no carpets to ruin!
• Driving through snow and ice because I had no other way of getting somewhere. The great feeling of ultimate relaxation once you reach your destination in one piece.
• Pretending you are a driving God in said snow and ice while doing pathetic little doughnuts.
• Taking it up a proper hillclimb track for the first time. I was quite sweaty by the end of it!

I’m sure there are many many more things I could include. That car was the biggest thing in my life for a long time, I am even one of those people sad enough to get an image of it tattooed onto me!

I will hopefully never sell it and hopefully it can be a big part of the next stage of my life as well. Who knows it might even be worth something one day…

After having my first attempt at a hill climb Retro Rides Gathering 2014

Me looking extra cool posing for a photoshoot with Tom Edge

Me and Lau at Retro Rides Gathering 2015. The year of the mega warm storms!

Coming into one of the many SWDubs winter meets

Being used as it should be! Bit of snow never scared me…

Uninvited Ford guest at Devon Dub Fest, I think this was about 2012?

Best club stand award at Retro Rides Gathering 2013

How to scare yourself on a motorway…