I think the Cambridge came from the same garage as the A40,
but it wasn’t brand new. I guess with a
sister on the way and a move to the City of Cambridge made a bigger car
necessary. It was huge compared with the
A40, fitted with two maroon vinyl armchairs in the front and a massive bench
seat in the rear. The boot could swallow
everything you needed for a week’s holiday and have room to bring more junk
back. Once again, it was Italian styled,
but missed the innovations of the A40, going instead for a more traditional
walnut veneer and chrome approach. It
had fins, it had chrome and it had bling, but it had them in a gentlemanly
tweedy kind of way. The estate version
(which we didn’t have) looked like a scaled down Cheverolet Bel Air Nomad SurfWagon.
Under the bonnet, coughing and wheezing to pull all the fins
and vinyl, was an 1800 Leyland B series.
I bumped into a guy at Mallory Park recently who had put a full race
spec MGB engine into his and it was still sluggish and difficult to keep up
with modern traffic, evidently the Ford Type 9 5 speed gearbox makes them
liveable with in modern times. But when
we had ours a top speed of 90 mph and a 0-60 time measured on a calendar were
the norm.
I remember going to Cambridge in it to see our new house
just before it was finished and I remember using it when we moved. Dad had a job with Sindalls, a Cambridge
building firm and I think the house came at a special price with the job. The really exciting journeys I remember were
holidays in North Wales.
Penny was probably about 18 months old and had a crude early
baby seat which hooked over the back of the rear bench seat. That left Norman
and me sat either side. When we got to
Betwys-y- Coed there was thunder and lightning in the air but we continued over
the Crimea Pass (A470) to Blaenau Ffestiniog.
The road disappeared into the thunder clouds and the lightning was going
off below and around us. I spent most of
the journey hiding in the small gap under Penny’s baby seat with Penny crying
and Norman curled up in his corner by the back door.
On another Welsh trip I suffered from travel sickness and
was given a seaside castle bucket to throw up in. I remember stopping by Lake Gwynant for a
breath of fresh air and too wash the bucket it out. The fish in the lake seemed to love it.
Some of the Austin Cambridge years are such clear memories
as we had some of Grandad’s 8mm movies of it transferred to video. The next challenge is to transfer the video
from VHS to PC so blog readers can see it.
The Austin Cambridge worked hard, I don’t remember any
breakdowns, just good times. We
regularly went from Cambridge into East London to visit family, long before the
M11 using the old A11. This took us
through the delightful towns of Bishops Stortford, Sawbridgeworth and Harlow
and down through Epping Forest. In the
spring we used to stop and pick Pussy
Willow to take to Grandma. I bet
there is a sign saying don’t pick the flowers now.
