My Love Affairs

Men and Motors

Most men love women in general as well as one particular woman. So it has been for me with cars. I love cars, I have done since the age of five. As a child I was too young for love affairs but I used to have my own fantasies.

They say you always remember your first time and it was true for me, I was just seventeen, she was Gloria, actually a 1934 Triumph Gloria. Despite her age she was still attractive with her knock on wire wheels and her sports saloon body. She was a man's car, with her crash gearbox and heavy steering and she'd been around, if you know what I mean. She was a bit too much for a seventeen year old boy. She wasn't mine of course but we went out together a lot and she taught me things a seventeen year old ought not to know.

My first real love was an Austin A70 Hereford, I called her Moj. She was cuddly and comfortable, not sporty like Gloria and she didn't like some of the things that Gloria had taught me, but she was dependable and could go with the best of them. It was when I was with her that I met my other love, who became my wife, so I have very fond memories of Moj. It all came to an end, however, when I met this 2.5 litre Riley, I had lusted after her for some time and just couldn't resist her obvious charms, poor Moj looked rather plump and dowdy in comparison. So I left Moj, but came to regret it, the Riley was a disappointment, I couldn't rely on her, she also had a drink problem and was always wanting money for this or that.

My circumstances changed at about that time, I had a long commuting run and I didn't need someone that drank like a fish, what I did need was someone I could rely on. The Riley went off with someone else and I found a little Austin A30. She was petite, young and pretty in a cute sort of way and I became very fond of her, I called her Bubbles. She came on holiday with us and we went up the old Porlock Hill, with four adults, including two real heavyweights and all the luggage and she seemed to enjoy it. We had a good relationship until I was introduced to her younger sister, an A35. She was better than Bubbles in many ways, she was more fun and more willing to go along with the things I wanted to do, but somehow I never got quite so attached to her.

Although there were others, my next love was a Singer Gazelle, pretty with a pleasant, if rather dull, personality, but she just pleased me. After that I had a number of affairs with different cars, including a rather saucy and seductive Sunbeam Rapier, a rather smooth and sophisticated Triumph 2000 and a remarkable Austin Maxi who stayed with me for quite a few years, but I never fell in love again until my Ford Granada came along. She was gorgeous, if rather lazy with her big V6 engine, she was another that very fond of a drink but never asked for money for anything else. That proved to be my longest lasting relationship up to that time. It came to an end when this pretty young Sierra in pale metallic blue fell into my arms. She had been with my brother-in-law, who was emigrating and did not want to see her thrown out on the streets, she was very inexperienced as was evident from the mileometer.

That really brings me up to my present love, which has been my longest lasting relationship ever and I do not look forward to the day when we might part. I think she is beautiful and really comfortable to be with, she does not have a drink problem, one might say she hardly touches the stuff and she has never asked for extra money. She is a big girl but, despite that, she can keep up with some of the fast young hussies you see around. She took the place of her older sister, a V6 model that was also rather nice. She is a Rover 820Si.

Ron Watts