No matter what it was, that first car is never forgotten

By chance Let’s Talk’s motoring writer David Clayton stumbled across the MOT certificate for his very first car. And that led to some memories ... and this article!

- David Clayton

I’VE RUMMAGED THROUGH ALL SORTS of things in lockdown, but was stopped in my tracks when I stumbled upon the MOT certificate for my first car. Quite why I kept it, I’ve no idea. But there it was staring back at me. The memories came thick and fast.

I’m sure I’m not alone with this because I bet you could reel off the number plate of the first car you owned but would struggle with your car’s registration now. On driving to, and checking into a hotel before the lockdown, our car registration number was requested. I had to run back out to the car park to check. See what I mean? Our first cars are special for all sorts of reasons.

LRX 567 was on the first car I could properly call my own and it’s deeply engrained in my memory. It was early in 1971, I was 18, had started work as a lowly articled clerk in an accountant’s office and relished my social life. I’d moved to Norwich, leaving friends I’d grown up with in Great Yarmouth, so trips back were regular. I could borrow my Dad’s Vauxhall Viva, but it was always a delicate negotiation. The Viva was getting on a bit and I was simply adding unnecessary miles to it.

An older chap at the office where I worked told me his two sons did up cars to sell and they’d just completed one that might suit me. I went to have a look and there was a 1956 green Morris Traveller, old enough to have the split windscreen. I started imagining the freedom of my own car. Going to Yarmouth on a whim, taking my friends out, going wherever I wanted, when I wanted.