A succession of company cars over my working life , usually a better make and model each time, has given me a false sense of driving skills and aptitude. What I have taken to be judgement and a natural ability is in fact the on board computer, traction control, anti-skid system and all of the gizmo's which were once expensive extras but are now standard across most manufacturers ranges.
Let's face it, all of this talk about driver-less cars is not too far away from where we are now given that most vehicles have a certain intelligence and sense of the road with minimal human input, almost point and steer only.
This realisation has come about after twenty minutes, just yesterday, of driving my brothers 1971 Volkwagen 1600 Variant, or as it has come to be known, The Squareback.
I grew up never far away from a VW. My father was a keen Peoples Car owner and mechanic and by the time I was in my teens I had been a passenger in a 1967 Campervan, 1600 Fastback, the Squareback, 412LE Estate and Mark One and Two Scirocco's.
The Variant in question was bought brand new from a garage in Luton, Bedfordshire, UK by my father and I clearly recall going along to collect it with him. Bright, icy white in colour and with a black plastic interior it was a striking vehicle. The model had been around for a few years but with a dominant home based car industry it was still quite rare to see European marques, let alone any Japanese made motors on British roads.
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| Squareback - fourth up from the beetle |
The long bonnet and raised hoods of the front wings and headlamps gave the impression, when I was allowed to sit up front as a child, of a classic vintage car as they seemed to stretch into infinity. Compared to the aircraft-like cockpits of current vehicles the dashboard was positively sparse, not much different from an early Mini with central binnacle with central speedometer, a clock on the left and a combined fuel gauge, indicator and light panel on the right.
The steering wheel was as big as that found on a bus or coach with chrome rockers for the horn, a bit peep-peep- and the Wolfsburg, Germany Coat of Arms taking pride of place in the centre.
Yesterdays short drive in the Variant was a mixture of sheer terror and exhilaration . Although the car has been a part of our collective family life for the last 45 years I have never actually driven it, not even when learning to drive in the 1980's.
The pedals, to me, seemed slightly offset to those in my own current car, incidentally a VW Passat Estate and so of the same genetics as the Squareback, and I found it difficult to find the bite point for the clutch.
The gear lever is a great long metal stick and awkward to move and engage but I was greatly helped by the linear diagram still bright and defined on the dashboard.
Even though parked outside for some weeks in the yard of a dreadlocked VW engineer the engine turned over and fired first time. That growling and rasping air cooled sound is remarkable causing the hairs on the back of my neck to bristle in excitement. I can well imagine the same sort of sensation in a Spitfire Pilot upon starting the iconic Rolls Royce Merlin.
Driving a vintage car was a complete learning experience for me.
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| Always read the instructions |
I could not help but over-rev the engine to find the point at which the clutch engaged. There was a ramp from the mechanic's yard onto the main road and I had to concentrate hard so as not to stall on the slope whilst awaiting to pull out and make the short twenty minute journey to my mother's house and the safe refuge of a garage.
The cold engine spluttered a bit as I worked through the gears, closely watching that diagram for clues as to where they were.
Forward motion was slow, beautifully raucous and cloaked in dense white exhaust smoke. After a few minutes on the road I had built up quite a following of other vehicles but they seemed reluctant to pass, perhaps holding back to marvel at the blast from the past or just to see what happened as though morbid rubberneckers.
Approaching a main junction I panicked as depressing the brake pedal did not seem to have any affect. A reflex pumping action stared a slowing down process and I glided up to the queue waiting to make the left turn. The combination of the new found uncertainty in my driving ability and the unpredictable but endearing vaguaries of the Squareback saw me waiting for a very open space in the otherwise steady stream of homegoing commuters before stamping on the accelerator and moving off.
In its brand new condition the VW will not have had a startling turn of speed but then again it was a family estate car and not, as is the current trend, a sporty station wagon.
The volume of traffic and street furniture calming measures were fine for me in the Squareback whereas somewhat of an annoyance in my own modern car. I had to work the gears hard to keep momentum.
30mph in a 1971 classic feels like 60mph to the heightened senses seduced by the Porsche sound-alike air cooled engine and industrial strength fumes.
I was not at all worried by the original seatbelts which had a clasp fastener, not at that modest velocity.
Judging taking bends and corners was a challenge as the prominent bonnet seemed to take an age to straighten up again even though this was obviously a bit of visual trickery. I seem to recall a similar feeling when steering a canal narrow boat on a waterways holiday.
The short journey was over quicker than I realised and I turned the VW into the gravelled ten foot lane leading to the block of lock up garages with some sadness and a quite a lot of elated exhaustion.
Finding reverse to put the car away took another interpretation of the scientific gear shift diagram before the car rolled gently back into the dark recesses of the garage.
I emerged to a concerned look from one of my mother's neighbours who had been alerted to the noise and massive cloud of carbon monoxide under the impression that a garage based suicide attempt was in the offing.
The grin on my face immediately reassured her that I had just had a great deal of fun of the sort that was once a main attraction of being a car driver before OHC, SiPS, 4WD, AC,AWR, CDi,HPi, MPV, SUV, Tiptronic and the fiddling of emissions figures by manufacturers spoilt it all.
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