Austin Mini......

The first "decent" car I bought was in 1975 .......an 850cc Austin Mini which was immaculate.
The mini was very basic with wires you pulled down on the inside to open the doors,no heated rear window,no radio,no power-steering,no seat belts that I recall (or if there were,we never used them!),no wind-screen washers....those had to be fitted when they became law and were activated by pumping a little button on the floor with your foot.
Security was non existent as the doors could be opened with more or less any key you could find.
It could hold four people and had a tiny boot.
You couldn't really have much of a conversation once it was up to speed as inside the car was very noisy.
However,in 1977 we went camping in Devon in the Mini,during incredibly hot weather with me ,the Wife,her Sister and my Sister plus the frame-tent and all the clothes and stuff they decided they "needed" for a few days camping stuffed inside the car.The distance from home to the campsite was over 200 miles and every few miles we had to stop and fill the radiator up with water and also have the heater on full blast,despite the heatwave,in order to prevent the car overheating more than it was.
If we had a normal toilet/tea stop on the way we had to the take all the stuff out before the two in the back could get out of the car.
We eventually got to Devon without too much mishap and after a few days under canvas we headed for home with the Mini struggling even more with the bits and pieces that had been bought in Devon adding to the load......
I remember that one of them had taken "Carmen Heated Rollers" with her but unfortunately 13 amp sockets inside a tent hadn't been invented then......

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