ALL THE CARS I’VE EVER BOUGHT
Nick Larkin looks back at his best – and worst – classic buys. This week, the Cambridge that he’s owned for nearly 40 years
WHY DID YOU WANT ONE?
For some mysterious reason I had idolised BMC Farinas almost since birth, when I first saw one lumbering around the streets. It was a cruel world where these cars were merely cheap chariots of the reliable but stodgy everyday variety. My geography teacher’s A60 was exciting enough but my cousin, who ran a car sales garage in Manchester, took an immaculate A55 in a mysterious shade of brown that I’ve never seen since in part-exchange in 1984 – and I was besotted. All the chrome and those fins, plus a feeling of solid, suburban well-being. A proper car from those soft seats, vast steering wheel and cavernous interior to the solid clunk when the doors closed. All that thick metal... I begged my bemused cousin to take me for a spin in the A55, rather than a two-litre Capri, and what a great sound the car made, chattery engine (tappets), gearbox whine and all. It all seemed so friendly and as a car should be. An Austin A55 equalled automotive love.
WAS IT A JOY – OR A NIGHTMARE – TO LIVE WITH?
I’d already owned an Austin A60, which I bitterly regretted swapping – plus a filler-laden MG Magnette MkIV – but the 54,000-mile A55 was something special being in excellent overall condition and with two-tone paintwork. I remember driving the car (sadly re-registered ABM 418A, originally 26 OTC) home to Sussex from Bedford in utter ecstasy. This car was a keeper – it was even first registered on my birthday. The A55 proved to be everything that I wanted it to be.
Although it was a second car (I had a company Austin Metro for my Sussex Express newspaper reporter duties) the Cambridge was a great vehicle for special occasions in and around sunny Sussex. A change of job meant that the car spent time in every day use, even braving the A23 to Crawley. Servicing was easy apart from the greasing – every 3000 miles or so, which I must admit has sometimes been done by friendly local garages at MoT time. The car has been incredibly reliable over 30,000 miles, apart from needing a new clutch.
WHAT’S YOUR ABIDING MEMORY OF IT?
Well, I still have the A60, so memories are still being made as we speak. I bought a semi-dead 1959 A55 for spares and transferred the registration, 412 XMH, to my car to replace the A-plate. A colleague subsequently borrowed the Cambridge and could only watch in horror as the bonnet flew over the car thanks to a catch that wasn’t secured. Thankfully the unfortunate panel was salvaged and repaired. The saddest tale occurred on
