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Hemmings Motor News has been around since 1954. We're proud of our heritage, but we're also more than the Hemmings full of classifieds that your father subscribed to. Aside from new editorial content every month in Hemmings, we have three monthly magazines: Hemmings Muscle Machines, Hemmings Classic Car and Hemmings Sports and Exotic Car.

While our editors traverse the country to find the best content for those magazines, we find other oddities related to the old-car hobby that we really had no place for - until now. With this blog, we're giving you a behind-the-scenes look at what we see and what we do during the course of putting out some of the finest automotive magazines you'll ever read.

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At The Pumps, 1980s

Posted November 05, 2012 10:01 AM by dstrohl
Pathfinder Tags: gasoline mpg petrol throwback

While we're on the topic of traffic jams at gas stations, reader Robert Janca sent over this link to a Retronaut gallery of photos of a Texaco station's grand opening, presumably somewhere in the U.K. at some unspecified date in the 1980s. What do you see here?

See more photos on Hemmings.

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#1

Re: At The Pumps, 1980s

11/05/2012 10:11 AM

I see several automobiles driving on the wrong side of the road.

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#2

Re: At The Pumps, 1980s

11/05/2012 11:01 AM

From the right...

The sick-coloured thing on the right with the go-faster orange stripe is an early Ford Fiesta.

The black thing leaving the forecourt is an early Austin Mini.

The rust-coloured thing is a Ford Granada. Good choice - the colour will hide the rust rather well.

The red thing is another Austin Mini, though a bit younger than the black one.

The midnight-blue-coloured Estate is a late Ford Zephyr.

And the Jury is out here on the blue thing in front of it; it may be an Austin Princess though it looks like it's a 2-door one - a bit unusual.

No-one puts bunting outside their garage forecourt signs these days, and the days of the translucent illuminated signs are over too. It's just possible to see that diesel is £0.65GBP per imperial gallon, which makes it possible to date the picture pretty closely by those in the know; fuel is nowadays priced here in litres.

Will someone please dash up to East Anglia and wake up PlbMak? This is recent history in Norfolk...

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#3
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Re: At The Pumps, 1980s

11/05/2012 11:24 AM

Correction: £1.65 per gallon, and the litre price is above it.

Addition: the white van is definitely a Ford Transit and the Zephyr has acute rustitis, which was not uncommon in them.

There would be a lot of interest in them if they all turned up at a classic car show these days!

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#6
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Re: At The Pumps, 1980s

11/06/2012 5:23 AM

Brown ford is a Mk 4 cortina.

Blue estate is Mk 3 cortina.

Blue car on left is Datsun Cherry

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Re: At The Pumps, 1980s

11/06/2012 12:51 AM

I drove one those Ford Granada's in Korea back in 1990-1991. It was black and a left-hand drive. I don't remember the exact model year, I think it was a 1978. It was manufactured under license by Hyundai. This was one of those cars handed down from service member to service member when you PCS. My wife and I drove that thing all over. We drove up to TDC and as far south as Taegu and everywhere in between. Songni San and Sorak San were very pretty in the fall. It had few quirks, but all in all, not a bad car for $600.

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#5

Re: At The Pumps, 1980s

11/06/2012 4:16 AM

The black car extreme left of photo is a Nissian cherry.. and above it the white vehicle is a Ford Transit van.

I think the blue estate to the right of the Nissian is a Ford Cortina Mk2.... The red car between the rust Granada and mini (at the pumps) is a Morris Marina.

Also there is a "special offer" at this petrol station... "FREE PETROL".. try that these days in the UK, you'll be mobbed.

Also ALL the vehicles are driving on the CORRECT side of the road...Doorman!!

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