Callum's vintage car in Kirkcaldy
Meet Callum Grubb, whose love of all things vintage has added a magnificent car to our roads - and there's much more.
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00:00 [no audio]
00:16 Well, to be honest, when I was much younger, I've always loved the look of old things.
00:22 I've always been interested in them. As a child, it was things like Thomas the Tank Engine and Brum and things.
00:28 All the old things, but as I was getting slightly older, I enjoyed doing things like looking through my grand's old photo albums and things.
00:36 Seeing all the old styles and the ways that they used to do things.
00:39 And then when I got to an older age, I looked at my great-grandfather's Prisoner of War diaries.
00:46 And that's what really sparked my interest in the '30s and '40s, was seeing them.
00:54 I don't know, it was just something about it that fascinates me.
00:58 And speaking to people of that generation, nothing sort of phases them.
01:07 I love the sort of way that they are. It's amazing, it really is.
01:13 [no audio]
01:15 Like I say, even at a young age, I was interested in old things.
01:18 But it's when I started at high school, about 12, 13, while you're in history class and whatnot,
01:24 and then I'm starting to realise what periods of history I'm really interested in,
01:28 as well as looking at my grandad's war diaries, my great-grandad's war diaries,
01:33 you're then looking into historical events.
01:36 And just something about the '30s and '40s just sparked.
01:42 And that's when I knew from a young age as well, I wanted an old car.
01:46 Never knew quite what kind of car, but it was when I was about 12 or 13,
01:50 I'd realised that it was a pre-war car, an Austin or something like that.
01:54 So I started looking at all the different brands and whatnot that were around at the time.
01:59 And I realised that it was an old Austin I wanted,
02:04 and I was starting to go to the car shows and whatnot and compare them all.
02:09 Then when we were down at the Black Country, I saw this, and I just went,
02:13 it just seemed right, I thought that's the one I want.
02:17 It was brilliant to see it.
02:19 It works. It's a 1938 Austin 10 Cambridge.
02:24 It's a 1125cc.
02:28 That's my driving instructor.
02:31 As you can see, she's not very good with speed bumps.
02:35 Having been built before speed bumps were introduced in Britain, you can understand why.
02:40 You've got your big differences, like you pull away in second gear and whatnot.
02:45 Your brakes, you've got to look ahead, watch ahead in the road to see what's happening,
02:51 because you do have to apply your brakes a lot earlier than you would on a normal car.
02:57 But that's your biggest differences.
03:02 No power steering and so on.
03:04 Because I find when you go back to a modern car, you brake too hard,
03:09 even things like looking for where the indicator switch is,
03:13 because that's all different on these cars.
03:15 On the old cars, this one here, it's right in the middle of your steering wheel.
03:20 But it's great to see people's reaction to it,
03:23 especially after it's been in the paper.
03:26 I went into the Baker's today, and I'd never seen the girl before,
03:32 and she went, "Have you got it with you?"
03:34 And I went, "Have I got what with me?"
03:36 "Have you got your car with you?"
03:37 "Oh, yeah, it's outside."
03:39 "Would you like to see it?"
03:40 "Oh, yeah, I can."
03:41 It's great to see how people are so happy to see them still.
03:46 You see it all the time.
03:48 You'll maybe pass schools when they're coming out,
03:51 and all the kids will be coming out with their parents and smiling and pointing.
03:54 So you'll give them a little honk, and it makes their day.
03:57 They love it.
03:58 And older people as well.
03:59 You pass older people.
04:00 They love it.
04:01 They really do.
04:03 When you have a car at this age, you care about them a little bit more.
04:07 They're not just a mode of transport.
04:09 So people do care where they go to in the end when you're passing them on.
04:13 I've got an old bicycle at home as well.
04:16 Not as old as I'd want it to be, but it's a 1952 bicycle.
04:22 Elizabethan class.
04:23 It was brought out to celebrate the coronation of the then Queen, Queen Elizabeth II.
04:31 So it's a nice piece as well.
04:33 I've got it at home.
04:34 I got it about a year or so ago.
04:37 And I've got things like the old telephones and whatnot,
04:41 the things like the old photo frames.
04:44 Just all old things like that.
04:46 I don't know what it is.
04:47 Just anything from that era seems to fascinate me.
04:50 I've got all little bits and bobs at home.
04:52 I've also got, obviously, a bit older than the '30s and '40s.
04:56 But they were still used a lot then.
04:58 I've got a lot of oil lamps and things.
05:02 And they can be fun to repair, I don't know if you can imagine.
05:07 But it's a little hobby.
05:08 It keeps me busy.
05:11 But I do find that, especially, it was my oil lamps I first started off with when I was about 13.
05:19 That was sort of my first thing I started collecting.
05:24 There is little communities around these things.
05:28 And they do tend to help you out if anything goes wrong.
05:31 I mean, when I had my first oil lamp, the gentleman, Nigel, that I bought it for,
05:37 when I first put it on, the funnel of it cracked when I was using it.
05:42 And I thought, "Oh, no, where did I get it?"
05:44 So I just phoned him and he said, "It's quite all right," he said.
05:48 And he came out and he helped me and he brought me another one.
05:50 And he said, "It's all right, these things, you'll find them."
05:54 But there is people there who are willing to help you out with these sort of things.
05:59 [BLANK_AUDIO]