'I sold my first car for £30 - it would be worth a lot of money today'
Artist Peter Layton has owned some nice cars over the years but he still has a soft spot for his first, a 1929 Austin 7 in silver with brass headlamps.
And he says he regrets selling it for about £30. “If I still had it today it would be worth a lot of money,” said Peter, 89, a renowned glass artist in London and life-long friend of David Hockney.
Peter, who grew up in Manningham, Bradford, was on national service in the RAF when he bought the car.
He had been working at a mill in Batley before joining up and his boss – keen to take him back after his RAF duties – paid him a £2 a week retainer, which was unusual.
“I loved the car,” he said. “I called it Flossie. I remember one time I parked it up in Sunbridge Road in Bradford and went to Woods music shop or for a coffee somewhere near Brown, Muff’s and came back to find a police officer there.
"He said the car had moved. Well, it probably did. The brakes weren’t great. It was a beautiful looking car with a vertical screen.
“I sold it a chap who I think did it up and shipped it out to America. He probably made a lot of money out of it.
“It was the days of the smog when Bradford often had a think khaki-coloured fog. I used to go to Batley on the bus but I much preferred it going by car.”
His next car was a former Army vehicle, an XWD (ex-war department) Austin.
“I remember going to Lidget Green in Bradford to buy it and tried it out on some farmland,” he said.
He still drives. He has a Toyota Yaris which he loves.
“It has never let me down,” he said. “It’s the perfect car for London in many ways but I have a lot of grandchildren so I may need to get something a little bigger.”
He says one of his most memorable cars was a Chevrolet station wagon in America but his favourite car remains Flossie.