I-Spy innocent days gone by

[Karmann Ghiaman]

Here's an unbelievable result from a local charity shop:

 

 

 

Obviously worth infinitely more than the 10p I paid for it. Dating from 1983, just before overpaid idiots with far more dosh than brains started paying grotesque amounts for 'funny' personal registrations on their penis extensions.

 

In those days A1 really did stand for Autoshite One, as you can see from this carefully-chosen, tastefully-painted piece of crap that the Dunlop tyre people put it on:

 

 

Anyone else got similar literature/ephemera/memorabilia from the lost Age of Innocence? Dust off those Townsend Thoresen GB plates, gentlemen...

[bigstraight6]

Is that for real! beardy foliage loving David Bellamy putting his name to a number plate spottage book I've got my Ian Allans 1982 loco spotters book still, does that count

[pogweasel]

FO' SHO'!I distinctly recall be ing presented with an "I-spy with David Bellamy ON THE MOTORWAY" book circa 1985, shortly before yet another bone-shaking 3-hour dice-with-death that was travelling anywhere in my pop's Renner 20. Why we never went anywhere good in the cumfurt & luxury of his concurrent Granada 2.3 GL I don't know. Twunt.

[r.welfare]

I've got that I-Spy book, great pic of the Mighty Bellamy soaping up his Bedford Chevanne on in the inside front cover

[Spottedlaurel]

Need to be careful here, as we may stray onto territory previously covered by the Formative Influences (Shameless Nostalgia) thread, but as I can't be bothered to search that out I'll just post these again here:

 

 

 

This wasn't one of mine, but I like how a budding 'shiter did fill in some registrations.

 

 

 

 

These were all mine, son not quite yet old enough to be exposed to them.

[ChinaTom]

Ah, you beat me to it with the Ladybird How it Works book. My I-Spy book of cars had a red cover and a picture of a Granada on the front. Still got it somewhere, and still remember that incredible morning in XRT801S (an Allegro 1750HL, yup, blue with vinyl) on the North Circular when the old man yelled at me to look at the car behind us. I was finally able to tick the AC3000ME box. One of the formative moments of my life...

 

(for those of you who never saw the 70's, they were if I recall correctly worth maximum points, and deservedly so)

 

 

What was the ladybird book that had a photo of this Scamp in it?

 

 

It was supposed to be the future for us all, and I remember staring at Michelotti's finest work in our driveway (Triumph 2000TC) and wondering where the hell I was going to sit if my old man bought one. Frightening stuff to a 5 year old.

[bigstraight6]

Ah! the Ladybird books of commercial vehicles, still have mine and me youngest nipper loves them as a bedtime read! He now knows his Scammells from his AEC's

[Spottedlaurel]

Ah! the Ladybird books of commercial vehicles, still have mine and me youngest nipper loves them as a bedtime read! He now knows his Scammells from his AEC's

Mine's not far off them! I used to look at them endlessly, great illustrations.

[pogweasel]

 

 

 

 

LOLZ.

I had this book, I DID fill in the 'spotters log' like a good little shiter.

 

 

 

These were all mine, son not quite yet old enough to be exposed to them.

Had all these too. PLus a couple of 'car' books comparable to the trucks one. The were top books, and filled my head with exotica such as the Cadillac Eldorado (8.2L!!!) and the Thorneycroft Mighty Antar and Leyland Hippo in the trucks book. MEGA.

 

The "How it works" book is actually a terrific piece of literature, cramming all the principles into one easy little book. Should be on the national curriculum.

[Karmann Ghiaman]

I've got that I-Spy book, great pic of the Mighty Bellamy soaping up his Bedford Chevanne on in the inside front cover

Allow me:

 

 

Yes, in those days it was OK to be a beardy grunge artist who lived in the shrubbery, loved our furred & feathered friends AND had a car. It's like discovering that Bill Oddie is really Jeremy Clarkson in disguise, isn't it? This century you have to be on one side or the other, but both? - impossible!

 

I was already too old for that book in '83, but seem to remember that David Bellamy was actually presented as 'Big Chief I-Spy' at one point & had to pretend to be interested in rather a lot of childish obsessions. In my young day Big Chief I-Spy remained mysteriously anonymous, though one suspected people like the Duke of Edinburgh and Graham Greene. If the snoopy kid spied on enough cars, ponies, ballet dancers, parish churches or whatever you could send the book in and get an ORDER OF MERIT (not the same as the one awarded by the Queen unfortunately). You also got Big Chief I-Spy's (or David Bellamy's) 'Seal and Autograph', so I imagined you might then at last be let in on the masonic secret of who was actually in charge. (Now that the country's a Stalinist Gulag full of speed traps & CCTV I suppose it was Gordon-Fucking-Brown all along.)

[Guest]

 

The vehicle details for CBR 345S are:

 

Date of Liability 25 03 1988

Date of First Registration 01 11 1977

Year of Manufacture 1977

Cylinder Capacity (cc) 1256CC

CO2 Emissions Not Available

Fuel Type Petrol

Export Marker Not Applicable

Vehicle Status Unlicensed

Vehicle Colour BLACK

 

Beardy must of wrote it off in the shrubbery if he still had it in 88. (25 03 1988) As 25th must mean it was cashed in for a refund.

[wuvvum]

The vehicle details for CBR 345S are: Date of Liability 25 03 1988 Date of First Registration 01 11 1977 Year of Manufacture 1977 Cylinder Capacity (cc) 1256CC CO2 Emissions Not Available Fuel Type Petrol Export Marker Not Applicable Vehicle Status Unlicensed Vehicle Colour BLACK

That Skoda that SL spotted survived rather better: The vehicle details for VEX 229X are: Date of Liability 01 11 1994 Date of First Registration 29 10 1981 Year of Manufacture 1981 Cylinder Capacity (cc) 1046CC CO2 Emissions Not Available Fuel Type Petrol Export Marker Not Applicable Vehicle Status Unlicensed Vehicle Colour ORANGE Vehicle Type Approval null13 years isn't bad going for a Series 1 Estelle - most of them either rusted to buggery or ended up going backwards through a hedge much sooner than that. Must've been old biddy owned...

[Spottedlaurel]

Skoda's not my spot! Was whoever the book used to belong to, think it was someone in Bungay as he'd written his name and address in it There's a few other numbers in there too.Agreed, Skoda had a decent life.

[55bloke]

If that A1 number plate is genuine, it must be worth more than the average house these days!

[MrRegieRitmo]

The "How it works" book is actually a terrific piece of literature, cramming all the principles into one easy little book. Should be on the national curriculum.

Haven't got a spare copy of that have you?

[vicsmith]

I was always under the impression that the big chief was the guy enjoying a light snack in his Rover SD1 on the front cover of my "I-spy cars" book.Sort of looked like Rod Hull.

[500tops]

I was always under the impression that the big chief was the guy enjoying a light snack in his Rover SD1 on the front cover of my "I-spy cars" book.Sort of looked like Rod Hull.

I've got that one too! Wasn't the plate something like LOK 7P? I used to like the shite section in the back - it had 1200 herald, prefect and other grade A shit!

[vicsmith]

Yes! thats the one, enjoying a flask of tea and a corn on the cob if I remember right.I think the Herald was in the "old cars you are not likely to see section" Anyone have the Young Road traveller`s handbook? The car spotting section had artists impressions rather than photos, and they somehow managed to get the Range Rover front end completely wrong, and i mean completely - square headlights for a start, but in another section there was a Rangie towing a horsebox and that one was bang on.

[Karmann Ghiaman]

If that A1 number plate is genuine, it must be worth more than the average house these days!

It is genuine. It really is the first ever registration issued in Britain. According to his own book, Bellamy's Bedford was registered in Durham, SL's Skoda came from Great Yarmouth. I remember a young German woman on a work exchange scheme being taken from London to Oxford on a purchasing trip a few years ago asking, very worried, 'But how do you know vhat town alle ze cars are vrom?' Guess who started to explain before being politely told to belt up by the other Brits.

[Karmann Ghiaman]

This chap built a quite nice Fairthorpe Special in the 1958 Eagle Book of cars and motorsport:

 

 

Obviously his girlfriend was no help whatsoever:

 

 

Remember boys, gals are utterly useless when it comes to technical stuff. Dorothy should stay in the kitchen where all females belong. Silly mare.

 

 

He managed to finish it and get it to go. Note that he wore a suit & tie for the test run, but didn't bother to put the hubcaps onto the otherwise not bad car. No doubt it had to be replaced with a Morris Minor when they later heard the pitter-patter of tiny feet, but still.