Richard_FM

Stockport registration, one of the last before Manchester LVLO absorbed the other local codes.

I heard they rusted at the same rate as Simcas of the time. Supposedly due to slow sales they were often stored outside for months before being delivered, which meant they were already rusting by the time they reached customers. According to one source the V engines were too close to the Essex units for Ford's liking, which was one of the reasons they were dropped. Even though the 1600cc version wasn't sold here, there was quite a snarl of models at the top of the Chrysler UK range, with the Avenger, Hunter and 180 being within of 200cc of each other.

I guess Rootes also wanted a brand to bridge the gap between Hillman and Humber. Chrysler dropped Singer in 1970 but the Vogues were briefly sold as Sunbeams.

I did hear about someone who restored a sports car with knock-on wheels but accidentally swapped the hubs around not realising they needed to be on a particular side of the car. They did lose a wheel once it had worked itself loose, but fortunately they were going at a slow speed & managed to stop before scraping the underside too much.

I heard Delboy's Capri (aka pratmobile!) had a similar problem with all the extra headlights drawing too much current & draining the battery. Whoever had customised it didn't think of putting in a higher rated battery. At least once while filming it struggled to start because of this.

London Transport used non-reflective plates for quite a way into the 1970s, especially on their DMS class of Daimler Fleetlines.

I heard that many insurance companies don't like dealing with them, and the DVLA won't let you transfer any other plates onto them. I presume it's a lot easier to prove the age of a car these days, and kit cars tend to have the registration of their donor vehicle.

I was looking up a the partial registration of a Ford Sierra in a magazine by typing all the potential combinations into the Auto Trader checker. All the cars that came up were Fords registered in May 1983, only one was a Sierra of the same trim level, but I was surprised to find one was a Cortina about 7 months after they were dropped from the range. It was a 2 litre GL rather than a Crusader which would have been expected.

That Granada has been slowly returning to nature.

Yes I've heard about Jaguar turning down lending them an E-type, but ironically lending an XJS for the Return of the Saint. Ian Ogilvy used to complain about the ice cold water pouring out the vents when turning sharply. One of Roger Moore's P1800s does survive in a collection.

Probably with a crucial part missing that's now unobtainium. It does seem with some cars that the achilleas heal part will be this, and all the examples in scrap yards will already be robbed of this part or have the same fault.

I've heard a few film & TV executives managed to get their cars into productions, one of the Cadillac Fleetwoods in Get Carter belonged to the producer. Supposedly the reason that The Saint drove a Volvo P1800 was because Roger Moore had one at the time. Like WHO1, ST1 was already in use so it had to use mocked up plates.

Thanks, I thought it was something like that. I think it was at the Longleat or Blackpool exhibitions, possibly both at time, I guess Jon Pertwee sold it because he was living in Spain & didn't want to either take it out there or pay storage costs. It seems it was off the road for so long that it needed to be re-registered for the 30 Years In The Tardis documentary.

The Whomobile was at one time on a long term loan to a fan.

Portugal and Greece also have (or had) road tax systems based on engine size, which meant they often had cars with smaller engines to get around things.