Inspector Morose

Have some mediocre photographs.

A few more and it's tea time for me.

A few cars and ting.

Sod cars for a moment. I present - the people of Autoshite.

That was Chase’s anniversary motor. I had the pleasure to take that out brand new on service. Being used to the soft brake of a National, the short pedal on this took some time to get acclimatised but it was a pleasant place to be for a shift. Once I had my play, I rarely saw it again as it was always allocated to the clique so I picked a good National instead. This was the very bus that blew its diff after a couple of weeks leading me to ring up the local DAF agent (Greenhaus in Willenjall) with the question: ”I’ve got a DAF with a duff diff. Have you got a new diff for a DAF?” They put the phone down on me so I had to ring again. After this was changed under warranty (pinion bearings had collapsed apparently) it never gave a hint of trouble - well it did lead a very cosseted life while at Chase, no doubt it had a rude awakening when Arriva got its hands on it.

And the speed sensor for the gearbox was next to the offside rear wheel so when the inner tyre blew out, you lost all gears. Ask me how I bloody know. (Luckily ours was just a Paramount 3200).

You’re not thinking of the fabled MCW 400GT are you? One of the few coaches to have a legitimate 0-60 time and at least one was fitted with the big Cummins (basically a sprinter engine mounted vertically). Fuck me, they were fast.

Couldn’t work out a way of connecting the TS3 to the National box. It was briefly mulled over when we went to get the supercharger from the ‘sandpit’ (Chaseracer, remember that?) but even we had to draw the line somewhere!

Thinking of engine conversions, I think this one beats them all. Thats a Daimler Roadliner. Originally fitted with either a Cummins V6 or Perkins V8 engine and semi automatic gearbox. This one was later fitted with a TS3 engine and manual six speed gearbox. Apparently it wasn’t quick but was okay for what it needed to do (schools mainly).

Yeah, at the height, we’d managed to lick just about every shortcoming of the things so we turned to making them better. Well different anyway. Running with and without turbos, running one with a supercharger from a Commer TS3 (sounded like a good idea but really wasn’t), different fuel pumps including our own creations based upon bits and pieces from other engines, different horizontal engines (the wonderful 0680 conversions), vertical engine, you name it, we had a play at it. One that didn’t see the road as such was an Allison behind a normally aspirated 0500. Bloody brilliant on pick up but it couldn’t rev enough to engage top. We couldn’t get the uprated springs for the pump or that would have hit the road in service too. Instead we put the box behind a vertical 420 and ran that. I think that one still exists somewhere along with the second of the short 0680 conversions..

Meh, Omni - whatever. In 2004 I was still putting odd engines in Nationals. Newer stuff never really tickled my radar.

Don't forget that they stopped making the Omnicity in 2012 so most in Europe will have been withdrawn or are about to be. I like 'em but apparently some operators didn't get on with them at all. My favorites? The idea of these honking great things tooling around Herefordshire fills me with glee - thinking about it, I must go and phot them before they go as well. The above shot also shows the weakness of the frame with the 'Scania sag' present and correct at the rear.

Due to ‘things’ I won’t be able to make it. There’s a room booked at the Best Western in Buckingham for me so if anyone needs a room, there’s one there if you pretend to be me.

Meh, 48v is low , easy enough to rustle up that kind of voltage just depends on the amperage you need to run a welder. I suspect a lot of amps - sturdy leads are in order. That reminds me, I must conjure up a 16.1v charge voltage for the T42 In the morning.

I've always liked the idea of the style of car rallies of old (you know, lines of old cars in a field type of thing) but with totally inappropriate stuff. One I wanted to organise was a chesterfield sofa rally where folk walk around rows of deeply buttoned leather seating, reading the info cards in front while getting in the way of photographers trying to capture an image of their favourite leather grain or patina. Hence the idea of a vintage laptop rally in the middle of a field appeals to my warped grasp of reality.