quicksilver

Yep, unit and trailer both from 1973. Bob has been driving it on timber haulage since 1982, first for a haulier then when they closed down he bought it and went self-employed. Surely there can't be anybody else who has driven the same rig for 40 years and I wonder how many hundreds of thousands of miles they've done together. Man and machine in perfect harmony for sure!

Twas the 914 International Meet in mid-Wales last weekend. Some must have stayed on to explore other parts of the UK as I've seen three of them over the past week, all on Dutch plates and I'm nowhere near Wales.

I've seen these two separately before and thought how good they'd look together

My first time back at the Gaydon show on Sunday after 4 years away. Loads to see but in prime position was a favourite of this thread, the one and only Bob Carmichael's Volvo F88, not far off its 50th birthday and still in daily use. Photos don't do it justice and in the flesh you can see all the fluid stains and brush marks in the paint. What an epic machine and long may it continue! And just along from that, the awesome sight and sound of Tony Knowles's gas turbine Leyland actually running and driving. The noise it makes is just extraordinary, a high-pitched whistle that sounds like a jet plane taking off. Imagine if it was a success and the country was full of these howling and whistling their way down the motorways.

Yesterday I spotted a transporter loaded with these weird little vans that look like previous-gen Transits shrunk in the wash and had no idea what they were. Meet the DFSK EC35, a cheap and cheerful electric van from those Chinese folks who used to make the little trucks with the BMW-style grilles.

Limo VJX 803V is still alive and well on the show scene

A whole truckload of Winda's finest Chinese death rings. Surely not that premium as I've never heard of them.

Just seen PO02NFR. Looks a bit too much like 'poo sniffer' for my liking but at least it isn't PO05NFR.

Saw that Landy's team mate 121 on a trailer going through Buckingham this morning, heading home (wherever that might be) from the rally I guess.

That's very likely. I'm pretty sure WVW appears in every episode of series 1 so it wasn't obviously replaced part way through filming. Allegedly the subsequent cars were always guarded by minders when not in action - it was early 1990s Newcastle after all so a Cossie was unlikely to last long there. In real life there's no way Spender would have been allowed to have such a car due to the huge risk of it being nicked and jeopardising police operations.

Well found! The reg change on 18/05/1992 is the same day it was exported so it clearly went to NI then. A bit concerning that it hasn't been taxed since 2008 (the Norfolk report was actually back in 2006) so hopefully it didn't get scrapped because the NI plate was hiding its TV history. Someone on the passionford forum claims to have bought it for restoration in 2019 but hasn't posted anything else since so might be telling a porky. The bigger mystery now is why G325 WVW was still taxed in 1998 when so many sources say it was destroyed in 1990.

I knew you'd be able to shed some light on this one There are no photos to prove it survives, just the typical hearsay of someone who knows someone who claims to have seen it and met someone who might have been the owner. Two theories: 1. It was exported but someone brought it back and did something weird to try and get it registered in the UK again that caused the DVLA to hide the record. 2. Maybe it was actually this one that was nicked - the dates fit better as the second series was filmed in 1991/2 - and whoever returned the V5 ticked the exported box instead of scrapped by mistake.

I haven't seen that one yet, it looks great for its age. Also, I spy a Foden Alpha lurking in the corner

After watching Jimmy Nail's Spender recently, I did a bit of research into the three Sierra Cosworths his character drove (a new one in each of the three series): - G325 WVW: allegedly stolen from the set and burnt out during filming of series 1, but that was in 1990 and it had a V5 issued in 1994 and was taxed until 1998. - H674 LAR: supposedly survives (reported in Norfolk in 2006) but no DVLA record so maybe re-registered. - K95 BRX: untaxed since 2003 but V5 issued in 2005 and also supposedly survives (the car blown up at the end of the final episode was a replica).

CU11 COW on a pickup with a livestock trailer. A slaughterman presumably.

A Y-suffix Mini wouldn't normally be anything unusual, except when it's a 1275GT as they stopped making them in August 1980. Built in 1979 but not registered until May 1983 for some reason.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the future of trucking! That's the battery-electric Scania L-series demonstrator on the back, zero emissions and all very noble, but it stil needs a bloody great 770bhp diesel V8 to move it any distance.

Saw something worthy of this thread today. Yes, that's the actual Sweeney Consul just casually sitting among everything else at the Moggerhanger Park show.

Minor Injuries unit? Is that because I've had to let @Slowsilver out without his carer today Sorry I couldn't make it but not feeling 100% and don't want to risk infecting anyone. Have fun everyone!

That'll be this one. They've also got another Actros, a Volvo and Scania, always immaculately turned out. Quite rare to see these old-style Actroses now as they're all over 10 years old but there's still a few nice ones about.

That was the easy bit! Full gory details coming soon in the Containershite thread over on the open forum.

Always great to see a Foden Alpha and I got two recently. Anyone spot what's odd about the second one? This was the first T cab Scania I saw on the road back in 2020. Great to see it still going (and much cleaner this time). An old Iveco recovery truck still going and not in need of recovery itself And the big question: what on earth was this Perth & Kinross Council dustcart doing 400 miles south in England?!

I still see a couple of those fairly regularly in use with Nick Pelosi from Milton Keynes, who transports VAG cars and usually pulls one with this big Actros V8, allegedly tuned to more than 660bhp. His trucks are all on the older side too, this 61-reg being the newest, but always immaculately turned out. Edit: looks like these are only the 5-car version missing the middle deck. They still look a fair bit older than the fancy modern multi-adjustable ramp types usually seen. This is the other one that appears to be the same design.

@wuvvum owned a Rayton Fissore Magnum some years ago and there's probably a thread about it somewhere. I'd never heard of them until recently and never seen one so it was quite exciting to discover I know somebody who actually owned one. EDIT: turns out I mentioned it in this very thread when I first discovered it in 2018. There's a surprising number of mentions over the years if you search the forum.

It is a bit of an odd one. The combination of only being nine years old, having its controls removed and being on its own suggests this was not a routine planned withdrawal. Looks like it caught fire, the local repairer deemed it beyond repair, transplanted its controls into another and then got this chap to take away the remains. I wonder what controls it had.