mercrocker

LOVE the Plymouth! Like a Cowley on steroids....

Of course not....One had to remove the lamp during the conflict.

In 1970 there was a strike in the transfer printing shop at JS Fry the emblem suppliers to the Midlands motor industry. It resulted in being unable to make any emblems with the letters "M" or "T". Luckily, Triumph had stockpiled huge numbers of "Triumph" nameplates but could not get any "Dolomite" badges made up. The only recourse was to launch the cars as 1500 (delaying the TC by a couple of years) and invent a word using the letters from "Dolomite" minus the T and M. The only acceptable anagram was Toledo.

Been tripping over this in a street near me for a few weeks now.....Think it's now got about 72 hours MOT left on it.   Unfortunately the auxiliary supplementary security bonnet catch seems to have let go in the heat although I imagine that to be the least of its worries.    Probably, the residents of Flat 2a will soon be missing the ever-changing vista of roof moss in a week or so.   One of the rear doubles has since gone flat, too. 

Plenty of closet VAGgers on here.....A4 Avants are fully approved, I believe. 
 
Good work!

Of course not....One had to remove the lamp during the conflict.

Of course not....One had to remove the lamp during the conflict.

Every piece of bullshit should have an obvious flaw! Plus, I overlooked it...

In 1970 there was a strike in the transfer printing shop at JS Fry the emblem suppliers to the Midlands motor industry. It resulted in being unable to make any emblems with the letters "M" or "T". Luckily, Triumph had stockpiled huge numbers of "Triumph" nameplates but could not get any "Dolomite" badges made up. The only recourse was to launch the cars as 1500 (delaying the TC by a couple of years) and invent a word using the letters from "Dolomite" minus the T and M. The only acceptable anagram was Toledo.

One of these lived near me......

There was this thing as well....Not so much Patsy Stone as Patsy Palmer. 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
Eight and half bags they were, in 1981.   About the same as a Granada GLS.    
 
They proper fleeced you for the extras, though,  
 
Not Cab Black - £95 bought you an Austin colour or three other "Special" shades for £350 extra.   Micky-the-Cab in the Arches could have probably blown it over for you for fifty quid.... 
 
Additional (read Any) Soundproofing another three hundred sovs.  Without tip. 
 
Softened Seating with Headroll and Thigh roll (sounds like Cynthia Payne).  £800 guv.  Before midnight....
 
It gets silly after that....Air Con £2700 (that's nearly a whole Pug 104) or TV to watch Fred Housego on £1070.   
 
All above prices North of the River only.
 
 

My days of being elbow deep in grease, emulsified oil and ditch-water are well over.   So from the comfort of my threadbare fireside chair -  Top thread and essential Shiteing....

Its just about the same everywhere now I suppose.   I rarely travel these days except around the UK coast, but Canada, France and Holland were all places where a road trip was well rewarded with indigenous chod.   I spent some school holidays in Rotterdam with my Grandparents in the late 60s - scores of stone grey DAF Daffodils and 750s, loads of Trabants for some reason, Taunuses (Tauni) and Opels that we never saw in Britain.   Quite frankly it was bloody fantastic, school trips to France were equally well rewarded....Stuff the Roman Empire we were much more interested in Gaston's AMI6 (again, stone grey and battered) or the dolly bird in the headscarf who tooted at us from her Floride.   Even when I first visited my parents in Canada in 1982 it was possible to hire flaky Dodge Aspens and Impalas from Rent-a-Wreck and I remember the old man getting a 74 Fury Wagon as a courtesy car.   You used to be able to tell instantly where you were if you woke up on the TEE or a Berliet schoolbus just by clocking the first car you could see.   Yep, its all crap these days - an endless grim boulevard of un-bought cack. 

The "Gordini" blue is an approximation of the French racing colour (a bit variable, like our own BRG) which was naturally adopted by Gordini racing cars before they became a part of Renault.   Not all Renault Gordinis were finished in it, just as not all Lotus Cortinas were white with a green flash but it was clearly extremely popular.....I don't recall it being offered on any non-Gordini Renault models.   

PM sent!

Here's me in my Tri-Ang Zephyr, June 1960.....
 

 
 
Wish my parents had kept it under a hedge instead of giving it to some kid up the street when I "grew out" of it. 
 
 
Also wish I still drove a two-tone 1950s convertible......

Bring on the Comstar....

The thought of driving stuff like this around in the 1970s reminds me how antiquated my fleet must look to modern eyes today....

1915 Morris Cowley.   I have chosen a Cowley to illustrate the 40+ year lifespan of the model name.   However, in these years the Cowley was actually a dearer version of the Oxford rather than the other way around (that change happened in 1920).   This year's model came with an American Continental engine.

 
Er, another Morris Cowley - this time a 1923 model.   Comparatively little change in a decade, considering the rapid development of cars generally in the pre-and-post Great War years.   There was no Morris Minor until 1929 so I cannot accurately cast my net back  to reflect my present day '63 Minor 1000.     By 1923 the Cowley had become the cheaper of the two Morris models and this one would have used the licence-built Hotchkiss engine. 

On to the Mercedes, now.   Direct equivalent to my 190E would have been the W136 170V model which represented the sole model with the three pointed star until the Ponton range appeared.   Like many 1950 cars it was a post-war warm-over.    
 
My 1987 T25 would have had no direct comparison in 1947, the original "Bulli" was no more than a scribble in Dutch importer Ben Pon's notepad.   My previous camper was a converted Bedford CF ambulance so 1979 would probably have seen me fitting some Army Surplus camping gear into the back of this.....
 

 
1947 Bedford KZ 
 
Of course, I would have needed a modern car to offer all the creature comforts my 2000 Fiesta Ghia has.   There was no Anglia Super in 1960 so I would need to be satisfied with the heater and screen-washer in a de Luxe Anglia.    By 1979 it would have probably looked like this.....
 

 
I would have been extremely happy with that lot back in 1979.   In reality, I was smoking this lot around...Or not, usually...

 
A fucked Mini

Company Renner van 

Suzuki T200 Invader 
 
 

@spottedlaurel.....I think you had most of them, the others that were sold were mostly sports car stuff.  The ones I kept were 60s Ford - Anglia, Cortina, Zephyr, Zodiac etc.   If I can get access to a scanner I will chuck them up on here.

'Twas me who sold these......Cant add anything to what SL has already sleuthed.   I got them on Ebay myself a year or so previously and culled the collection for the 1950s/60s cars in which I was particularly interested.   The original seller knew nothing about them either and I bought the whole album in a really heavy ring binder for what I recall being next to nothing.    Glad they have found a good home and stayed in AS territory!

People who weren't around or aware during the 70s and 80s cannot understand how much more densely populated this country has indeed become....Or how reliant upon absolutely CONTINUAL distribution.    

Have not had a tug for several years now, have been breathalysed three times - twice on account of my driving (doorhandling a Renner 4 and gunning the 280E away from a Wimmin after a barney) and once cos a Flic saw me come out of a bar in Le Mans (280E again...)
When I was younger it happened all the time and most encounters were polite although some of our local coppers were truly arseholes.
Most memorable pull for the surreal content of the conversation was along the local bypass early one morning. Noddy up front in his HA van (that's all they gave plod round our way, back then) me following in the Renner 4. About four miles later on goes the lava lamp, Noddy brakes pretty hard and I am nearly up the back of him. This is a bypass, mind, not a hard shoulder or layby...
 
Always enjoyed a natter with the rozzers in the R4 cos they had to talk through half a window, anyway, it turns out he's pulled me for THINKING about overtaking. Well, it was still a good three years short of 1984 so I don't know what the hell he is on about. Turns out he has interpreted my use of all the road as a prelude to gunning my 36BHP loaded-up Renner past his 1256cc Beddy. Apparently I was appearing in both of his mirrors at once. He then lectured me on the speed limit (which I already well knew owing to past pulls) as well as the use of the solid white line but funny enough did not mention the lunacy of stopping on an A road. He also told me his speedo was not calibrated and that being alone he could not have collaborated my speed. If I did overtake, like...
 
I saw the HA again that night outside the youth club and took the liberty of removing the HA110 badge from the front wing as a kind of talisman. Allegedly.

Damn, that's annoying....On the plus side it has given a good texture for the C post, I suppose.

Just got home from a cracking weekend away to see that Mr Ramrod is back on the road.....Icing on cake.   Well done, sir.

There is a lot more to this than meets the eye.....Those are traveller doors (or at least, 2 door saloon) but there is no strength at all in a de-forested Traveller.  A modified commercial Minor cab which incorporated such longer doors and still had B pillars would not give nearly enough room for that length of bed.   Simplest route, I guess, would be to just stretch the Minor LCV chassis but its still a lot of work to produce a non-original Minor pickup!