AC Invacars

[morris_ital_lover]

Hello All,Just asking a couple of questions about invacars... well two; how many are left? and are they still crushing them?They do have a certain charm and hopefully the ones here are here to stay...m0rris

[Milford Cubicle]

There's one on eBay just now

 

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/AC-INVACAR-INVALI ... 0302808573

 

I think, technically, they're all still owned by the government...

 

Here's one I found near John O' Groats

 

[Pillock]

They've been illegal to own and drive since March 2003, probably because they were all owned by the DHSS and never sold, so any out there are government property

[Cavcraft]

That's shite, they should be allowed back on the road as it's effectively stopped thousands of school kids from pointing and laughing and making non-pc jokes about them.In an especially non-pc fashion I still rofl when I remember everyone calling them 'spack (or spaz) chariots' back in the day*.There is (or was) agarage in Shewsbury that specialised in them and they still had a few kicking about around eight years ago now.*My brother is disabled and he used to rofl at that name.

[155V6]

There used to be a garage on our way to school that serviced them & what looked like earlier dark blue versions.There were always kids hanging around there as they also dealt with wheelchairs,& the kids would try & scrounge the wheels from these to build go-karts.I also remember at least one being used in the ramp-rollover at a banger racing meeting

[AXrescuer]

I'm sure the slip road onto the A1m near my home used to have a blue info sign that along with the no mopeds thing, used to also say no Invalid Carriages allowed.

[155V6]

Here's the one that was raced,I couldn't find a pic on the internet so had to look in my book

[MrRegieRitmo]

Were these used in the days before those shopmobility carriages were available? Is that the reason they were no longer required & were called back in? I last saw one in Bognor (where at one time there were probably a great deal of them!) back in the late 90s, or was it early post millennium?!

[hotford00]

Those things bring back some memories, where I used to live in Stretford near Manchester there was a firm that used to repair them down by the Bridgewater canal. Whilst out on a friends Dads narrow boat we had a collision with one!! it seems that the local deadheads had nicked it and sent it off to a watery grave, 50 foot narrow boat versus fibre glass tripod, no contest. As an aside to the one that was used at Aldershot I think that Dave Chisolm used the roof of one on his F1 stockcar.

[jonny rotbox]

A garage down here in Cornwall used to have a whole load of these stashed around the back that were visible from the main A30 road running down through the county, but alas they have all now vanished and the garage is now a Citroen dealer interestingly I knew that it had become illegal to use one of these vehicles on the public highway but didn`t know that they were property of the goverment and therefore illegal to own them too also it`s funny how they were all the same shade of pale blue...something that lead to refering to at the time any shade of pale blue as "spastic blue" something which I still do now without even thinking about it...awaits the public lynching by the "pc" types

[TheScrapman]

They've been illegal to own and drive since March 2003, probably because they were all owned by the DHSS and never sold, so any out there are government property

Are you sure thats true? Surely if there are a couple left with valid v5's (the one on eBay stating he bought it form a museum which was given it), it can then be proven to be in private ownership? If v5's exist, don't the government just need to knock on doors and scoop them up? I know there are a couple in The States too.A friend of mine has one stashed away with v5 that he bought from the freeads a few years ago. Will have to ask him if he knows it's legal status...

[whiskeyonesix]

I used to work for a company that had the contract to dispose of these back in 2003. As I recall the bodies went in the crusher and all the running gear was stripped down and sold as spares. I know there's a few left on the roads and in museums, I think they have to be classified as "historic vehicles" or somesuch.

[Volksy]

There's one for sale on the bay..