Eye-catching black and whites

[lesapandre]

3 hours ago, D.E said:

Electric thingy

It's an Opperman Unicar. Most were petrol - but there may well have been the odd go with electric.

Site of the factory is right at the end of the A1 as it comes into London - now occupied by a Morrisons supermarket.

(The Morrisons cafe was ok - I used to pop in for a pit stop when using the A1 and always thought of Unicar made there - I see they are closing their cafes - pity)

[D.E]

10 minutes ago, lesapandre said:

It's an Opperman Unicar. Most were petrol - but there may well have been the odd go with electric.

It's described as a "TEL electric car". Presumably they converted an Opperman?

[lesapandre]

Opperman were a general engineering firm. It looks like an Opperman body - someone took the bodies or moulds.

I think opperman sold the cars as kits and built-up vehicles.

Opperman exited car production soon after the Mini arrived as they could not compete.

A bit more about TEL and more B/W images.

https://photographyinmyblood.com/2021/05/04/three-strange-vehicles/

https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/sarah-handy-in-the-drivers-seat-of-a-tel-electric-car-in-news-photo/2189357983

Fascinating stuff.

The arrival of Mini closed a lot of these micro and kit car businesses.

[High Jetter]

The amount of knowledge on here is insane

[sheffcortinacentre]

6 hours ago, D.E said:

Another one:

No details 

[sheffcortinacentre]

6 hours ago, D.E said:

No details 

[sheffcortinacentre]

6 hours ago, D.E said:

The local picture archive is a goldmine of oddball stuff, but I have to dig through thousands of photos. This is, apparently, a "luxury cab" for VIPs and such. Not sure why it would have to be lhd for that...

No details 

[sheffcortinacentre]

2 hours ago, D.E said:

Electric thingy

No details 

[D.E]

[D.E]

[lesapandre]

Possibly August 1976 and the sell-off of bankrupt Jensen factory by receivers.

[sheffcortinacentre]

1 hour ago, D.E said:

Think that was done by hot car or custom car mag

[Amishtat]

15 hours ago, Asimo said:

Possibly this sort of thing?

Another one was raced within the last month.

[Dick Cheeseburger]

14 hours ago, D.E said:

Definite Peugeot 206 vibes.

[Momentary Lapse Of Reason]

"RST 924 No details  " 

🤣

[D.E]

Sheerline gas turbine, 1954

[D.E]

[MiniMinorMk3]

15 hours ago, D.E said:

The following link has images that some may not be able to view at work.

Ford Fiesta MK1 » Magazine Articles UK » Custom Car » Feature: Fiesta Custom

[D.E]

[D.E]

[ETCHY]

2 hours ago, MiniMinorMk3 said:

The following link has images that some may not be able to view at work.

Ford Fiesta MK1 » Magazine Articles UK » Custom Car » Feature: Fiesta Custom

Disgusting.

I spent 10 minutes looking at that filth.

I'll look again later just to confirm how Disgusting it is.

[D.E]

[D.E]

[sheffcortinacentre]

8 hours ago, D.E said:

Sheerline gas turbine, 1954

No details.

[sheffcortinacentre]

8 hours ago, D.E said:

No details 

[sheffcortinacentre]

7 hours ago, MiniMinorMk3 said:

The following link has images that some may not be able to view at work.

Ford Fiesta MK1 » Magazine Articles UK » Custom Car » Feature: Fiesta Custom

Knew it was one or the other

[sheffcortinacentre]

5 hours ago, D.E said:

No details 

[sheffcortinacentre]

1 hour ago, D.E said:

No details for any of the visable plts

[LightBulbFun]

On 25/03/2025 at 15:01, D.E said:

On 25/03/2025 at 16:39, barrett said:

Some good bits on the last couple of pages. The Checker Aerobus is a pretty wild sight – I wonder what happened to that one? I believe there was, briefly, a UK concessionaire in London but I doubt if more than one actually made it over here.

this so very much this, I had no clue any Aerobus's where ever imported into the UK in period! I would *love* to know the story behind it, the Checker Taxi/Marathon is very high up there on my I would fucking love to own some day list *especially* an Aerobus version,

apart from the general "sudo-nostalgia" of the Checker from Americian Movies and Grand Theft Auto, when I was growing up there used to be a Checker Taxi in closed off yard here up on a plinth for some reason, the yard was always closed off, but when you went by on the top deck of a bus you could see into the yard and see the Cab, and I always wondered what its story was

and then the Aerobus being something I learnt of later in that same general time frame, in a set of top trumps someone gave me and, me being me, suitably Auotshite-minded I thought was the coolest car out of everything else in that set, forget all the sports cars and supercars etc, I wanted the Aerobus

the thing I love about the Aerobus in particular (and other airport-transfer vehicles like it, that existed at the time), is how they are not just stretch limousines, but they are practical limousines, they have all the doors and all the seats, so the stretch was not just a novelty thing, but really is a practical vehicle,

but yeah I have researched/looked at into the checker cab and checker Marathon over the years, and I had no idea any Aerobuses had made it here in period like that, in-fact it was only recently by one of @Pieman's facebook posts did I see that any had made it here at all, but as above only to sadly been banger raced, that one was particularly painful for me to learn about, to learn that some had actually made it onto these shores only to then be destroyed in the end

but it was painful not just that they where banger raced, but that (unless someone sadly went out of their way to banger race them despite being viable vehicles, which I really hope was not the case) how did they otherwise end up in such condition that they did get banger raced?

so I do wonder in itself what the story of the 2 that had been banger raced where, how did they get over here and then how did they end up meeting such an unfortunate end

 

sadly I do know in general, vehicles like this Limousines and hearses and other speciality cars, get very little love from the wider world, even when they are in fairly workable condition, and that in itself makes me quite sad, and I fear a similar fate of abandonment until may of befell the oval'ed Aerobus 

[Metal Guru]

8 hours ago, sheffcortinacentre said:

No details 

The Chinese introduced a bus like that , ( can’t remember which city), to be able to get through rush hour traffic without queueing. It cost a fortune and was a complete flop because someone forgot there were vehicles higher than cars on the road, so as soon as it came across a van or even an SUV, it had to stop.