Mercrocker's Fiat confusion - Toronado content

[mercrocker]

At risk of de-railing the Ebay thread, being castigated for starting a fresh one or breaking the Picture Only rule in the Shite Pictures thread I thought I would pass these on.... 

 

The Toronado Airport car that was over here was, as can be seen, a six-legger!   It toured the show scene around the 1980s usually trailing a Fiat 500 wagon in same livery.   My overloaded memory banks rendered the Olds' Mini-Me as the Autobianchi version but it looks like it might just have been a later 500L.   Anyhoo, crap picture it may be (I have no scanner!) I thought it was worth a share..... 

 

 

 

 

Soz for camera flash its getting dark here... 

 

 

 
There was, though, an actual Autobianchi Giardiniera  (non Panoramica version) in my head which a friend of my Mother had bought new.  That unfortunately got wiped out by a Bristol Lodekka - not a contest likely to end in great honours for the wee one.   My Dad was on the scene a few minutes later....

 

 

 

 

 

The lady was thankfully largely unhurt (she wasn't the sveltest of figures, shall we say) but even more remarkably she managed to survive an earlier incident involving her Austin A30 and a Heathfield quarry truck (I am not making this shit up....).   I have no pictures of that event but did see the Austin before the village garage scraped it up with their LWB Land Rover.    

 

 

Really must share some more of my cronky old snapshots....

 

[Asimo]

Blimey that Autobianchi driver was lucky!

My first motor was the Van version. I installed a piece of plywood between the battery and the fuel tank so that , in the event of a frontal, the battery terminals wouldnt get pushed into the tank. (Battery and fuel tank were the crumple zone) I also fitted seat belts, as requird by the MOT. Not straightforward because there were no belt mounts, which was a bit odd on a '68.

[mercrocker]

It was quite a crunch - that's a field bounded by a ditch that the Lodekka has ended up in!

[danthecapriman]

That 6 wheel conversion is know as the Jetway 707, by AQC (American Quality Coach conversions).

 

Edit; bit of info on them here http://www.coachbuilt.com/bui/a/aqc/aqc.htm

Seems to be pretty rare, between 52 and possibly 150 built.

[songsaboutmycat]

u 4got gmc motirohome

[richardmorris]

That really puts the Citroen cx six wheelers to shame!