HMC back to shitein’ (no g)

[Zelandeth]

1 hour ago, Stinkwheel said:

You do know this is Autoshite?  I mean, maybe you are correct, but one of these days someone WILL swap a silver cloud for an Invacar or something similar. You just know it

I did swap a Lada Riva Estate for a V12 Jag XJ-S on here, so it wouldn't be without precedent!

[HMC]

Took VDP #1 out for a slightly extended test route. Earlier I power washed the moss and lichen off the car, which also (partly intentionally) removed pieces of flaking top coat. 

Shortly after this pic the aux belt in short order got noisy, shredded itself and i gingerly made my way downhill (a short distance)  back to base. 

 

[HMC]

id also like to point out that someone has sprayed the roof brown in a sort of fake vinyl roof effort. Wierdly the #not-vinyl roof has the best paint finish (albeit faded) on the whole car. 

[tooSavvy]

@HMC.. This guy 'tickles his lever, for reverse...'

.... must be a *thing 🤔

🚙💨

[High Jetter]

Poor spillig tho

[High Jetter]

5 hours ago, HMC said:

Took VDP #1 out for a slightly extended test route. Earlier I power washed the moss and lichen off the car, which also (partly intentionally) removed pieces of flaking top coat. 

Shortly after this pic the aux belt in short order got noisy, shredded itself and i gingerly made my way downhill (a short distance)  back to base. 

 

Aux? You mean fan, shirley?

[Noel Tidybeard]

2 hours ago, High Jetter said:

Aux? You mean fan, shirley?

no an allegro plas has a front mounted radiator with an electric fan

[mk2_craig]

On 17/06/2025 at 19:55, DodgeRover said:

At a guess parked up and dropped off the system, reregistered again in 2020 retaining it's original number.

I reckon this is an import, used to be that when bringing a car into the UK you could MOT it on the foreign plates initially (or the VIN) but this must have made use of the over 40 years exemption so no test records.  Not sure whether theres a way of extracting any "previous country" info out of DVLA.

[grogee]

19 hours ago, HMC said:

Took VDP #1 out for a slightly extended test route. Earlier I power washed the moss and lichen off the car, which also (partly intentionally) removed pieces of flaking top coat. 

Shortly after this pic the aux belt in short order got noisy, shredded itself and i gingerly made my way downhill (a short distance)  back to base. 

 

Dartmoor is looking lovely in the sunshine (which is a rarity). Sorry to hear about the belt, hopefully an easy fix m9. 

10 hours ago, Noel Tidybeard said:

no an allegro plas has a front mounted radiator with an electric fan

Space age stuff. Next you'll be telling me it has a unitary body construction and independent suspension 

[lesapandre]

La Grand Mini...

[HMC]

Unexpected news…

An oil and filter change has woken up reverse gear. Old oil, at the wrong level was replaced with new. Reverse can be selected and works but slips if you boot it.  But still- there was no reverse at all until today

We celebrated with a drive to a local inn.. (gravity will help with reversing at least) EDIT- sorted aux belt with off the shelf item from local motor factors.

ill do a change in a short while to some 20/40 motorbike spec stuff that @Sigmund Fraud alerted me to a while back. Its got additive designed to help where the sump has gearbox components in it, or something like that.

[Weird Car]

6 minutes ago, HMC said:

Unexpected news…

An oil and filter change has woken up reverse gear. Old oil, at the wrong level was replaced with new. Reverse can be selected and works but slips if you boot it.  But still- there was no reverse at all until today

We celebrated with a drive to a local inn.. (gravity will help with reversing at least)

ill do a change in a short while to some 20/40 motorbike spec stuff that @Sigmund Fraud alerted me to a while back. Its got additive designed to help where the sump has gearbox components in it, or something like that.

First refusal on this please 🙏 

This car is making my tummy feel all kinds of funny 😍🤤

[RoadworkUK]

On 21/06/2025 at 15:57, HMC said:

sorted aux belt with off the shelf item from local motor factors.

Ahh, the West Country. Could probably also have picked up spares for the Cugnot Steam Tractor you'll be trading the Allegro in for next week.

[HMC]

Plah details:

Dash:

peeling.

 

Clocks:

All functional

 

Actual clock:

Also functional. Go Jaeger transistor.

 

Picnic Tables: 

None- as its a series 1. Presumably Harry Webster decided against whilst hiding under desk in candle light amid a strike and a 3 day week. Extravagance!

PLAH;

badge at odds with horrific paint

 

Lights:

YELLOW

 

[lesapandre]

Just lovely.

Pity they did not offer the wooden dash as an option on the upper Allegros. It really lifts the design.

There was also an MG version somewhere in the mix with wood and a quick engine if they had the imagination.

Thought I think by then Stokes had killed MG. He also got rid of John Cooper - an Allegro Cooper might have found buyers and haloed the image somewhat. 

Allegro was always so 'Terry and June' image-wise - thought the VDP is more 'Keeping Up Appearances'.

[Weird Car]

10 minutes ago, HMC said:

 

 

 

I wanna daily this so bad 🤤

I'm one of the few who prefers this face over the original

[lesapandre]

41 minutes ago, Weird Car said:

I wanna daily this so bad 🤤

I'm one of the few who prefers this face over the original

You are not alone. Me too. Very nice. I don't think the snout is too bad either.

[HMC]

@LightBulbFun ?

[LightBulbFun]

46 minutes ago, HMC said:

@LightBulbFun ?

still an incomplete picture! are you able to submit a heritage certificate request for it? do export vehicles have different VIN number codes? who here is the Allego version of me or @MarinaJosh or @Blake's Den etc!?  

 

even if it was on its original 1975 V5 that would not explain it, V5's never expire, and even going back further to that, to vehicles still on a buff logbook, when you V765 them, you generally get a proper record setup for them, and of course all would not explain why its on an age related plate (even if the original vehicle record somehow did completely up-n-vanish, an original 1970's V5 would be more then enough proof to V765 the original number back)

so I still maintain its either an import, or somehow it lost its original idenity as in the number plates phyiscally fell off, and rather then bother to try and get its identity back someone just registered it anew, but that would not explain where the date of first registration August 1975 comes from, if it was a vehicle loss of idenity then it would show just a current date of first registration and a declared year of manufacture

you could try submit a V888 asking about specifically the vehicle record, if it was imported, if it was imported, where was it imported from, and if its not an import, why is the vehicle on an age related plate/showing a date of first registration of 2020, that should be allowed, theres nothing GDPR-y about that!

 

 

the only other thing I could think of is maybe if somehow its identify was in dispute? the DVLA thought something was dodgy? so they gave it an age related plate and a new record, but set it up like an import to preserve its original date of first registration?

for example the only time I have ever seen a record like the Allegro's on a *domstic* vehicle is this Routemaster above

 but as you can see by its Ian's bus stop record, its literally the Routemaster of Theseus, even more so then Routemasters normally are LOL (and here at this point I feel the need to tag @Yoss  ) but even that still (somehow) has its original plate

[lesapandre]

Alternatively [?] was this was a vehicle held by VDP in their showroom at Kingsbury or by BLMC - is there also a chance it sat long-term in a dealer or that it was written off very early in its life and resurrected. Or stolen and recovered much later?

Export might not have gone far - either Channel Islands or Isle of Man with a retiree - and then brought back to the UK? It's that sort of car. The VIN would have remained as UK.

Some alternatives?

[LightBulbFun]

@HMC I presume you have the V5 for it in your name, in hand by now right? are there any special notes on the front of it? 

[ETCHY]

22 hours ago, lesapandre said:

You are not alone. Me too. Very nice. I don't think the snout is too bad either.

I actually think time has been kind to the VDP 1500, it to my eyes looks far cooler now than it did back in the day.

Thing is it's a proper fitted out by craftsmen car not like a Ghia or something.  It was transported to a works & fettled by proper blokes who knew their job. That's pretty cool imo.

[HMC]

On 21/06/2025 at 19:06, LightBulbFun said:

@HMC I presume you have the V5 for it in your name, in hand by now right? are there any special notes on the front of it? 

Yes, notes dont give away much though…

[LightBulbFun]

1 hour ago, HMC said:

Yes, notes dont give away much though…

fascinating! thats not actually a special note I have ever seen before now  but googling it and having a look at things, it looks like cars from the Channel Island (and possibly sometimes NI?) gain it

heres a modern 2012 car with that that same special note

https://www.pickeringcars.co.uk/admin/uploaded_photos/1435480_doc_14354801.pdf

 

I wonder how long that special note has been around for and what its original form was?

 

see special notes work on a coded system much like the rest of the V5 does (which is why they never have typo's in them)

 

so for example "was registered and/or used" which always felt incomplete to me

sure enough it used to be "previously registered and/or used prior to date of first registration shown" you can see how they truncated it

 

another example of this is sometimes you see on V5's "Declared new at first registration" but that actually used to be "declared new at first registration in great Britain by manufacturer/sole import concessionaire"

 

so DVLA abusing the coded system goes a long way! LOL and thus I wonder if "was registered and/or used elsewhere in the UK" was always like that or did it have more to it that was truncated over time?

[lesapandre]

Has it always been white? The Internet Movie Cars Database shows a gold VDP on the island of Jersey in an episode of Bergerac:

https://www.imcdb.org/movie.php?id=81831

There can't have been very many VDP cars on Jersey.

Alternatively the Channel Islands Government equivalent of the DVLA may be checkable?

[LightBulbFun]

as an side I also wonder if diplomatic or military or something special along those lines, cars would get such a special note? since they would be "registered and/or used elsewhere in the UK", but not initially registered with the DVLA in the normal way

 

or maybe someone just drove around with it on trade plates for it all if its life?  (tho that would not give it a "date of first registration august 1975" that it has)

[EyesWeldedShut]

BOAR or similar? Registered on the red bordered plates then exported - would they have kept the original number on re-import?

[SiC]

59 minutes ago, lesapandre said:

There can't have been very many VDP cars on Jersey.

Alternatively the Channel Islands Government equivalent of the DVLA may be checkable?

@mk2_craig

[mk2_craig]

11 hours ago, lesapandre said:

Has it always been white? The Internet Movie Cars Database shows a gold VDP on the island of Jersey in an episode of Bergerac:

https://www.imcdb.org/movie.php?id=81831

There can't have been very many VDP cars on Jersey.

Alternatively the Channel Islands Government equivalent of the DVLA may be checkable?

Probably a similar proportion of VDP to other cars as on mainland. 100,000 or so populations here, so unlikely to have been Mega rare, relatively speaking. 

Online info is sparse but there is a csv of all vehs registered at opendata.gov.je  (view the contents with the same suspicion as you would DVLA/Howmanyleft info) the oldest file lists 36 Vanden Plas in June 2021 and 32 in Mar 2025.  But, before the mid nineties, not taxing your car during one year would automatically deregister it the next, so just because it’s not on the current computer register doesn’t mean it isn’t sitting in a shed or field somewhere. 

I don’t think you’re going to get to the bottom of its original identity without making direct enquiries i.e. find out what documentation was used to UK-register it for the first time. It could have been brought over way back in the early 90s and just never put on the road for decades (Guernsey and Isle of Man are other potential origins)

Incidentally, varying definitions of “UK” are available but they don’t usually include the Channel Islands! 

 

Perhaps your Plah was a northern Irish car that eventually had the original and dateless NI reg transferred off causing a mainland UK mark to be issued for the first time? Not sure what the MOT requirement would have been for that. 

[lesapandre]

I suppose the 36 VDP cars could include the earlier Princess models - big and small - together with (incorrectly but possibly) the VDP badged Daimler versions including the limos - I think Jaguar even had a VDP option at one time -  some of the Austin-Rover stable too. All very complicated for whoever was entering the records on to any database.

Fascinating stuff.

Digging into an individual car history often turns up fascinating details.