HMC BIOHAZARD B5 passat

43,522 · June 23

[edit: ~~Not sure why this has gone down a speculation rabbit hole about NI and IoM.~~ My apparently cynical outlook previously has been wound-back!]

My Vauxhall Victor 101 Estate lived at the same address in a rural part of Conwy since new.

When it was pulled out of that lean-to, the request for logbook and ownership transfer was applied for. But DVLA had no record. They disbelieved the submitted VIN number and sent local Police round to check that the car really existed.

There was no logbook found at the house or with the family, so DVLA held back the application. Apparently, if an old tax disc was in the window, they would have taken that into account.

Eventually, after a written response from Vauxhall Heritage which determined the VIN genuine and would be from March 1965, DVLA issued a replacement registration with the V5C stating:

2005 Vauxhall Victor 101. Declared Manufactured 1965.

The V5C issue had a covering letter stating the original 1965/C metal plates fitted to the car should be destroyed.

45,157 · June 23

Do not adjust your set: fluid leak from the offside. Under investigation.

Meanwhile a VDP auto i owned in 2020 I spotted on facebook- still about plus alloys and different number plates. I wonder if it has spacers fitted as the track looks wider

42,614 · June 23

23 hours ago, HMC said:

Yes, notes dont give away much though…

21 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

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

9 hours ago, mk2_craig said:

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.

Hmmm...

White VDP... terrible paintwork because it was pebble-dashed with bird guano... On a GB plate, but for some reason stashed away in a barn in Co. Leitrim... I'm starting to wonder if MrsDC's uncle is somehow involved in the story here.

Above pic was taken by myself in 2009, I was told the car was last on the road c.2002. Possibly brought over to NI first, and then made it across the border to ROI but was never officially registered down there. Plate was maybe registered with DVLNI, but fell off the live system once tax lapsed, and so wasn't transferred back across to DVLA in Swansea when the two merged about ten years back.

I think I may have more pics of the VDP, though none terribly good as it was all a bit crowded in the barn between several Trabants and Reliants.

I shall have a look through the DC archives and report back in due course...

5,124 · June 23

That's quite a barn-find collection.

Feed line: What do you buy a man with two Trabants?

42,614 · June 23

1 hour ago, Datsuncog said:

I shall have a look through the DC archives and report back in due course...

Right then... photos!

All the way back to August 2009.

Front.

Back

Nose grot.

Shitty arse.

Mank.

Roof bleb.

Snout.

Bonus Trabbis and Plastic Pig - also on a GB plate, which checks out as tax expired May '86, still on the DVLA system with no export marker and last V5 issued in September '81.

Annoyingly, I can't see the number plates in any of my pics because the VDP is sandwiched between a Trabant and a Mini Van, but I did see a photo of it looking actually quite tidy around the turn of the Millennium - and it was wearing a GB plate, despite being in the Republic of Ireland. Can't remember what it was, though!

To be clear, I'm not alleging this is the same car - but it just so happens to be the only white Vanden Plas 1500 Series 1 with terrible paint that I know of, and which appears to have experienced a generally... relaxed approach to licencing law during its Irish sojourn.

Might try making some further enquiries at my end...

22,900 · June 23

22 minutes ago, Datsuncog said:

Right then... photos!

All the way back to August 2009.

Front.

Back

Nose grot.

Shitty arse.

Mank.

Roof bleb.

Snout.

Bonus Trabbis and Plastic Pig - also on a GB plate, which checks out as tax expired May '86, still on the DVLA system with no export marker and last V5 issued in September '81.

Annoyingly, I can't see the number plates in any of my pics because the VDP is sandwiched between a Trabant and a Mini Van, but I did see a photo of it looking actually quite tidy around the turn of the Millennium - and it was wearing a GB plate, despite being in the Republic of Ireland. Can't remember what it was, though!

To be clear, I'm not alleging this is the same car - but it just so happens to be the only white Vanden Plas 1500 Series 1 with terrible paint that I know of, and which appears to have experienced a generally... relaxed approach to licencing law during its Irish sojourn.

Might try making some further enquiries at my end...

That does look like it could potentially be the same car...

4,499 · June 23

3 hours ago, HMC said:

VDP auto i owned in 2020 I spotted on facebook- still about plus alloys and different number plates

Alloys from a high spec Ambastardor? Not an improvement (and neither are those awful plates)

4,902 · June 23

3 hours ago, HMC said:

Do not adjust your set: fluid leak from the offside. Under investigation.

Meanwhile a VDP auto i owned in 2020 I spotted on facebook- still about plus alloys and different number plates. I wonder if it has spacers fitted as the track looks wider

It looked far better when you had it! At least it is still around though.
Is this the one that @anonymous user also owned a few years ago?

43,522 · June 23

The main difference is the factory-option fog lamps with their surrounds and the very rare survival of the chin spoiler piece

45,157 · June 24

Recent suspension issue was due to me being too gentle with some of the fittings i was using- correctly tightened and we are back in business..

Speaking of “business” i remembered watching an episode of minder in 1994 (aged 14) that featured an unfortunate allegro- which im currently re watching 31 years later….

The story revolves around Arthur selling a ropey allegro to a Nun; his later misfortune he atteibutes to this deed to he then takes it back and sorts anything and everything thats amiss with it.

15,764 · June 24

Early grille tho, peasant trim

3,350 · June 24

I do love the Minder episode title!
Have to dig that out on ITV player.

June 27

I think I may have the answer to this car's origins. In September 2003 I was on holiday on the Isle Of Man and saw this VDP Allegro in Ramsey. It is the same colour and has the yellow lamps at the front. The Isle Of Man registration was TMN7, which you can't really make out on the photo due to sunlight and black number plates. The registration number doesn't show on the I.O.M vehicle registration search, as the car has now been exported from I.O.M.

45,157 · June 28

8 hours ago, Knotty Ash Towers said:

I think I may have the answer to this car's origins. In September 2003 I was on holiday on the Isle Of Man and saw this VDP Allegro in Ramsey. It is the same colour and has the yellow lamps at the front. The Isle Of Man registration was TMN7, which you can't really make out on the photo due to sunlight and black number plates. The registration number doesn't show on the I.O.M vehicle registration search, as the car has now been exported from I.O.M.

That could be it! also the black painted wheels, brown roof (that looks painted and not vinyl) and the black below the front bumper, and has rear mud flaps. Great detective work!

edit-

if you look at the masking line for the roof, and especially the finishing line for the black behind and below the front bumper which is raised behind the bumper and drops to continue to the wheelarch- is not standard as that would be body colour…

45,157 · June 28

Theres also a badge of some sort above the bumper in the middle on the 2003 photo.

And theres a roughly cut hole (just slightly off centre) in the same sort of place on the bumper blade..

June 28

@HMC, glad to be of service! The photo isn't the best, but I remember the car being in really good nick and was obviously cherished by its owner.

45,157 · June 28

VDP #1 news

The suspension repairs (i patched in some sections of copper pipe to replace some rotten steel parts) are working well, but ive got a whole replacement front to back bit, in copper, from a (i think?) husband and wife team who support hydrolastic and hydragas suspended cars.

Ive also ordered a heritage certificate from the VIN which may shed some further light on its history, and might allow it to be re registered from a “P” onto an “N” plate as im sure its build is early 75 (although @LightBulbFun will know more than me if its possible or not)

5,124 · June 28

AI produces this, which I'm not sure is an improvement 🤣

13,233 · June 28

Jersey is not part of the UK, it's a self governing dependency owned by the UK as the last vestige of England's French territories.

Formerly used in the UK sounds more like Northern Ireland.

45,157 · June 28

21 minutes ago, N Dentressangle said:

AI produces this, which I'm not sure is an improvement 🤣

Quite cool if it could be done as with the bentley “koren coupe” style.

5,124 · June 28

I thought it looked a bit Series 1 Jaguar XJ. Which isn't a bad thing...

10,832 · June 30

On 28/06/2025 at 18:38, HMC said:

...from a (i think?) husband and wife team who support hydrolastic and hydragas suspended cars.

Curiously, I've got them booked in to display a couple of VW at Camper Jam next weekend.

1,160 · July 1

On 18/06/2025 at 19:07, SiC said:

Plumbing copper pipe works well iirc

Our resident hydrolastic experts will know more

@BeEP @sharley17194

late to the party but can confirm

45,157 · July 2

A man of taste? 😂 Although depending on location, i could recreate this scene. Fancy dress optional

5,124 · July 2

I'm going to say that's part of the old Westhill College of Education:

https://calmview.bham.ac.uk/Record.aspx?src=CalmView.Catalog&id=XWC

which would fit with locations local to Longbridge too.

BL seemed fond of bold modernist designs and architecture as a backdrop to their, er, very similar cars. Doesn't look like it's still standing from what I can see on Streetview, but maybe someone local to Selly Oak would be able to confirm.

19,749 · July 2

Given that it was within spitting distance of my sofa, I took some pics of the '78 Allegro VPlah in case there's any exciting detail differences.

And last night I watched this, I love all this old industry bile. Very much in @motorpunk' s wheelhouse as well, I bet he's already seen it though.

45,157 · July 2

1 hour ago, grogee said:

Given that it was within spitting distance of my sofa, I took some pics of the '78 Allegro VPlah in case there's any exciting detail differences.

And last night I watched this, I love all this old industry bile. Very much in @motorpunk' s wheelhouse as well, I bet he's already seen it though.

Great, thanks!

Also is there the footprint of a tracing of an allegro just below the main vp1500 photos?

20,873 · July 2

4 hours ago, HMC said:

A man of taste? 😂 Although depending on location, i could recreate this scene. Fancy dress optional

Having read the brochure text, how much does it really feel like a luxury car? You can throw plenty of tree on the dash but how supple is the ride or low are the noise levels?

45,157 · July 2

3 minutes ago, Schaefft said:

Having read the brochure text, how much does it really feel like a luxury car? You can throw plenty of tree on the dash but how supple is the ride or low are the noise levels?

Just feels like an allegro really 😂

Although a fresh set of refurbished displacers is supposed to help with the ride- which to be fair feels quite supple by modern standards, but the nitrogen escapes amd reduces the ride quality over time, apparently.

But the interior does feel a bit special compared to a normal allegro which is basically mid 70s ecomomy car furnishings, exposed metal etc.

45,157 · July 6

Fleet news- sold the nissan navara as it wasnt really me.

Have a new front line vehicle… (it came with the air freshener BTW)

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