Project Dollywobbler's Invacar - Ongoing

[Ben_O]

Well I wasn't expecting that.

[Ben_O]

I like the fact that when you google invacar you get a photo of her Majesty standing beside one in the image results

[Lacquer Peel]

Is it really that insane for a motoring journalist to buy two silly cars? Think of the content he can mine from this adventure.

Cynicism over I am enjoying the content so far, and it's just one picture.

[dollywobbler]

Is it really that insane for a motoring journalist to buy two silly cars? Think of the content he can mine from this adventure.

Cynicism over I am enjoying the content so far, and it's just one picture.

 

On the other hand, if I wanted to make a mint from writing about old cars, I'd buy an MGB. Then I could blag bits for it endlessly and sell copy to loads of magazines. I can't see Invacars getting too many editors frothy under the collar. Mind you, pretty much the first thing I said to Mrs DW was 'this'll make a great video...'

 

Sadly, not as great as I initially hoped because I won't be driving it home (that was a silly idea, only possible with Roadkill's budget and time). Nonetheless, the first drive is going to be eagerly anticipated, not least by me!

 

Currently preparing a video, and will get some more pics up later. 

[Pillock]

Pretty sure not, though some were custom-designed for their occupants.

 

To reveal the full majesty of the day requires this image. These lot have all been claimed by new owners.

 

CALENDAR SHOT

[HMC]

Just brilliant! Well done DW, really interesting vehicles. What are the driver and vehicle licensing requirements for these?

[dougiefourspeed]

1. Camp in field until next April. Possibly living in Merc horsebox.

2. Get Invacars running

3. Buy ball of string 

4. Sit in car no.1 and attach string to handlebars and throttle of car no.2

5. Drive both cars in tandem to Wales with gay abandon and no MOT(s) knowing you are immune to prosecution under what I'm sure will come to be known as 'Junkmans Law'.

[Guest Hooli]

 197cc Villiers engines with dynastart reverse.

 

How does that reverse work then? I've not heard of it before.

 

 

Do I remember right that with the early bluushoes you had to open the bonnet to kickstart them?

[alpinerapier]

Well done DW on a fine purchase. I saved 2 back in 2003 when the ministry required them all to be cut in half. One half to be return to HQ near Blackpool and the other half go be disposed of the agent/repairer. Both Makes can be used legally these days so long as you change the taxation class to Historic or tricycle. If you only have a chassis number ID then the Invalid Carriage Register will help you out.

They are bloody hard work to drive if you have the tiller steering but performance is incredibly.

 

 

How does that reverse work then? I've not heard of it before.

 

 

Do I remember right that with the early bluushoes you had to open the bonnet to kickstart them?

.

The early cars with the Villiers 9E or 11E have a siba dynastart which is a combined stater/ dynamo. Being two strokes they can run in either direction so reverse is just running backwards which enables you to engage a four gears going backwards !

[Guest Hooli]

Thanks. I should have remembered they were two smokes as they always merged into the cloud of smog they produced.

[Felly Magic]

I still cannot fathom the logic in buying them, but bloody hell fire Ian, you have won the interballs

[Pillock]

Coming soon to a newsagents near you.....

 

[BorniteIdentity]

Spaz Chariots! Grim, so very very grim. I didn't think it possible but you've bought something that makes your 2CV look like the height of luxury and sophistication.

Eek.

 

Yes, that was an unfortunate nickname for them back then.

 

As an aside...

 

Whoopi Goldberg recently voiced a really profound introduction to some Tom and Jerry cartoons. “The Tom and Jerry episodes included in this collection comes to us from a time when racial and ethnic differences were caricatured in the name of entertainment. These prejudices were wrong then and they’re wrong today.”

 

I’m pleased to see that broadcasters leave in the phrase ‘wog’ in that episode of Fawlty Towers. To edit it would be to pretend that it didn’t happen. In a way, hearing it is a good thing; it reminds us all of how far we’ve come. That we now refer to the corner shop more affectionately and Chinese take-aways without unnecessary abbreviation.

 

But.

 

Repeating terms is one thing. Continuing to use them is something completely different.

 

Anyway. Let’s not allow outdated terminology to detract from the absurdity of this whole saga.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

You will never see me use the phrase that rhymes with Razz Harriet, or hacker bar. We, as a society, should move on. 

 

 

 

 

But you're driving around in an invalid carriage out of irony, because they're so funny?

 

Okay then.

[trigger]

Haha! That's quality Pillock!

[plasticvandan]

Thought I had logged into retro rides for a moment then. These cars have a bigger place in Britain's motoring and social history than any MG,Healey or Triumph.For most that were issued them,and they were issued for life by the way,only if the user handed it back or the final 2003 cull were they taken away,they enabled the disabled to leave the house,get a job etc.What was often overlooked in later years,after they stopped issuing new users in 1977 (notability came in then) was the people who used them kept them out of choice over aconvertred car,or had a unique disablement that couldn't be catered for in a normal car,there were literally hundreds of combinations available to suit each person.At their peak there were 21500 in use,even by the early 90s it was still around 10,000. The DHSS had a main warehouse centre in Heywood,where invacars going back to the 1940s were stacked 3-4 high as far as you could see,policy being that while any one type of machine was in use spare cars and spares had to be kept.All the electric and Villiers engined machines,inc the very early black spoke wheel types,and all the new spares,inc around 40,000 new Villiers clutch plates! New traction battery's, crate fresh Villiers engines,were all destroyed in 1997,nothing allowed out or to be sold,a tragic waste.

Around this time the invacar register was formed and fortunately built an awareness so that at least some survived.

[dollywobbler]

But you're driving around in an invalid carriage out of irony, because they're so funny?

 

Okay then.

 

It's a bloody car mate! I don't care what it was built for. I'm not ripping the piss out of 1990s executives by driving a Lexus...

[richardthestag]

CALENDAR SHOT

 

for every month.

 

sorted

[busmansholiday]

I remember my grandfather having one of these in the early 1960's. He was partially paralysed in WWI and it was his only method of easily getting out of the house and out and about as he needed crutches to move even short distances.

 

Good to see some are still around, brings back memories for me especially at this time of year.

[Mr Laurence]

Just read this whole thread, and all I can really say is well saved. I'm far too young to have any memories of these being around, so reading this has been very interesting, not least because of how important they are historically. Looking forward to seeing videos and more posts about it.

[dollywobbler]

Oh yes. Video!

[timolloyd]

Brilliant, brilliant save. Totally agree with the comment about their place in motoring history. Remember a couple of these locally when I was first aware of cars in the late 80s.

 

I'd like to suggest some subtle SMART branding, as these were surely the spiritual successors?

[quicksilver]

Acoma mini comtesse had a gullwing.google it,and yes I've driven one!

Is that the one that originally only had the gullwing door on one side and nothing on the other? Inevitably one tipped over onto that side and the driver couldn't get out so they hurriedly added a hinged door on the other side.

[The Reverend Bluejeans]

It's a bloody car mate! I don't care what it was built for. I'm not ripping the piss out of 1990s executives by driving a Lexus...

 

 

[plasticvandan]

Ice Blue is the official DHSS name BTW,also known as Toilet blue

[Heidel_Kakao]

Does the variomatic transmission in these produce an LSD effect like it does in a Daf? Wet roundabout plus Invacar equals drifting in an impossibly unlikely way?

[pompei]

Is there anywhere that sells the Steyr 650 engines?  Not interested in the rest of the vehicle but I would love to transplant one into a Fiat 500 like a genuine Steyr 650

[PhilA]

Top stuff. So you have the daily and the weekends sorted then. Love the way the dash inadvertently looks like an MGB dash that was boiled dry.

 

I wouldn't want a Hayabusa engine in one. Wrong type of noise. You want a Ducati V4 for that correct amount of wobble and vibration.

 

Failing that one of those little model V8 engines that people have been making.

 

Just because.

 

Incidentally, did that phrase above have anything to do with this purchase?

 

 

Phil

[stuboy]

how are these insurable, registrar, and insurable??

[warren t claim]

I really think we need to see a return of these as mobility cars rather than the Nissan quascow with a blue badge sicknote specials we have today.