invacar LightBulbFun's Invacar & general ramble thread, index on page 1, survivors lists on Pages 24/134 & AdgeCutler's Invacar Mk12 Restoration from Page 186 onwards, still harping on...

[Dick Longbridge]

LBF, I assume you’ve got POO and XXX on your records?

 

Note: I’d be sacked if I searched for the above using work’s filtered internet...

 

[LightBulbFun]

im pretty sure those are doctored photos

 

(neither of them turn up anything on the DVLA, even adding the relevant suffix on the end still does not turn up anything)

[Dick Longbridge]

Ah, ok. Weird one though.

[somewhatfoolish]

The Swansea branch of the fun police would have not issued those for sure, although at that age it would have been the individual county registries; presumably the county offices had a similar fun police attitude towards juvenile or scatalogical VRNs.

[quicksilver]

XXX 999P is a fake plate for sure as nothing with an X in the middle was issued after the 1974 government reorganisation. Surprisingly POO plates were issued so that one could be genuine. A local coach operator had POO 997M (issued Feb 1974) which means POO is a valid combination for that year and POO 797M is a possibility for that Invacar.

[LightBulbFun]

aye yeah iv seen a few other cars with such regs (you can see one in the scrap pile scene in the secret life of machines )

 

but doing some quick checks on the DVLA does not turn up any Invacars...

 

 

BTW from about 8:30 to 10:30  the guy sitting next to DW talks about owning 2 Model 70s, anyone got any idea on the details of those?

 

 

edit: Grant... Grant Kearny? so that would be TPE409S and WVW312S?

 

(he says they are tiller control in the video, i wonder if its all hand control or if they have some foot controls too?)

[Dick Longbridge]

XXX 999P is a fake plate for sure as nothing with an X in the middle was issued after the 1974 government reorganisation. Surprisingly POO plates were issued so that one could be genuine. A local coach operator had POO 997M (issued Feb 1974) which means POO is a valid combination for that year and POO 797M is a possibility for that Invacar.

I was going to say that I was sure I’d seen photos of a car with a POO registration at some point. OO was used on some significant Fords as well - Alan Mann’s XOO springs to mind.

[LightBulbFun]

I was going to say that I was sure I’d seen photos of a car with a POO registration at some point. OO was used on some significant Fords as well - Alan Mann’s XOO springs to mind.

 

 

Yeah there where a few xOO-x Invacars as OO is an Essex reg

 

(LOO1P amusingly is/was an invacar, imagine doing a Loop the loop in an invacar... at 82mph... in reverse    )

[LightBulbFun]

Looks like some weird hybrid between a Model 70 and a Tippen Delta   (also one for Harmonic cheeseburger)

 

 

https://www.instagram.com/p/BvtWy8yFATK/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=drfin25uo7p3&fbclid=IwAR1VHC__DFdn4ugPC_j0ldfuDlgF0spfZ42gQeDB-xWy25ewL6y1BPF_zdg

[LightBulbFun]

while its April 1st?

 

I came across this while looking for some 1978 registered invacars last taxed after Y2k for some chassis number research

 

 

700cc Model 70 anyone? Im sure this is just a typo, but its amusing to see

 

BTW on some I look up i get 

 

"You may be able to tax this vehicle at a Post Office Branch that deals with vehicle tax without the V5C registration certificate."

 

but on others I dont, why do some have it and others dont?

 

 

 

some late registration shenanigans defiantly happened towards the end in late 1977 early 1978

 

first of all while WOO-S is a block of an invacars, the date of first registrations are all over the place

 

and so are the chassis numbers, for example WOO848S Feb 1978 is 8919, where as WOO836S, March 1978 is 8696!

 

(im partly doing this to figure out what VES108S's actual reg was, and also whats the latest UK Invacar I can find)

[LightBulbFun]

well this is interesting

 

WOO836S is 8696, 8th March 1978

 

WOO900S is 8760, 29th november 1977,

 

WOO900S is 64 cars ahead of WOO836S in both reg and Chassis number, but registered a good few months earlier?!

 

also by that information you would think once more the VIN Numbers and Chassis numbers went up together, but right in the middle of that you have WOO848S which is 8919... (unless thats a typo or something? VES108S is 8920 tho, but i dont know thats on original registration)

 

edit: it looks like WOO-S, for Invacars, went from WOO821S to WOO920S, and ignoring the weird out of place ones, went from 10th November 1977 to 5th December 1977...

[mrbenn]

Well, you've lost me. But I'll buy your book when it comes out!

[egg]

I wonder when the handwritten archives at Essex Council stopped? If they were still doing them as late as 77, this could be checked...

[LightBulbFun]

Well, you've lost me. But I'll buy your book when it comes out!

 

haha I figured, it got a bit rambly there as I was discovering things in real time

 

basically,

 

it looks like the WOO-S cars registrations and Chassis numbers went up in sequence

 

ie WOO900S is 64 cars ahead of WOO836S, (ie you add 64 to 836 and you get 900) and its also 64 cars ahead when it comes to Chassis numbers

 

add 64 to 8696 and you get 8760,

 

so this tells me the number plates and the VIN numbers went up in sequence together (ie as the number plates went up in number so did the chassis numbers)

 

but right in the middle of all of that is WOO848S which has the Chassis number 8919...

 

and also, in the WOO-S block, the date of registrations are all over the place

[LightBulbFun]

I wonder when the handwritten archives at Essex Council stopped? If they were still doing them as late as 77, this could be checked...

 

what I need access to is the HPI thingy Lanciamatt has at his work, as that seems to be able to pull the Chassis numbers of cars, even if have been untaxed since before Y2K

 

(I dont think he would be very happy with me if I asked him to run a couple hundred Invacar registration plates  )

[LightBulbFun]

continuing the late Invacar thing

 

it looks like after WOO-S came WVW-S, which ran from WVW220S-WVW315S

 

so far I only have the chassis number of one WVW-S Invacar, and thats WVW312S which is 8877 which if you ignore WOO848S, is higher then any of the WOO-S cars

 

so now ill go through the WVW-S block and see if I can find any others that survived past Y2K so i can look up their Chassis numbers

 

(i wanna figure out what Reg plates the 89xx chassis number invacars used, so far I have 3 recorded, but all 3 are a bit odd, WOO848S as documented above, VES108S which is not its original reg, and SOI7570 which is part of its own mystery)

 

(Oh and just to add more fun to mix, WVW299S comes back as an AC, among the block of Invacars...)

[LightBulbFun]

 

[LightBulbFun]

Ok this took its sweet time, I battered the DVLA site with every reg from WVW220S to WVW315S 

 

but heres the conclusion from this whole escapade

 

if you ignore WOO848S, everything goes in order and does make sense (I was told that the last of the Model 70s where a mess in regards to VIN number and number plate relationships, and if you start with WOO848S it looks like thats the case however if you ignore it at least on the Invacar side it looks like they where actually all in order ) 

 

WOO836S 8696

 

WOO900S 8760

 

WVW233S 8798

 

WVW272S 8837

 

WVW281S 8846

 

WVW292S 8857

 

WVW312S 8877

 

 

the outlier is WOO848S that started this whole mess, with 8919, but who knows what happened there, could be dodgy shenanigans or DVLA shenanigans

 

other outlier are, WVW299S WVW302S and WVW313S which all come back as "AC"s for some reason (sadly none of these survived until after Y2K so i cant find out the Chassis numbers)

 

and WVW292S which comes back as a Reliant! but has an Invacar chassis number and body type is "invalid vehicle" so is obviously a Model 70 masquerading as a Reliant, wonder how that happened...

 

it looks like 8881 onwards used a new registration series that I dont know. (WVW315S, was the last of the WVW-S ones, and although I cant look up its Chassis number, going by the data above, its chassis number would be 8880)

 

if anyone have any pictures of any S Reg Model 70s please do share

 

 

(a couple other things worth noting however, is I noticed, while the Reg and VINs are all in order, for the WOO-S and WVW-S sets of registrations the Date of first registrations are all over the place, and interestingly some cars show year of manufacture and others dont, just showing date of first registration...)

[busmansholiday]

Having dates of first registration not in sequence is nothing unusual. Happened regularly with buses. Also, if you're a shed full of Invacars (or bus chassisis) you grab the nearest first (for delivery or bodying) which might have been the last one delivered, not the one with the lowest chassis number.

[LightBulbFun]

Having dates of first registration not in sequence is nothing unusual. Happened regularly with buses. Also, if you're a shed full of Invacars (or bus chassisis) you grab the nearest first (for delivery or bodying) which might have been the last one delivered, not the one with the lowest chassis number.

 

yeah good point

 

im guessing they would of been allocated the number plate even before time of registration then?

 

I guess a good example of that would be how RM8 with VLT8 showed up a good while before RM5-7 VLT5-7

[busmansholiday]

Basically yes. IIRC, the last bus delivered to Sheffield Transport in the cream and blue livery in 1974 was WWB754M whilst the highest numbered one, from the same batch, was WWB780M.

[LightBulbFun]

been doing some more chassis number things

 

decided to start 2 documents one for Invacar one for AC, of all the Chassis numbers I can find, even if said Model 70s dont exist anymore, to help in case another Q plate Model 70 pops up again etc

 

and I noticed something odd about NPN924P

 

first off the batt was its chassis number does not fit in with any other AC Model 70 I have documented, however its format is such that I think it is a genuine AC Chassis number

 

secondly, looking up NPN924P, and then looking up number plates before and after it (NPN925P or NPN920P etc) just show random private cars, rather then a Block of AC Model 70s

 

the most interesting this is the VIN starts with "PS" I wonder if that means Private sale? (its date of registration slaps it between MPH810P and RPF19R, but on those the VIN plates both start with D)

 

(the other interesting thing is if im reading the number plate right, PN means it was registered in Brighton, not in Sussex, although before 1974 PN was East sussex...)

 

 

so I wonder is NPN924P one of the few Model 70s sold privately?

[Amishtat]

Reading through this thread has had me racking my brains to try and remember the registration of (what I now think was) a Model 70 I used to walk past every day on the way to school about 1988.To no avail, so far, but thanks for at least allowing me to figure out what it was after all this time.

[LightBulbFun]

Reading through this thread has had me racking my brains to try and remember the registration of (what I now think was) a Model 70 I used to walk past every day on the way to school about 1988.To no avail, so far, but thanks for at least allowing me to figure out what it was after all this time.

 

happy to hear that my thread has helped you identify the mystery vehicle you used to see

[busmansholiday]

the most interesting this is the VIN starts with "PS" I wonder if that means Private sale?

Or somebody should have gone to Specsavers and it's D5

[LightBulbFun]

On 02/04/2019 at 14:08, busmansholiday said:

Or somebody should have gone to Specsavers and it's D5

 

not a bad shout , but even if that was the case it would not fit any of my sequences

 

NPN924P comes back as "redacted" registired 16th of July 1976

 

the one I have documented before that is MPH810P D300 21st June 1976

 

and then the next one after NPN924P

 

is RPF19R redacted 27th April 1977.

 

(a few ACs have a . between the letter and the number others dont, dont think it means anything specifically)

 

so as you can see it does not fit in with anything else I have documented, plus its registration is not part of a block of Model 70 on the DVLA website like the rest are...

 

(RRE20L is said to be a privately bought/owned Model 70 as well, but sadly I dont know that ones Chassis number)

[LightBulbFun]

I just noticed in Triggers photo of TJN352R, you can not only make out the rollover bar, but what also looks to be the factory headliner as fitted to these later Model 70s

 

(I have been wondering what the factory Model 70 headliner looks like)

 

 

also "dealer" plates FTW 

[LightBulbFun]

aye heres a full picture it again from trigger, from this thread  http://autoshite.com/topic/16824-anyone-like-metros-and-want-something-different-and-possibly-more-shite-than-a-normal-metro/

 

 

 

(mind you I know someone who tried an MG Midget and would probably say it too was designed for people under 5ft tall!  )

[Yoss]

That windscreen looks very similar to the model 70.

[LightBulbFun]

Hah yeah wonder if they are the same or not (I think the Model 70s screen is taller)

 

amazingly Barrett only went pop in 1992, I wonder what they did between 1968 and 1992...

 

heres a picture of a Barrett minor, its amazing BMC did not sue over the names   (its funny to see the Bunny ear indicators like an old FX4 taxi or some Peel P50s iv seen )

 

 

 

 

 

while sleuthing for more invacar stuff, I was re reading the early parts of DWs thread and its amusing (in a good sense not a derogatory sense) to see DW talk about how he is not use to owning a car with so little information/history out there

 

well I hope iv manage to address that issue now 

 

(on the note of DWs thread early days, I dont think his rear lights question had ever been answered specifically, http://autoshite.com/topic/29975-dollywobblers-invacar-award-winning/?p=1382473 so ill do so now AFAIK and from what I have seen all Model 70s had the larger rear style lights from new, and the smaller britax lights where fitted to Model 70s sometime after production of the Model 70 ended, edit: whoops I forgot that PVD answered it in the thread, but ill leave this here, because I know some people think the Britax lights where fitted later on in production when thats not the case) 

 

I do find it amusing how the post production rear lights fit the rear wing profile of the Model 70 much better then the lights fitted at the time of production

 

 

(SICs comment about TPA looking so forlorn and other peoples comments to the same affect, makes me grin/makes for a fun retrospective now that TPA is back on the road  )