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...

[LightBulbFun]

18 minutes ago, warren t claim said:

So what's this one then?

from the eye catching black and whites thread

11 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

as mentioned the vehicle on the far left BKV310D is a Tippen Delta, a Tippen Delta 5 or 6 to be more specific (trying to work out if its got 16 inch or 12 inch wheels, its registered right when they changed roughly)

and the GPU3xxB Invacar is an Invacar Mk12A  (Invacar Mk12D's where later and in standard Ministry blue, not the Invacar peacock blue and white)

and heres a high res version I managed to dig up  

https://www.thestar.co.uk/webimg/QVNIMTE1MDA2MTA5.jpg

[Christine]

 

 

 

 

(

 

 

 

 

 

[High Jetter]

Yup, with a Zephyr/Zodiac behind & in front. Is it a 101 in front of the Tippen? I think so, not Audi 80 or something Merc

[Dick Cheeseburger]

10 minutes ago, High Jetter said:

Yup, with a Zephyr/Zodiac behind & in front. Is it a 101 in front of the Tippen? I think so, not Audi 80 or something Merc

Rekord A, isn't it? 

[High Jetter]

Am really not sure.

[egg]

Hagerty using a bit of TPA as promo action (from @ThePollitt)

[RayMK]

15 hours ago, High Jetter said:

Yup, with a Zephyr/Zodiac behind & in front. Is it a 101 in front of the Tippen? I think so, not Audi 80 or something Merc

 

15 hours ago, Dick Longbridge said:

Rekord A, isn't it? 

It's a Vauxhall Victor 101.

[DVee8]

Hey @LightBulbFun,  reading Brian Johnson's book Rockers and rollers. This is one chapter. 

 

 

[LightBulbFun]

11 hours ago, DVee8 said:

Hey @LightBulbFun,  reading Brian Johnson's book Rockers and rollers. This is one chapter. 

 

 

hah thats cool! still tickles me how they managed to get everywhere  

 

although a sadly typical article by someone who has not really done their research, and has done the typical thing of using a picture of a Model 70 when clearly describing a Villiers machine! 

and even then, a Villiers machine can do a bit more then 25Mph! flat out you can expect about 45-50Mph and will generally cruise at 30-35

 

I think a lot of the reputation of the Invacar being a slow machine was simply down to who it was driven by, in the same way these days you get old giffers in Honda Jazz's going slow but im sure one of those would hold it own just fine in normal traffic when driven by anyone else!

and the same is true of at least the Model 70! less so of the Villiers machines, which are more on the level of microcars, but one of those is still faster then 25Mph!

 

quite amusingly but most likely quite unintentional, that they where just looking for a good picture to use, but fittingly LPL837P is a rare tiller Control configured Model 70  

so that part fits at least LOL

[LightBulbFun]

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/255657875722

@Zelandeth you where eying up the last petrol Harding to show up, how about something even older!  

im surprised at how cheap it is, I figured anything 1930's with an engine would be fairly pricey! or maybe one for @barrett to go with his collection of 1920's and 1930's cars?  

honestly if I had somewhere to put, id of probably be on a collection caper by now LOL

TF6405 is the 2nd Oldest Petrol Argson known to still survive for those curious (and the oldest Standard Petrol Argson), its one I have known about for a fair while and it sold at a couple auctions in the past

https://www.andybuysbikes.com/archivehtml/6984mis - Stanley Argson.html

https://www.bonhams.com/auctions/24121/lot/404/

[LightBulbFun]

well this tickles me very much, only 12 hours from when I made this comment

11 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

and has done the typical thing of using a picture of a Model 70 when clearly describing a Villiers machine! 

someone has gone and listed the User manual for an Invacar Mk8 on eBay, 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/374199030924

and used a picture of WOO848S an Invacar Model 70 as an example of what the manual is for!

likes that impressive, thats like talking about a Ford Model Y and using a picture of a Ford Escort as an example of what your talking about

keep in mind this is WOO848S

and this is an Invacar Mk8 that the manual is written for!

quite impressive how far out they are! I mean I have seen plenty of people confuse Full bodied Villiers machines for Model 70's but never a Canvas machine LOL

im guessing they just searched "Invacar" and pulled the first picture they found, generally Canvas bodied machines etc all get mistaken for Argsons LOL

[garbaldy]

19 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

although a sadly typical article by someone who has not really done their research, 

 

 

Why would he need to do his research on remembering a part of his life for a book,  just read it as a funny story written by a musician that he bothered to write about as many wouldn't have.

I take it no one knew what the car/trike thing was a good few pages back then, I've hunted through old albums at work and can't find anything that relates to it just old cars.

[LightBulbFun]

2 hours ago, garbaldy said:

Why would he need to do his research on remembering a part of his life for a book,  just read it as a funny story written by a musician that he bothered to write about as many wouldn't have.

because posting a picture of a Car with a top speed of 82Mph and 2 doors and saying it had 1 door and a top speed of 25Mph is a bit* missing leading is it not? LOL

and it happens so bloody often LOL, to give it another perspective its like how people call all reliant 3 wheelers a "Robin reliant" regardless of what they are, or how everything is "Routemaster" even when posting a picture of a Leyland Titan (yes I really had a friend do that, and then could not understand why I sat down and had a cry LOL)

2 hours ago, garbaldy said:

I take it no one knew what the car/trike thing was a good few pages back then, I've hunted through old albums at work and can't find anything that relates to it just old cars.

how many pages back are we talking about here? theres not much that cant be identified by someone on here!  

[Mr Pastry]

52 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

because posting a picture of a Car with a top speed of 82Mph and 2 doors and saying it had 1 door and a top speed of 25Mph is a bit* missing leading is it not? LOL

and it happens so bloody often LOL, to give it another perspective its like how people call all reliant 3 wheelers a "Robin reliant" regardless of what they are, or how everything is "Routemaster" even when posting a picture of a Leyland Titan (yes I really had a friend do that, and then could not understand why I sat down and had a cry LOL)

how many pages back are we talking about here? theres not much that cant be identified by someone on here!  

Yeah this sort of thing is irritating, but bear in mind the author may have had nothing to do with it.   His story might well have been ghost written or edited by someone at the publishing stage who did minimal research, and the photo was probably just a stock image chosen by the book designer because it looked nice.  Unless it is a serious textbook or something of that sort, the author often has very little to do with the finished product once they have submitted the text.

[egg]

99% sure I know the answer - but had this one?

[egg]

And this one?

[egg]

Mr Alfred Halfpenny of Sketty, Swansea, sets out from Swansea on a 2,700 mile tour round Britain in an invalid chair, 1936. 

[LightBulbFun]

53 minutes ago, egg said:

99% sure I know the answer - but had this one?

indeed we have! its a very significant photograph, its  the only known photograph of a J suffix Model 70, I discovered their existence back in 2019 on Page 70-71 (along with the user trial cars) 

I knew that AC Model 70 Production started in June 1971, but that the earliest known block was K Suffix August 1971 so I strongly suspected the very first cars must of been on a J suffix and some of my earliest DVLA bashing, was uncovering those  (and from before I had my own tools so I am very thankful to the chap who ran these cars for me and helped confirm that yes indeed the blocks I had just found where Model 70 ones  and thats why in my 2019 posts I was not 100% sure at first what I had found as I could not immediately run them like I can today)

only 100 Model 70's where registered in 2 blocks of 50, GPD781J-GPD830J and GPE121J-GPE170J, before leading onto the first full block GPG711K-GPG910K

and thus finding a picture of a GPD130J was really awesome, some material evidence to go with my DVLA findings, its still so weird to see a Model 70 on a J suffix!

GPE130J is the 60th car off the AC Model 70 production line (after the 20 user trial cars, which the Ministry counted as normal cars, but AC counted as prototypes)

 

I have quoted bellow all the relevant posts that I reference above  

 

On 25/08/2019 at 19:55, LightBulbFun said:

 

I have No idea what this is, but its really unexpected but also very exciting

because BPE35H is a Prototype Model 70...

(I wasn't even searching out that block for other AC's but I was just throwing Random numbers briefly to check how frequently I got a hit in general for a H suffix reg, as I was checking some J reg series trying to find the block before GPG-K and I was getting nothing, not even regular cars so I wanted to see just how common did you get a hit, and I just plucked BPE-H because it was the first H suffix to come to mind because of the Prototype Model 70 conneciton)

and then after finding the above I went up reg by reg and found

Really frustrating that I dont have a fully functioning reg to VIN tool right now

(its VIN is less then 5 digits long so I cant pull it with my tool)

currently asking a friend to see if he can setup a https://dvlasearch.co.uk/ account for me so I can get it run (as its the one free(ish if you can get it to give you the 100 free credits) tool left that will give out chassis numbers, even if there only a few digits long)

 

 

 

On 26/08/2019 at 17:57, LightBulbFun said:

engage excitement mode!

 

could be a Late villiers block or very early Model 70 block, I really dont know!

time to go through them one by one and hopefully find out!

block is GPD790J-GPD829J I think!

so only 40 cars, so leaning more towards late villers machines, but it starts with G, like GPG-K block does so who knows!

but still very exciting, and any blocks i come across villiers or Model 70 is always good

 

On 04/09/2019 at 01:55, LightBulbFun said:

more potential early Model 70 news  I just discovered the GPE-J block which comes after the GPD-J block I recently discovered but before the GPG-K block

 

 

as mentioned before Im quite eager to find out if these J reg blocks I have discovered are very late villiers machines or very early Model 70 blocks

its worth noting that it looks like the GPE-J block spans from GPE120J to GPE159J making it 40 cars big, just like the GPD-J block is

ill quickly rush a couple regs from this block over to my HPI guy and hopefully I can get them run with the other blocks I recently discovered

(currently going through the block as I type this to hopefully find one that will mention engine size or something as that will be a big clue)

 

heres a recap on things, 

its said that the Model 70 showed up in June 1971, however the K Reg suffix only came into effect from the 1st of august 1971, so I wonder if the very earliest Model 70's are on J regs

now currently the earliest AC Model 70 block we know of is the GPG-K block, which starts from the 100th car of the Z chassis block

telling us that there are at least 100 cars before the GPG-K block

so I have been searching the Gxx-J regs for potential AC Model 70 blocks and so far I have found 2 potentially which is very exciting 

 

(as a side note I have also been searching for the end of Model 70 production I know there are about 48 cars after the VPG-S block which is the last AC Model 70 block we have documented, so I have search through the rest of Vxx-S and am currently searching through Wxx-S but have not currently found anything)

 

On 31/03/2021 at 20:50, LightBulbFun said:

you have no idea how excited I am to see this, but a Picture of a J Reg Model 70! holy shit! Woo! (edit: before anyone gets confused I was writing this before @Eyersey1234's post above so its not in the piston head thread link above if your confused as to why you cant find it in there!)

https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/news-photo/small-invacar-a-single-seater-microcar-for-disabled-drivers-news-photo/1300571476

finally 2 years after I theorised the existence of then discovered the existence of J Reg Model 70's via my DVLA bashing, all the way back on (fittingly enough) Pages 70-71, I finally have photographic proof to go along with with my research  

GPE130J 

is part of the 2nd of the 2 J reg Model 70 blocks GPD781J-GPD830J and GPE121J-GPE170J (which then leads to the GPG711K-GPG910K the first full block of Model 70's)

which makes it the 60th Model 70 off the production line!

 

Now I just have to find a public photo of one of the user trial BPE21H-BPE40H Model 70's  

 

guess the holy grail would be finding one of these H or J Reg Model 70's surviving somewhere still! can you imagine that!

 

 

 

51 minutes ago, egg said:

And this one?

Yep that one can be found on Page 201, twas supposed to be part of my celebratory post on page 200, but it slipped through the net LOL

(speaking of which, I need to find something for my 10000th post which is coming up alarmingly quickly!)

30 minutes ago, egg said:

Mr Alfred Halfpenny of Sketty, Swansea, sets out from Swansea on a 2,700 mile tour round Britain in an invalid chair, 1936. 

that however is not one I have seen before, very nifty photo! from an angle not often seen

[egg]

1 hour ago, LightBulbFun said:

that however is not one I have seen before, very nifty photo! from an angle not often seen

Cool, can't make out the reg from that angle though!

[garbaldy]

8 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

how many pages back are we talking about here? theres not much that cant be identified by someone on here!  

God knows probably a dozen by now,. Only comment on it was about his excellent moustache.

[LightBulbFun]

11 hours ago, garbaldy said:

I take it no one knew what the car/trike thing was a good few pages back then, I've hunted through old albums at work and can't find anything that relates to it just old cars.

 

11 minutes ago, garbaldy said:

God knows probably a dozen by now,. Only comment on it was about his excellent moustache.

thats because its not an invalid carriage, to me it looks like some sort of Edwardian Cycle car, and thats more @barrett's area of expertise then mine!

On 01/05/2022 at 20:39, garbaldy said:

Here's  one for you to investigate.

 

 

[garbaldy]

18 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

 

thats because its not an invalid carriage, to me it looks like some sort of Edwardian Cycle car, and thats more @barrett's area of expertise then mine!

 

The guy supposedly lost leg/s and had this to get around,.   I would say it was in a way an invalid carriage or at least to him it was 

[Christine]

[LightBulbFun]

23 minutes ago, garbaldy said:

The guy supposedly lost leg/s and had this to get around,.   I would say it was in a way an invalid carriage or at least to him it was 

in that case it could be some sort of European/foreign contraption, but thats getting out of the scope of what I know/focus on sadly

it could even be home made! like the greek invalid carriage that someone spotted in a period photo a while back, but the one in your photo looks a bit too refined to be home made IMHO

22 minutes ago, Christine said:

thats quite the striking photograph! not one I have seen before,  looks like it came from here https://www.henniker.scot/craigmillar-niddrie-and-portobello-areas

seems like a fair few eye catching black and white invalid vehicle photos have come out of the woodwork recently  

[Christine]

Yes,  correct ,  it did. Search , tower blocks 1960 1970  monochrome , they're often outside the flat  entry/ exit, coz they were allowed  to park close   i suppose..? That is a cracking photo despite the  chariot .  35mm slr no doubt ! 

[barrett]

I don't know what it is, but my guess is that it's based on something older. There are lots of idiosyncratic features which might help identify it but it's certainly not something I've ever seen before. Engine is slung under the very front of the chassis. The way the exhaust pipe sits it could be a vertical single-cylinder motor. Chain drive to a countershaft (with the starting handle on the countershaft) and then double chain final drive to a fixed gear on each side of the rear wheel. I guess the vertical lever on the side is the gear-change lever whcih engages one or other chain. Doesn't appear to have any front suspension at all. All very interesting but completely unknown to me I'm afraid.

[Asimo]

 

[Christine]

[Christine]

Not 500 yds from where they serviced and repaired them!  You'll find  a bigger version of the pic on facebook Tonbridge Libraries . .? 

[LightBulbFun]

7 hours ago, Asimo said:

 

Page 181 is when that one first showed up here, tis a good shot  

theres a fair few Bus and Invacar shots like this, (at one point I put together a small montage) it would be lots of fun to recreate at some point  

51 minutes ago, Christine said:

ooh nice! not a photo I have seen before  looks like UAR951S, part of the very first S Suffix Model 70 block UAR879S-UAR978S, Ian Hellings very first Model 70 is a UAR-S machine  

(and a bonus maxi for @keef)

10 minutes ago, Christine said:

Not 500 yds from where they serviced and repaired them!  You'll find  a bigger version of the pic on Tonbridge facebook . 

hah I was just in the process of posting the full rez version (well as full res as the forum will allow) when you left the second comment

not a picture i had seen before so the first thing I did was immediately went and dug up the full rez version for my archives  

https://www.facebook.com/TonbridgeLibraries/posts/pfbid02CGHZKJHd68rawSGxYUstjJb8YwzbsLrZcbDmtS7krhg9jHoq87hbKjVyNo5rwjYol