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...

[plasticvandan]

I do know of a Tippen locally that's been in an orchard for the last 35+ years,met the owner a few times just waiting to catch him in the right mood

[LightBulbFun]

18 minutes ago, D.E said:

Ah, cool! It'll take a lot of time and dedication to save this, won't you basically have to recreate all body panels from scratch?

Something I noticed while looking close at the advert is that some bits don't seem to quite match with the All Weather. For example, this one seems to have two headlights:

Also, the All Weather seems to have a "boot" accessed by a side door. Assuming the entire bodywork is missing, shouldn't the rear overhang be longer? Rear bumper would be in the wrong place, too.

yeah sadly as @plasticvandan says, its been somewhat messed about with, someones obviously removed most of the bodywork, the nailed the rear panel with the reg plate back on!

its not the first time time I have seen this sort of thing happen, the sole surviving Tippen Delta Mk2 is in a similar state, was stripped of its body work and turned into a work-truck of sorts

 

I did wonder at very first when I saw the exposed front suspension if it was a Buckland Runabout but alas not!

On 16/08/2021 at 18:29, LightBulbFun said:

speaking of 3 wheelers!

 

I was recently contacted by Mr @barrett himself as in the archive of his he came across this rather interesting advert/vehicle and wondered if I knew anything about it

and I did not, however I found it very fascinating as it very much looked like a regular car version of the AC All Weather Invalid tricycle

and immediately made think of this British Pathe video on the AC All weather Tricycle

where they do mention that a regular car version was in development at the time

I had always thought they where referring to the AC petite, but perhaps they where actually talking about the Buckland runabout

and then I did a bit of googling and found this online which is interesting as its like Barrett's but does not have cancelled across it

and then further to this of course I got talking to Stuart and we discussed things a bit, somewhat unsurprisingly, Stuart did already know of the Buckland, but again with few details

but what we do know is quite interesting

 we are pretty sure that the AC All Weather tricycle came first and that the Buckland runabout is development of it, rather then it potentially  being the other way round as all the stuff we can find on the Buckland is from 1951-1952

where as the AC All weather Tricycle was already on the road in 1949 (I did wonder at first because the Buckland looks like a much more crude machine with its lack of front end bodywork, but perhaps that was done as a cost cutting measure?) 

it looks like the Buckland was introduced curiously at the 1952 Invalid tricycle association rally and was talked about in the September 1952 issue of Magic carpet

where they specifically said that the chassis was that used in the AC invalid tricycle, but that a choice of 2 engines, a Villiers 350cc engine with Electric starting or a Coventry Victor 350cc with Manual starting

(which is interesting on 2 fronts as the AC All Weather Tricycle used a 250cc BSA engine, perhaps they wanted a slightly beefier engine for the full on road car version, and its interesting as the Villiers option sounds a lot like what ended up in the AC petite)

stuart then did a bit of digging as he was sure he did a write up on the Buckland for the RUMCar magazine and indeed he did, here are the relevant excerpts from the RUMCar Magazine Autumn and Winter 2010  

(Note NAP303 is a typo its supposed to be NAR303)

all in all its been quite fascinating to find out that AC did try and develop the AC All Weather Tricycle into a full blown car and to find out there was a missing link between the AC All Weather Tricycle and the AC petite

its like a predecessor to the Model 70 based AC Town cars  

it is also interesting to hear that It was Buckland themselves who where proposing it rather then AC

I wonder just how many examples ended up being made and if any survive somewhere!

 

[plasticvandan]

Of course,the only reason it still exists is because it was repurposed 50+ years ago instead of scrapped.

[wuvvum]

2 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

 

 

Was that some sort of drag race for Invacars?  I bet that was a sight to behold!

[LightBulbFun]

5 hours ago, wuvvum said:

Was that some sort of drag race for Invacars?  I bet that was a sight to behold!

pretty much  , its a picture from one of the Invalid Tricycle Associations's rallies where they all got together and just had a good time together, doing events and challenges and the such like  

these British pathe videos are great, just to see so many machines in motion etc many rare and extinct types where even very few pictures exist

 

 

 

 

[plasticvandan]

😬oops!

[mercedade]

On 21/10/2024 at 00:26, wuvvum said:

Was that some sort of drag race for Invacars?  I bet that was a sight to behold!

Tragic, really.

So much death and destruction. All those racers, killed immediately after the lights went out on the grid.

[Snake Charmer]

3 hours ago, plasticvandan said:

😬oops!

Disqualified for outside assistance. 

[IronStar]

On 20/10/2024 at 22:24, LightBulbFun said:

 

 

This looks so Steampunk! Much want, preferably paired with a Hayabusa engine! 

[LightBulbFun]

45 minutes ago, IronStar said:

This looks so Steampunk! Much want, preferably paired with a Hayabusa engine! 

if you think thats steampunk, just wait until ya see the controls of the Mk1 specifically

the Mk2 moved to the Invacar type 1 arm tiller control

 

but AC did continue to produce Aircraft control into the Acedes era for special cases that called for it 

for example seen here on NPJ340D 

as I said at the time I first posted about NPJ, I cant help but look at that style of steering setup and think "dagadagaga" to the sound of a Merlin V12  

 

[Christine]

It would get anyWERE    (  see what i did there !   ) near  a Messerschmitt,  they're a  78mph  machine  with 4 wheels and  4 brakes 

[Christine]

Did you see that video of the Tesco lorry exploding on the M25 yesterday ?  I thought it had side swiped an Invacar  and ruptured  the petrol  tank !   Lets hope the driver was ok anyway

[wuvvum]

1 hour ago, Christine said:

It would get anyWERE    (  see what i did there !   ) near  a Messerschmitt,  they're a  78mph  machine  with 4 wheels and  4 brakes 

That's only the Tigers, and they're rare as rocking horse shit (and fetch stupid money).  The KR200 is much more common and also has insufficient wheels, although it is still somewhat quicker than a Villiers-engined Invacar.