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...

[AdgeCutler]

1 hour ago, egg said:

exciting, where did you dig those up from?

I'm lucky enough that a good friend of mine who moves in the Automobilia circles (the chap in the Dodge pickup on the "Brians first meet video" recognised them online and thought of Brian, even luckier that he knew the chap posting the pictures who then agreed to sell them to him.

 

1 hour ago, LightBulbFun said:

very Awesome find, you really dont find original plastic ones anymore let alone NOS! and Brian suitably Autoshite Spec means you will have one spare which is no bad thing  

They did set me back a pretty penny and I may list the other on Ebay to help recoup some of the cost and also help out another rare car get closer  to originality. The only other car that I am aware of that sported these was the early Mini Rally cars. I'll still have the original weathered one as a spare.

[LightBulbFun]

Merry Christmas all  

a couple photos of @st185cs at a Charity event a few weeks ago  

 

 

on a more personal note, I was doing some deep internet sleuthing the other day, and came across a couple pictures from 2018, with a pair of very familiar Model 70's in them!

this 2nd shot with @Mrs6C's Model 70 in the background, amuses me as it very much looks like a scene at the FoD also!  

overall pretty neat to see even if its just background shots, I sadly have no historic photos of REV (apart from her Ali-G scenes), so its interesting to see into her past just a little bit  

 

and then I found this much more recent photo of REV  

I will admit I am quite tempted to leave a comment under it along the lines of 

"Hey can you ask Sam to confirm the address for the 3rd carburettor for me please? " 

but as amusing as it would be to have a bit of fun with the poster like that, I feel it might be a bit mean  (I imagine it might spook him a bit!)

 

and finally to bring it full circle, a nice festive Invacar Mk12 for @AdgeCutler  

 

 

once again Merry Christmas! I hope everyones having a good time, got some good presents/things to enjoy  

 

I personally have this case of JDM Yo! 4ft fluorescent tubes to enjoy/look forward to/test out!

I bought this back in October and they fittingly arrived just a few days ago, 5000K with a Colour Rendering index of 99! which is why I imported them

I am really looking forward to seeing just what these look like lit up, as that is an *impressively* high CRI, I also imported them because, they are classic 4ft 40W tubes, complete with (despite being made in 2019! and being Japanese T10 diameter) ) 1970's style Philips crimped caps, and even ignition stripes! 

 

which one can see better on this picture of 4 Triphosphor warm white Colour 830 (3000K CRI 80) examples I imported earlier in the year as a preliminary test run

these will make for an excellent  substitute for now hard to find T12 tubes in fixtures where T8's are incompatible

 

like my resistively ballasted Mazda Netaline 

 

[Christine]

That 2 post lift is gradually creeping down,   and down ....over the Christmas & New year  break ..

[warren t claim]

[Mrs6C]

Nice one!

That is Nelstrops' Albion Mill, on Lancashire Hill, Stockport:
https://www.google.com/maps/@53.4187192,-2.1610196,3a,90y,219.57h,93.53t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sfRFvvqfGmz3tbBsGPZping!2e0!5s20230901T000000!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu

Happily, the building is still there and remains in use as a flour mill by Nelstrops:
https://www.nelstrop.co.uk/

[warren t claim]

2 minutes ago, Mrs6C said:

Nice one!

That is Nelstrops' Albion Mill, on Lancashire Hill, Stockport:
https://www.google.com/maps/@53.4187192,-2.1610196,3a,90y,219.57h,93.53t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sfRFvvqfGmz3tbBsGPZping!2e0!5s20230901T000000!7i16384!8i8192?entry=ttu

Happily, the building is still there and remains in use as a flour mill by Nelstrops:
https://www.nelstrop.co.uk/

https://www.nelstrop.co.uk/pages/our-story

I've never heard of them?

[LightBulbFun]

1 hour ago, warren t claim said:

Nice not an image I have seen before   do you know where you got it from? would be good to see if I could get a higher res version to make out the reg mark  

I love how apart from 2, all your spots so to speak have been of Model 67s  

[Mrs6C]

Here's a Model 70 in 1978, shown in a clip from the BBC 'Nationwide' TV programme, about 28 seconds in...
https://www.bbc.co.uk/archive/miles-to-kilometres/z6y3pg8

The programme was this one:
https://genome.ch.bbc.co.uk/73194263dd264f39a8f8a0a709820668

 

 

 

[Mrs6C]

A Mk12...
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=388560093573444

[LightBulbFun]

4 minutes ago, Mrs6C said:

A Mk12...
https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=388560093573444

Yeah I spotted that one a couple weeks back, its from this brochure

 

speaking of Invacar Mk12's I noticed ONO454D had popped up yet again back on eBay! same seller as last time, but almost as soon as it showed up yesterday, its gone today, showing best offer accepted! is it finally off to a good home I wonder? hopefully!

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/355335640049

[Blake's Den]

Hi @LightBulbFun, do you know that you are internet famous?!

I was watching this video yesterday and he shows a screenshot from this forum of a post from yourself showing the NI numberplate of one of the ex Spender Sierra Cosworth's

 

 

[meggersdog]

I watched that yesterday too. The 40RA video was very good aswell but no mention of autoshite on that one. Thought @LightBulbFun could do similar with his numberplate and chassis plate hunting skills.

[LightBulbFun]

9 hours ago, Blake's Den said:

Hi @LightBulbFun, do you know that you are internet famous?!

I was watching this video yesterday and he shows a screenshot from this forum of a post from yourself showing the NI numberplate of one of the ex Spender Sierra Cosworth's

 

 

hah very cool! 

its funny I have not a clue who or what Spender is, I just saw DVLA/administrative Mystery on that thread and had to get my teeth in it  

its like the Ford Timelord, I dont care much for the KLF, but I care very much about the Ford Timelord itself, all the intruge and mystery around it and all the very interesting work that has gone into tracking it down, that sort of stuff is right up my ally  

 

I see tracking down TV/Movie cars and other notable vehicles seems to be his jam

it would be quite amusing if he does a "what happened to the cars of ALi-G" he will get a serious case of deja vu from that "Hang on I have been on these Beige pages before!"

AFAIK anyhow, REV is the only car from that film to still survive! I think everything else is sadly dead? I remember reading the Yellow Renault 5 that was the main car of that film, rusted away in the end for example

8 hours ago, meggersdog said:

I watched that yesterday too. The 40RA video was very good aswell but no mention of autoshite on that one. Thought @LightBulbFun could do similar with his numberplate and chassis plate hunting skills.

just watched that one through, and yeah that confirms what I know about it as well, in one of the facebook groups I lurk in for Invacar reasons, at some point the actual original owner of 40RA showed up and just laid down what happened to thing

"got stolen, got dumped in a canal, got recovered, was beyond economic repair" and then he finished off the post by showing the "new" Lotus Carlton he had just bought and put his 40RA plate onto 

twas quite fun to see it back on a Carlton where it belongs IMHO  

 

what I would be curious to know is what was the original registration mark for the first 40RA, before it had the private plate applied, but the only way I can find that out, is if someone has the VIN number for the original 40RA.

 

 

[egg]

56 minutes ago, LightBulbFun said:

its funny I have not a clue who or what Spender is

It's hard to believe now, but Jimmy Nail was such a massive star in the 90's and remember watching Spender as a teenager for the Cossies! 

[Remspoor]

I liked the TV series Spender.

[Blake's Den]

57 minutes ago, Remspoor said:

I liked the TV series Spender.

Way back in the day, I'm guessing 1992 or 93, one of the scenes was being filmed in a house in the village that I grew up in. I remember seeing all of the camera crews and location trucks when I was on the way home on the school bus. But the most exciting thing for me was the fact that the sierra saphire cosworth was there! I remember going back just to look at the car. If my memory serves me right, it did have a secuity guard with it which ties in with the story about the first one being stolen. I remember this being in the local papers at the time, the cossie was the weapon of choice for ram raiding as this video shows

Sorry for the thread hijhack!

[LightBulbFun]

unrelated note, but just thought I would duplicate this post from the Shitely thread over here for maximum exposure  

1 hour ago, LightBulbFun said:

I dont suppose there is anyone local to this listing in Weymouth who can grab these bulbs for me and either stash them away until I can pick them up myself or box them up and post them my way? im happy to exchange suitable electronic beer tokens for the trouble  

https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/350378757716199

[JJ0063]

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGej8u4G3/
 

is this clip in the wank bank @LightBulbFun? Just stumbled upon it.

[LightBulbFun]

13 minutes ago, JJ0063 said:

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGej8u4G3/
 

is this clip in the wank bank @LightBulbFun? Just stumbled upon it.

yeah I saw it when it was originally uploaded, that was shot when it still belonged to to microcar collector Ken Weger in the USA, sadly he passed away a little while back, and his collection was sold at auction IIRC

On 13/05/2020 at 17:16, LightBulbFun said:

BPK646H, AC Acedes Mk15 (Model 67) Date of first registration June 1970, Current status, thought to have been exported to the US, marked exported on the 20th of march 1990,

where its ended up since then I dont know, for a Model 67, it is in very good condition, would be awesome to see it returned to the road, certainly would not take too much

 

I appreciate the heads up tho  

[LightBulbFun]

On 28/02/2020 at 15:42, Six-cylinder said:

I was asked to add this from a 1977 Autocar.

bringing this one back up as following a while ago I had a discussion with Stuart about the MOT exemption or lack their of for Model 70's especially those in Ministry service

because as far he could tell, they remained MOT exempt, and even the ministry notes for Powered three wheelers 1980 edition, still explicitly mentions that they are exempt from it

yet of course, I had the above auto-car article about them going to require MOT's, then further to that if you look at the V112 MOT exemption form, Category E is for Invalid carriages weighing *no more* then 306kg

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/925057/v112-declaration-of-exemption-from-mot.pdf

this further sounded like something introduced specifically to make Model 70's require an MOT 

 

however to this end Stuart said although there was talk about making Invalid vehicles require MOT's, that nothing ended up coming from it, as the ministries own safety checks proved to be satasfactory 

(despite what all the campaigners kept saying, no one could actually find a defective tricycle to use against the ministry!)

but yet still the weight limit on the V112 bugged me, so I did a bit of digging and low and behold found the actual legislation behind the V112

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/1981/1694/regulation/6

 

turns out that indeed *ministry* Model 70's where indeed MOT exempt as stuart thought they where, but Private Model 70's (all 10~ of them LOL) where not  

 

so this explains why I could find simultaneous proof of Model 70's being MOT exempt, but also not MOT exempt

and I am quite pleased to have finally gotten to the bottom of it, as its been bugging me for a fair old while now!

 

I am still curious what the history of this is, in that I wonder when exactly was this 306Kg weight limit imposed, does it go all the way back to before the Model 70 was even a thing when the MOT was first introduced in 1960,, or was it introduced in 1981 or such with regards to the Model 70?

306Kg is a very specific number, because the unladen weight of the last Villiers machines was specifically 305Kg (6 Cwt), so its clear they chose 306kg as to not have to burden *any* Villiers/Electric machine with the requirement for an MOT, but not to include anything later in the exemption (ie Model 70's)

[Remspoor]

Queen Street, Maidenhead.

https://www.maidenhead-advertiser.co.uk/gallery/maidenhead/90425/-A-better-looking-Berkshire-.html

[LightBulbFun]

1 hour ago, Remspoor said:

Queen Street, Maidenhead.

https://www.maidenhead-advertiser.co.uk/gallery/maidenhead/90425/-A-better-looking-Berkshire-.html

sweet! not a photo I have seen before, machine is an AC Acedes Mk15 Model 67, DPL813J

complete with period additional reflectors, I have noticed quite a few (but I dont think all) late Villers machines have/had those additional reflectors fitted

I wonder if it was something that each user or repair garage happen to themselves, or if there was some directive put out by the ministry at some point to fit additional reflectors?

 

I have seen them on both Invacar Mk12's as well as Fibreglass Acedes, but never on a Model 70 I dont think

 

[LightBulbFun]

9 minutes ago, New POD said:

When my dad had a company car working for the NHS, it was insured by the crown. ie they didn't actually have insurance, because the Queen would pay up. 

interesting, thats something I have wondered about with Ministry Invacars, they where insured, that much I know, against 3rd party risks only, but I do have to wonder was it just basically a big self insurance scheme, or if there was an external insurance broker doing a massive fleet policy?

I also where they part of the MID? when was that setup exactly?, I wonder if so what their entry was, did the ministry go out of their way to enter each vehicle under its own make/model

or where they all just generically insured as "3 wheeled invalid vehicle" or such?

[New POD]

I need to sleep. Keep typing. 

[chadders]

Reading across from Warren's taxi thread do you think MG6s would be the 'vehicle' issued today rather than invacares?

Regarding insurance large companies can set up a subsidiary so that they can self insure their vehicles, I worked for one some time ago.

[kevins]

1 hour ago, chadders said:

Reading across from Warren's taxi thread do you think MG6s would be the 'vehicle' issued today rather than invacares?

Regarding insurance large companies can set up a subsidiary so that they can self insure their vehicles, I worked for one some time ago.

They still have insurance but basically agree to a enourmous excess such that the insurance company are only covering multi million claims or if the company goes bust.

[chadders]

So how does insurance for insurance companies work?

Do they get cover from another insurance company or do they have to put up some sort of bond, although I imagine that would have a limit?

[kevins]

They have to have enough assets to cover the potential risks, they spread large risks around by re-insureing part of them with other companies.

[JJ0063]

9 hours ago, chadders said:

So how does insurance for insurance companies work?

Do they get cover from another insurance company or do they have to put up some sort of bond, although I imagine that would have a limit?

Reinsurance, an underwriter insurers themselves for an amount they forecast to write, say 100m, so they can only sell 100m worth of insurance premium during that one year. That’s part of the reason some underwriters dip in and out of the markets throughout the year - they can’t write too much premium or they’ll end up running out before the years out. 

[chadders]

Lloyd's of London and so forth then?

Given the Red Sea hoo ha I suspect that their hands will be pretty full with claims soon. I invacare insurance will no doubt be pretty close to the bottom of their to do list.