Hirst Cabs (Motoring Chaos Edition)

[barrett]

Great story mr H, this is a seriously awesome motor and i can't stop eyeing up those two pics of it in the snow....lovely! Glad you got it back without crashing/blowing up/ picking up a drunk bird outside a train station.

[VWPowered]

 

awesome hirst, whats the interior like

 

tis ok, proper taxi then, sign and all, awesome

 

[Gompo]

Great work Hirst. Looks like a hell of a machine. Any plans? Will you be reducing the (taxi) fleet at all?Just a tip RE: Google Maps. You may have thought about this before, but I used to do the whole drawing various maps thing as I dont have a printer. Then I had a moment of clarity, take pictures of the maps on your comp with your digital camera/phone camera. Ive found it works bloody well, although I suppose you need to be slightly aware of the mobile phone while driving rule.. Zooming into maps etc is ace. If youre lucky enough for the destination to be on Streetview then even better..

[Spottedlaurel]

Top story! Not worth doing a report on me collecting the Camry, it involved little more excitement than eating toad-in-the-hole at the in-laws.Analogue clock I note, and wind-up windows with the chrome handles that Datsun/Nissan seemed to use on everything, but otherwise it looks remarkably similar inside to the dead one one my driveway.

[outlaw118]

HIRST IZ TEH WINNAH!!!

[shite_meister]

Are you taking bookings? can you pick me up from St Helier tomorrow and take me to 1984 at about half eight? I promise I won't do a runner when I alight.Nice.

[Mr Lobster]

GR9.Brilliant stuff, sounds like a good trip, great write up too

[Justin Case]

Yes, an epic voyage, and an epic write-up too. That has made my evening

[Hudsonpie]

I wonder how the meter compares to say a Halda or a Sherrif which we would have had over here about the same time this would have been rolling about.

[CIH]

Sweet! Can't think of anything else tbh. Get that meter working though. oh! does the roof-sign light up ?

[Guest]

Cheers Autoshite! Yeah, the roof sign lights up. Haven't tried to put it on yet though, too much snow.

[Parky]

Truly legendary Mr H, I enjoyed that immensely! Looking at the cab makes me fancy watching Black Rain with a can of Sapporo...

[warren t claim]

 

awesome hirst, whats the interior like

 

tis ok, proper taxi then, sign and all, awesome

 

Love the picture of the crab where the rev counter should be!!!

 

Mega superb shite buying trip! Much respect!

[Milford Cubicle]

It's not a crab, it's a Laurel wreath!

[warren t claim]

Sorry! This reminds me if all those saucy inkblots my head doctor shows me.

[michiel]

What a story! Can I hire you as a ghost writer if I ever buy a car again?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I only just noticed the last one has 2 Florian taxis!

[mnde]

Great story and great car, D_Hirst! My girlfriend was wondering what was making me grin so much A++Cheers,Mark.

[garethj]

GR8 write up, glad it worked out ok.Wonder if you can get the petrol system rigged up again, otherwise you want to mark all the garages that sell LPG on your road atlas For the kph - mph conversion you might want to multiply by 5 then divide by 8, you can get close enough by just memorising a couple then doing halfway between them or something.80kph = 50mph50kph = 30mph65kph is halfway = 40mphOr just drive everywhere flat out, problem solved

[seth]

I heard on a news report this morning (Radio 1 so not exactly high brow stuff...) that there we "reports" of PANIC buying somewhere up north yesterday as the forecast said the snowy conditions might last for OMG!, literally, several days.I reckon it was SanDHurst making sure the new cab was suitably stocked with Greggs products for his wintery passengers.

[Mr H Sceptre]

Just out of interest, roughly what proportion of garages sell LPG?How economical is an LPG converted car compared to its petrol/drizzle counterpart, and how large are the tanks?

[pogweasel]

Well LPG at most places is half the price of pez, you go roughly twice as far for the same money. Tanks are between 40L for the ones the spare wheel well and 100L for the big ones that take up half the boot I think, don't quote me on that though (you don't actually get the tank "full" as such though. Plenty of supermarkets and general pez places sell it, unless you live somewhere really remote or are a numpty running out will be hard work. I'd like to give it another go, the LPG car we bought was an Astra and ergo RUBBISH, so even though there were huge savings to make, we could not bear driving about in such an automotive TURD.

[mk1_4dr]

Mr Hirst should be fine, theres a 24hour Murco garage in town that sells LPG, like you say though, full-time LPG would be a bugger if you ran out

[Guest]

I've not had to fill mine up yet but given that the gauge is reading barely over zero I presume I should go down and sort it. Didn't use it today in view of the SNOW CHAOS!Morrisons on Dewsbury Road do LPG too, which is handy as it's only down the road. My tank is huge, so dunno how much it'll take.

[Split_Pin]

Excellent thread! Nice purchase too. 11/10.

[Rod/b]

Just out of interest, roughly what proportion of garages sell LPG?How economical is an LPG converted car compared to its petrol/drizzle counterpart, and how large are the tanks?

There's a fair few sites that do LPG but it can be a bit patchy. Some parts of the country don't have many whereas others have quite a few.You're looking at about a 5-10% decrease in gas mileage compared to petrol, and a bit less power too, but that depends on the kit you have installed and how it's installed. The tanks vary in size dependant on the vehicle. I've got a 60 litre doughnut tank in the spare wheel well on the Sproutage.

[Mr_Bo11ox]

For emergency fuel is it possible to do something with a calor gas bottle in the boot where other folk have a spare 5-ltr can of pez?I would have thought it would be possible, just not sure what fittings etc would be required.Woud be a bummer if you cant go anywhere new without having to find out where the gas shops are first.

[M'coli]

[Guest]

When the weather improves I'm going to take it over to Morrisons and gas it up, probably on Friday at this rate. Anyone want to come and watch me struggle? Preferably someone who knows what they're doing.If not, at least if there's someone else there I'm less likely to get chinned by someone waiting behind at the pump with a V8 Discovery with chequerplate all over it.

[Father Ted]

For emergency fuel is it possible to do something with a calor gas bottle in the boot where other folk have a spare 5-ltr can of pez?

A while ago there was a fixture being flogged on evilbay that allowed the filling up of LPG cars using one of those mahoooosive cooking / fuel bottles of calor gas. Apparently ones sold for domestic fuel / cookery attract a lower rate of tax. And ones found at the side of roadworks powering portable lights for signs* are cheaper still (whistles nonchelantly)*Do they still do that - not seen one for yonks.

[Cavcraft]

One thing I don't miss about gas converted motors is filling the tanks. Connecting the nozzle up to the filler always scared the shit out of me as there is a short release of gas.True that 'gas only' cars run cooler and can burn valves out eventually?*Edit: there is a website somewhere that lists all the LPG supplying garages in Britain.