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Cars, Lasses and Lads - A Photo Sharing Thread

Dick Cheeseburger

By Dick Cheeseburger
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Richard_FM Rank: Renault 16

Richard_FM

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Some forces personnel took advantage of being stationed in Cyprus to buy a car there (tax free?) & bring it home at the end of the posting.

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Mr Pastry Rank: Renault 16

Mr Pastry

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23 hours ago, Metal Guru said:

You’ve probably hit the nail on the head there with Cyprus.

After the war there was a massive export drive and more cars were exported than were sold at home. The main market was probably Commonwealth  ( Empire?) countries since they nearly all drove on the left. As most of these are considerably warmer than then U.K. they probably didn’t need heaters.

When my father was in West Africa in the 1950s, British cars were disliked because they didn't have heaters, while the competing French and German cars did.  Apparently nobody in Britain had realised that some tropical places can get very cold at night, and you do actually need a heater.  

Many workshop manuals from the 1950s/60s have instructions on fitting a heater, so it wasn't unusual to have a new car supplied without one.  My 1957 Austin A35 and 1962 Sprite had no heaters from the factory, and aftermarket ones fitted later.  

I think fleet buyers could be especially penny-pinching, and I heard a story of a sales rep with a company Ford 100E, propping the rear edge of the front-hinged bonnet open in the winter to try and get some demist air over the screen.   It wouldn't have had a radio either.  Miserable.

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