My WIP book about Red Robbo, and Longbridge stuff.

[Alusilber]

You could also ask Practical Classics (other classic car magazines are available...) to plug it - they have a little "new books" column every month. They do a lot of BL-related content, so you never know, they might want to make a bigger feature of it?

[motorpunk]

20 minutes ago, Alusilber said:

You could also ask Practical Classics (other classic car magazines are available...) to plug it - they have a little "new books" column every month. They do a lot of BL-related content, so you never know, they might want to make a bigger feature of it?

I usually email the mags to see if they’d mention it. Most are obliging, but I never got a reply from Practical Classics before. The mags I write for always help!

[motorpunk]

Currently comparing Longbridge 1966 (25k workers) with the depressing morass that is Longbridge shopping centre 2025 (2.5k employees).  Some ranty jokes about Greggs.

[High Jetter]

56 minutes ago, motorpunk said:

I usually email the mags to see if they’d mention it. Most are obliging, but I never got a reply from Practical Classics before. The mags I write for always help!

Who are you emailing - Danny?

[motorpunk]

1 minute ago, High Jetter said:

Who are you emailing - Danny?

Can’t remember. This was for The Weasel. Haven’t put the feelers out for Red Robbo, yet.

[Dobloseven]

8 hours ago, motorpunk said:

Can’t remember. This was for The Weasel. Haven’t put the feelers out for Red Robbo, yet.

Would think there'd be a lot more interest in a Red Robbo book than one about a train robber who was also a racing driver,for a car magazine.Start talking about BL in the seventies.Strikes will be mentioned almost instantly and RRs name will soon crop up.All this is an important part of our industrial history which is linked intrinsically with the motor industry.Practical Classics, particularly Danny,are always saying that cars are as much about the people as the cars themselves.

[motorpunk]

Blitzed it today. Main body of the book is now done. I have one major interview to do and slot into place, photos are all here, all good. That means I’m about a month off print, maybe two. Thanks for the kind and supportive words on this thread. 

[High Jetter]

There may be an emptiness when it's finished? Any provisional ideas for the next one?

[AnthonyG]

Something about Vauxhall at Luton, Danny from Practical Classics would definitely answer your emails then! 

[garethj]

Richard Porter, the scriptwriter from Top Gear is a serial BL licker.  He’s just bought an MG Metro Turbo and his Smith and Sniff podcast is quite popular.

I think they did a mention of your Weasel book in passing, so this would probably go down even better.

[coachie]

I can only echo some of the above excellent suggestions, Rustival would sell loads, promotion via Richard Porter, YouTubers Jonny Smith, Jayemm, Number 27, the Intercooler?

Also, I genuinely have no idea how much these things cost, but what about a Kickstarter type  thing where one could prebuy copies?  

I would buy a couple, already have someone in mind that would like a copy for a present.

[Dobloseven]

13 hours ago, coachie said:

I can only echo some of the above excellent suggestions, Rustival would sell loads, promotion via Richard Porter, YouTubers Jonny Smith, Jayemm, Number 27, the Intercooler?

Also, I genuinely have no idea how much these things cost, but what about a Kickstarter type  thing where one could prebuy copies?  

I would buy a couple, already have someone in mind that would like a copy for a present.

I've said in the past that I'd happily put the money upfront if it'd help grease the wheels,as it were.If Rich failed to come up with the goods,I know where he lives!

[Alusilber]

13 hours ago, garethj said:

Richard Porter, the scriptwriter from Top Gear is a serial BL licker.  He’s just bought an MG Metro Turbo and his Smith and Sniff podcast is quite popular.

I think they did a mention of your Weasel book in passing, so this would probably go down even better.

Good shout, pretty sure Richard would be interested in this.

[motorpunk]

1 hour ago, Alusilber said:

Good shout, pretty sure Richard would be interested in this.

He is, thanks, I met him recently and we’ve corresponded in the past. I think he’ll give it a mention. JayEmm is also a mate, and I might do a thing for him on YouTube although my experience is that a ton of views does not always translate into actual book sales. People seem to think that if they’ve seen the film online that perhaps they don’t learn anything else from the book. This is annoying, as I don’t get paid for YT, only for royalties on new copies of the book sold.

[motorpunk]

I’ve just realised that I’ve never driven an Austin Allegro or Morris Marina or Ital. I wonder if anyone in here has one I could try? Might add a personal note to the book. Am East Mids based and promise not to be a twat. Anyway?

[High Jetter]

10 minutes ago, motorpunk said:

I’ve just realised that I’ve never driven an Austin Allegro or Morris Marina or Ital. I wonder if anyone in here has one I could try? Might add a personal note to the book. Am East Mids based and promise not to be a twat. Anyway?

Condolences. Mebbe the British Car Journey might oblige?

[Dobloseven]

20 minutes ago, motorpunk said:

I’ve just realised that I’ve never driven an Austin Allegro or Morris Marina or Ital. I wonder if anyone in here has one I could try? Might add a personal note to the book. Am East Mids based and promise not to be a twat. Anyway?

What about a Maxi?They would have been very much in production during the Red Robbo era.

[Matty]

8 hours ago, High Jetter said:

Condolences. Mebbe the British Car Journey might oblige?

This. Reckon they would be able to put you in most of the above. 

You can have a do in an A40 if you want. Only it's

A)Not BL

B)Not standard so not relative.

C)In Burnley

[motorpunk]

9 hours ago, High Jetter said:

Condolences. Mebbe the British Car Journey might oblige?

They don’t answer my emails 

[Matty]

18 minutes ago, motorpunk said:

They don’t answer my emails 

How disappointing when we are all supposed to be pulling on the same end of the rope 😳

[motorpunk]

Nice email in from someone who knew him as a young man. Another one saying the family don’t like the media (me, presumably). I keep re-reading the book to be sure I’ve got the right balance. 

[warren t claim]

11 hours ago, motorpunk said:

Nice email in from someone who knew him as a young man. Another one saying the family don’t like the media (me, presumably). I keep re-reading the book to be sure I’ve got the right balance. 

You do need to write it from a neutral perspective.

[warren t claim]

On 30/06/2025 at 21:40, High Jetter said:

There may be an emptiness when it's finished? Any provisional ideas for the next one?

Colin Chapman and John Z Delorean have already been done to death.

How about Cars Of Killers? There's plenty to start with on my thread here...

 

[motorpunk]

44 minutes ago, warren t claim said:

You do need to write it from a neutral perspective.

It absolutely is and anyone familiar with my last book will know the approach I take. 

[motorpunk]

On 30/06/2025 at 21:40, High Jetter said:

There may be an emptiness when it's finished? Any provisional ideas for the next one?

This is true. I have a business idea I’d like to explore, that may be a place for my creative juices once this goes to print, not related to cars or writing. That said, I write 2-4 large features for magazines each month as I sort-of can’t stop writing. 
 

There was another “looking for” book idea I started researching which hit a very definite dead end, but is quite funny, I may explain what that was in this book about Robbo.

[vaughant]

On 24/01/2025 at 11:54, grogee said:

The difference between UK and Japanese production line culture is fascinating and explains a lot about the quality of the end product. 

The 'Japanese Way' is to involve the line worker in continual process improvement so s/he suggests methods of reducing manufacturing issues/defects.

Every worker also has access to a 'STOP' button (it has a Japanese name which I've forgotten, @motorpunk might know) which halts the production line completely if something is discovered that would create an issue downstream. Workers are encouraged to press it. 

In the UK, you raise issues at your peril as @sierraman describes. The production line output rate is far more important than Len's opinions about how to screw on the rear light lens. Don't cause trouble, and don't be a know-it-all. 

All of the above is 20-30 years out of date but there are still cultural legacies that are borne out in, say, JLR quality v Honda quality. 

Sorry, I haven't read the whole thread but this is  certainly not my experience, especially at Honda. Honda didn't even have door interlocks for elevators in the engine assembly plant until my co-ordinator and I undertook a massive project to fit them onto an already 25yr old second hand production line..... That had about 4 estops running the full length of it 🤣🤣🤣. Any interlocks they did have could all be accessed by the same castellated key 😱😱😱.

Stop the production line at your peril, they tried to sack a mate of mine who was an apprentice (luckily for him) because the robot stopped in sequence and he lifted the pendant to try and recover it, not realising some imbecile had put a proxy switch under the pendant that stopped the whole line, but gave no alarm. He caused something like 30 minutes of downtime which stayed with him until he left the department, so much so that 4 years after he left and tried to get on a hnd course, they wanted to stop him because "he was the guy who stopped the production line" 🤣🤣🤣🤣.

There was a huge investigation into that. 

In all my years, and anyone I know who worked in Ford, that incident would have been dealt with by the foreman, not some spineless twat who couldn't wait to run off, tell tales and see an apprentice sacked. Yes we were unionised but that comes in handy sometimes.

Ford were so many light years in advance when it came to engine assembly that if a component had been wrongly fitted, you press a button and the engine disappeared off to a repair team offline, got repaired, then automatically came back on the line to be completed, all data stored and built. 

The most advanced engine plant in Europe I believe before it closed?

In Honda car assembly, if you built a car incorrectly, say sheared a subframe bolt, they still built the whole car until line end, then took it all apart to repair the fault, then put it all back together by hand😱😱😱😱.

There was one run off area in both engine assembly areas, and you had to get the engine and pallet off using a crappy lift then back on by hand🤭🤭🤭.

Maybe Nissan where you work is different (although I know three guys who went there and reckon it wasn't the best) but I'm sure you spent time at Ford as well? Maybe it was different in different sites however when we went to Cologne, it seemed pretty much the same as our place.

In Honda most of the operators in the machining dept were just machine minders, in Ford they had access to alter dimensions, change programs etc etc. Every operation had manual and automatic gauging, very frequent checks, not often did we let too much shit go out the door.

The pay reflected this as well, ford were paid much higher salaries. 

Actual line worker quality control, I'll give you that one, Honda staff were a lot more responsible for the product coming out of the door but actual quality of machinery, line design etc they were playing a different game and never got even close to ford when it came to amount of pieces made in a shift, often with far more staff as well.

[vaughant]

I'd also say on costs if you've got a figure of say £20 a copy selling it at £23.50 or whatever won't really put the buyer off, but trying to get £25/26 for it (all figures plucked out of the sky) might make someone think twice if the average for this type of book is about £20. Three quid or so isn't the end of the world, add a fiver on and folk start thinking what they could spend the fiver on 🤭🤭.

You've got to make it semi worthwhile financially, even if it is something you really enjoy as it will get to the point where other things need doing, either paid or to save paying someone and you'll need to prioritise those first otherwise you'll be on a losing foot from the beginning 🤣🤣. Also it will spoil your interest in writing as you'll think "What's the point if nobody wants it".

I'll certainly take a copy and am also happy to pay in advance if it gets you over the line 👍🏻👍🏻

 

 

[vaughant]

Hopefully I'm not clogging up the thread too much 🤭🤭🤭 but our eventual convenor was called "red robbo" and really until I read your first post I thought it might be about him 🤣 🤣 🤣 🤣. My guess is there's some correlation between "your" red robbo and ours but his name is actually Rob Williams and he's a full blown socialist which probably doesn't help the name comparisons.

He's still active in the union world and I even saw him on GB News the other day arguing for the junior doctors going on strike as the obligatory left winger 🤣🤣.

He also stood as a socialist candidate in the general election a few years ago and still writes a lot of articles for them.

https://www.socialistpartywales.org.uk/author/rob-williams/

Genuinely nice guy,100% believes in the cause and ironically from your research so far lived a fairly basic life, he had the same fiesta MK4 Zetec with 4 spoke alloys (so maybe some opulence 🤔🤔🤔) on a P reg until we left in 2010. I even did some bodywork on it for him after I left in 2009, it was still mint as well to be fair. Don't think he ever owned a house as I always remember him renting.

He initially worked on the line but then when he got up to deputy level he was then pretty much in the union office full time. 

There was a lot of bad blood there with the previous convener and deputy as they effectively did the dirty work of management to try and get people to go to Bridgend  but lose their grade/shift allowance, trade etc. Lots of rumours about how well they'd be looked after in Bridgend but I know we found many thousands of pounds worth of "expenses" that had been claimed over those last few months they were there.

I say we as I was a shop steward in my last year or so there and used to enjoy reading all the old union meetings/union rules etc.

Apparently the convenor had been offered a job back on the tools quite quickly up there but as he was an ex council spark who was totally out of his depth in our factory, he had no hope up there with even more modern equipment and left soon after. 

Most of the boys did eventually get back on the tools but the atmosphere there was apparently never the same as it was all run by ex Sony employees who thought they were still able to push people around like they did in the jap factories. Plus of course management in Bridgend made it clear Swansea were effectively "stealing" the jobs that could have gone to their family members etc and this caused much discomfort to the ex Swansea plant lads who hadn't done anything wrong, just went there to keep money coming in etc. I get that they'd feel aggrieved but also they did need to remember those boys had possibly 30yrs plus service and in their late 40's/50's, not the best age to be looking for a new role, especially back then in a heavy recession. 

It was only when I became a shop steward did I realise how much management tried to disrupt things there for no real reason or purpose, ridiculous suggestions, how it was always, without fail, our fault and never theirs. 

 Really looking forward to them book and great efforts 👍🏻👍🏻

[garethj]

5 hours ago, vaughant said:

You've got to make it semi worthwhile financially

@warren t claim has got a few ideas to incentivise sales.  “You’ll never have to throw one over the thumb again, buy this book and get a FREE, yes FREE copy of Adultwork discount codes!”

😀

[motorpunk]

@vaughant - thanks for your words on this thread. All interesting stuff. I worked at Llanelli radiators back in the 90s and it was very chaotic, as you describe. All old BL plants were.