Odd post war vehicles

[Phil Blinkhorn]

The Levaggi's thread led me to think through some of the more oddball vehicles on the roads around Manchester in the 1950s and 1960s which wouldn't be possible today under legislation, for reasons of cost or for which the use has disappeared. Also there were some very distinctive van fleets around with operator designed custom built bodies.

In the 1930s, the James motor cycle company produced a three wheel van with one wheel at the front, the original with handlebars, later models with steering wheels. Many survived the war and some went on in service to the 1960s with shops, tradesmen and, in one case around Hurst in Ashton under Lyne, collecting vegetable waste from households for a pig farmer - an early form of recycling established during WW2.

In the same mode were the "bubble cars" produced by Bond, Messerschmitt and BMW (yes BMW) which were popular in the 1950s and early 1960s as they were cheap to run, tax and only required a motor bike licence. Many didn't have reverse as not a few girlfriends were to find out when asked to help push the vehicle backwards often after parking in secluded and muddy spots!

Scammel produced three wheel road tractors which pulled trailers and were used for local parcel deliveries by British Railways and BRS.

Trojan had a very popular van in the 1950s which was used by both national and local companies - one of the largest fleets was Brooke Bond. They had an ad campaign based on the vans "Round and About with the Little Red Vans". It had a Perkins Diesel engine with a distinctive knocking sound which drove the drivers mad and the frontal profile was reminiscent of Miss Piggy.

By the way, Arthur Brooke, founder of Brooke Bond, was born at 6 George St, Ashton in 1845

Commer produced a range of bus, truck and fire engine chassis using the Tillings Stevens TS3 "flat" 3 cylinder, two stroke engine with a Roots (as distinct from Rootes) blower. These wonderful contraptions were the noisiest commercial vehicles - ever (!) as residents of Reddish, Heaton Moor and environs could attest. In the late 1950s Trumix, with a base off Broadstone Road, had a fleet of concrete mixer/delivery trucks based on the chassis and they could be heard a mile off.

Cheshire Sterilised Milk had an extensive fleet of Thorneycroft open vans with a roof and rear panel but no sides, painted dark green which left the factory every morning except Sunday for points around Cheshire and Lancashire, incidentally providing regular summer employment for students filling in for holiday making drivers' mates. The vans were replaced by Bedford TKs in the mid 1960s.

Ripponden and District vans were regular visitors to Greater Manchester warehouses and mills. On various chassis, they had blue cabs and lower van sides but the upper sides and the roof were designed to look like a covered waggon and painted cream.

Hollands Pies used a van design and colour scheme from the 1920s through to the 1990s.

Given the controversy caused by MCTD's requirement for Leyland Tiger Cub bus chassis and the insistence by the Council on the purchase of Albions, it is ironic that the Fire Brigade ordered a number of fire engines over the five years from 1959 based on shortened Tiger Cub chassis instead of the standard Leyland truck based fire engine chassis of the time.

No doubt there were some inter-departmental savings by buying spares in bulk but to have been in on the decision making process to buy the more expensive vehicles would have been fascinating. What A F Neal thought isn't recorded.

Some of the most interesting vehicles around were showmen's cut down double deckers. The upper deck would be cut off and the roof lengthened slightly to account for the rake between the bottom of the upper deck window line and the roof line. The roof would then be attached at the level of the bottom of the upper deck windows.

The reduced upper deck and all of the lower deck would be used to transport the dismantled fairground ride. The engine would be run once the rides was assembled to power and light the ride. Gardner engined vehicles (mainly Bristols and Daimler) were favourites as they had low revving engines which could be set to run at a constant speed with lower fuel usage than the equivalent Leylands or Crossleys, although there were examples of these in use.

Shooting Brakes were popular after WW2 as cars attracted 33% purchase tax but the Shooting Brake, with wooden framed rear ends popularised by the "country set", did not and many small businesses which needed cars but didn't need a large van bought them and not only saved cash but offered the drivers a distinctive and versatile car like vehicle for private use.

There must be many other oddballs and no longer produced or needed vehicle types and adaptations that members remember - any offers?

[mr angry]

What about Austin Metropolitans? Do you remember those, they looked a bit like dodgem cars and had the spare wheel mounted on the back.

They were usually two colours. I only ever saw two or three but have seen some since at car shows. They were actually built by Austin for Nash in the USA and were a scaled down version of Nash's contemporary design.

They were only for esxport to the US initially but were later sold in Britain and had the BMC Bseries 1489cc engine from the Austin A55 Cambridge

[Phil Blinkhorn]

Austin Metropolitans came with hard tops and as convertibles. The idea was to attract both the US and Continental buyers at a time when almost all British car production was earmarked for export and most designs were upgrades of 1930s models or copies of American 1940s styles.

If I remember they were released on the British market in 1954 or 1955. Initially they were available in mid blue, red and a sort of turquoise green, each colour having a white top.

[mr angry]

Tell you another weird car. The original 1957 type F type Vauxhall Victor. They looked like a sort of attempt to scale down a '57 Chevrolet for the UK market (Vauxhall being owned by General Motors) but was nowhere near as nice.

Also, they had no chassis legs and the structure of the vehicle was simplt supposed to derive from the body shell itself with no reinforcement.

The result of this was that the body used to twist and flex and the windscreen would sometimes fly out if one of the rear wheels was jacked up.

A mechanic I used to know also told me that years ago he knew a professional wrestler who bought one new and one night arranged to take three other wrestlers to a bout in Sheffield from Bury. When they arrived, the doors would not open and they were trapped in the car as the weight of these four big guys had distorted the body so much that the doors jammed.

They were also a notorious rot box and, in fact, I am suprised there any still going

[Phil Blinkhorn]

There are a number around, though how much of them is glass fibre and how much is original metal is open to question.

The brochure made much of the styling and of the colour choices, including Fire Engine Red.

My father received one as a company car instead of the usual Hillman Minx. Registered as 775 LMY in Middlesex, it came as the De Luxe version, meaning it had extra chrome trim and a heater, whereas the Standard version, which wasn't launched until after the De Luxe, didn't have a heater. The Super had even more chrome, twin exhausts and a carpet.

I had hoped for Fire Engine Red, but Charcoal Grey arrived.

The front seat was a bench seat and the gear shift was a column change offering three speeds.

The exhaust pipe came out throgh an opening in the corner (corners on the Super) of the rear chrome bumper.

Like all of them it rotted - fast. The chrome round the exhaust pipe was showing rot after 3 months (my father was doing around 35,000 miles a year). The rest of the chrome was a pitted mess after 9 months. Prior to that, the sills had started to rot. I had the privilege of cleaning the thing most weeks for the princely sum of 1/6d and it was me who reported most of the new rust spots and rot.

The car lasted 10 months before it was replaced by the usual Minx.

Apart from the rot, my main memories are doing an indicated 85 mph on the A6 on the down slope from the Dunstable Downs. It wasn't the speed that I remember so much as the amazing wind noise from the shape of the wrap around windscreen and the quarter light hinges immediately behind. Also I recall sitting in the front passenger wheel well all the way from Leicester to Stockport, operating the windscreen wiper linkage which was under the inside bulkhead as the motor had failed.

As it was sleeting and around freezing, the heater was on and I had an headache for a couple of days after.

[Phil Blinkhorn]

The original Victor was such bad news for Vauxhall that at the 1958 Motor Show they announced the 1959 model (though it wasn't unusual for models to change annually at that time).

This had slightly simplified styling - the exhaust was kept clear of the modified bumpers and the Vauxhall badge, buried under a clear plastic cover on the top of the bonnet between two "flutes" which ran down the bonnet from around the mid point to the edge was removed to the front of the bonnet, below a single flute which ran down the centre of the bonnet. The rear window was deepened significantly and bucket seats replaced the front bench seats. A new zinc treated metal was used for the bodies which, though not a total solution, cured some of the rot problems.

I've learned that the colour colloquially known as Fire Engine Red was actually only available on the Super and was officially Gypsy Red. Standard colours for the first variant were Charcoal Grey or Black, Deluxe added Empress Blue, Laurel Green and Shantung Beige. The Super, as befitting its more elegant status was produced in a choice of these colours, but there was also the option to have Harvest Yellow, Horizon Blue or Gypsy Red. Export cars were available in a variety of two tone finishes.

Whilst most surviving British examples are carefully preserved and only appear at rallies and in museums, there is a thriving population in both Australia and New Zealand with very active owners' clubs and many of the vehicles, especially those from 1959 - 1961 are in daily use.

The cars sold over 390,000 units throughout the UK, the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan, India, Ceylon, South Africa, Malaya, and Thailand. The estate car version was the first designed in house at Luton but the body problems just kept coming back at Vauxhall and the 1960 model, with very minor changes, was the last produced and the radically different looking FB was announced for 1961.

Perhaps the best part of the car was the incredibly reliable 1.5 litre in line OHV engine which gained an excellent reputation - pity the body didn't match!

[Henry Mantell]

For those of us unable to operate foot controls and who want a local means of road transport with some range and speed above 8 mph( road going electric scooters), there are some good options if you are driving from a wheelchair or for those who can get on and off a three wheel scooter chassis.
I currently drive a Nippi from my wheelchair but if I had the money my choice would be one of the Conquest 1200 range!
Nippi Vehicles - Disabled Vehicles and Motability
Welcome to Martin Conquest
The B1 car category was I understand introduced post second World war to provide vehicles for disabled ex servicemen. These were the standard blue trike which had both petrol and later electric versions, but were phased out when the Motability scheme arrived and car manufacturers responded with vehicles able to be adapted with controls or with capacity to take wheelchairs and hoists.
It's exhilarating for a wheelchair user to take a wheelchair up to 55-60!
Nippi have been around for 24 years the Zippi variant for more mobile riders is a new vehicle, but all are EU wide acceptable.

[mr angry]

Phil,

Suppose the climate in Australia/NZ is a bit kinder to them than in Britain. Generally, Vauxhall got such a bad name from these that I dont think they really recovered until the link up with Opel in the late '70s.

In the 60s and early 70s, their best car was the HB and HC Viva. The others failed to make much impact and they tried the same approach as Ford with conventional engineering but were much less successful.

More on 60s and 70s Ford and BMC cars later, I am a total BMC/Ford nut on cars of this era. I still drive one as my preservation project, Ford's finest, a Mark V Cortina

[Phil Blinkhorn]

I had 3 Vivas. The first was HDP 769E a green two door HB which I inherited as a company car on joining Huntley Boorne and Stevens in December 1968. It had been poorly looked after in its 25,000 miles since new and, on my first trip home, the electrics packed up on the A34 in Birmingham city centre at 8.30 pm on a Friday night. I arrived home totally knackered and unimpressed at 00.30 next morning, full of praise for the AA who had virtually rebuilt the electrics (new dynamo, fuse box and voltage regulator) at the roadside.

I had to keep the car until August 1969. It regularly had electrical problems - possibly due to some shorting in the looms - once breaking down outside Pilkingtons in St Helens when a traffic cop told me to put on my hazard lights. Apart from the fact I again had no electrics, the car wasn't fitted with such luxuries.

It was replaced by another HB which was brand new but was an oddity. Dark blue in colour and registered RRD 568H it was one of a batch of HBs for New Zealand. These were delivered as CKD kits but two had been built at Luton for some purpose and had never been run. Basil Tarrant the company MD (Chris's father) had some connection at Vauxhall and picked them up for a cheaper price than a new HB ex showroom. They were no different to the UK car except the engine seemed to have more "poke" than was normal for the 1159 and it had front disc brakes rather than the normal drum brakes.

I used to have it serviced at the Vauxhall dealers in Heaviley, Stockport and the mechanic there said that the output from the engine always showed up more bhp than expected for the standard 1159 cc and they suspected, especially given the disc brakes - though the documentation with the car didn't show it - that it may have been the "tuned 90" version of the engine, not as poky as the Brabham 90, but a bit more eager than the norm.

The car had covered 56,000 miles by the time I left it in the long term car park at Luton Airport to go on my honeymoon, 37 years ago today. On returning, we drove up the M1 and I was surprised to find the car unresponsive, noisy and sluggish. I put it down to some bad petrol but took it into the garage the following week to have it checked out and they reported that the valves were burnt out, one piston was sticking and the big end was badly worn. I duly reported this to Basil who sent me a stinking memo complaining bitterly about my standard of driving and accusing me of flogging the car.

I thought this was a bit much as he drove a round 10,000 miles a year in a Rover and expected me to cover the whole of the north of England in an 1159 cc Viva, a coverage that required over 30,000 miles a year.

Annoyance apart, something didn't fit. A new short engine was ordered and when the old engine came out, the engine number was checked against the documentation and was found to be different.

Vauxhall was contacted, given the other discrepancies with the car, and it was confirmed that the engine number given belonged to a 1966 HB which it turned out had been written off in a crash near Luton in March 1971. They also confirmed the Viva 90 status of the my car in its original condition.

As the car had been left unattended in Luton, the police were called in and an investigation was started. To cut a long story short, I left the company in June that year and the investigation finished in the November with a court appearance for a number of airport car park attendants and Vauxhall employees who had been running a scam buying older and written off Victors and Vivas and swapping engines and other under bonnet parts with newer cars, then putting the older cars back on the road. They were also swapping engines for "clients" with older versions of the models they could get their hands on. In those days you had to book your car in in advance for the long term car park, so they knew exactly what was due in, the year of the car and how long they had to remove it from the car park, do the job and return it to the same place. To avoid having to "clock" the mileage, they even had their own recovery truck. Most involved ended up with between 3 and 5 years at Her Majesty's pleasure.

The third Viva was an HC estate, in Silver, the second car I had with Dennison Mfg, my new employer. I picked up HYP 569K at a garage in Acton in January 1972. A good runner and for its size a good load carrier, when I was promoted in 1974 it was taken over by the company's northern engineer with 58,000 on the clock and he ran it for another 30,000 miles (his own HC of the same date having had a serious accident after which it always seemd to crab and certainly wore diagonally opposite tyres at an alarming rate).

The only real fault with mine was the paint never seemed to get hard. Every chip seemed to peel back paint. In July 1971 I had a chip on the front of the bonnet which I rubbed over with a sponge when cleaning the car and no less than a three inch strip of paint, at least an inch wide, came off. The bonnet had to be resprayed, after which it was less prone to damage but on other panels the paint seemed to wear thin and the whole car was resprayed in the late summer of 1974, after which it was kept at Watford as the office runabout, the engineer inheriting my banana yellow Avenger estate when I left the company.

[Phil Blinkhorn]

One other point on the HB Viva, I assume most people have seen the current TV ad where everything is upside down and the man is holding the petrol line to the rear wing of the red HB Viva though the filler cap and filler are perfectly obvious where they always were, on the rear panel beside the registration plate below the boot lid!