37114 Posted January 23, 2018 Share Posted January 23, 2018 They were all bought to test the parking mechanism. Probably the Maestro and the Unos might still have some life left. Who knows? The doors on the Uno look to have rusted at the bottom, not unsurprising. Useful spares for someone, but reading the article these motors were at the end of their life when they went in there so unfortunately doesn't look like there are any sub 10k mile gems.. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold russ p Posted January 23, 2018 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 23, 2018 Maestro drivers door would be good 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
peanuts Posted January 23, 2018 Share Posted January 23, 2018 I read on Pistonheads that there are very few Avengers taxed and MOT'd these days, they were everywhere when I were a lad. Some more of those ye olde magazine covers - I love the simple graphic nature of these, when I've got my garage sorted I'm going to frame a few and bung them up on the walls... AUTOCAR 080373.jpg AUTOCAR 090367.jpg AUTOCAR 241068a.jpg MOTOR 030569.jpg MOTOR 050266.jpg MOTOR 061269.jpg MOTOR 100465.jpg MOTOR 130265.jpg MOTOR 181167.jpg MOTOR 220467.jpg oooh a zephyr6 ! dad had one of those bench front seat was great meant we could get all five of us kids in the car on camping trips filler behind a flap in the middle of the boot scariest drive out was a trip over the hardnot pass and having to keep reversing back on the blind bends due to the width of this barge made a big impression on this then five year old 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium PhilJ W Posted January 23, 2018 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 23, 2018 Time warp or just scrap? http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-42789879 Ray It was opened in 2001 but was closed in 2003 when the management company went bust. The cars remaining inside were unclaimed by their owners or the owners couldn't be traced. I think disposing of them will have all sorts of legal complications. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horsetan Posted January 23, 2018 Share Posted January 23, 2018 It was opened in 2001 but was closed in 2003 when the management company went bust. The cars remaining inside were unclaimed by their owners or the owners couldn't be traced. I think disposing of them will have all sorts of legal complications. The owner would be the car park company, now defunct. It had bought the cars to prove that the stacking mechanism worked. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
keefr2 Posted January 23, 2018 Share Posted January 23, 2018 Speaking as an owner, over time, of several minis - and following a current Countrynman, whilst followed by another, approaching Tesco in Dingwall this morning in my Kia Picanto - it was rather like sitting in my old mini between two London buses - BIG and B l o a t e d simply doesn't begin to describe it! Funnily enough there's a couple who live near my son who own a Picanto & a classic Mini. I always laugh when I pass there how the Kia towers over the Mini ! Keith 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horsetan Posted January 23, 2018 Share Posted January 23, 2018 So you'll be buying yourself a Daewoo Matiz then? I have travelled in one. Unsafe at any speed. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fat Controller Posted January 23, 2018 Share Posted January 23, 2018 Sometimes we never learn. Built almost sixty years ago on the site of the Empire Theatre Woolwich and now a Premier Inn, there was the Dagenham Motors Auto Stacker. A spectacular failure from an earlier generation. Dagenham-M WoolwichAutoStackerShell.JPG Read more about it here: https://thamesfacingeast.wordpress.com/tag/woolwich-polytechnic/ and the Meccano model(?) in operation. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01bnyf4 or for those that prefer youtube zip this forward to 15 minutes. The only place I ever saw an automated car park work was on Thunderbirds! P Volkswagen seem to have had one at one of their factories (Wolfsburg?) for a good few years now. Sometimes we never learn. Built almost sixty years ago on the site of the Empire Theatre Woolwich and now a Premier Inn, there was the Dagenham Motors Auto Stacker. A spectacular failure from an earlier generation. Dagenham-M WoolwichAutoStackerShell.JPG Read more about it here: https://thamesfacingeast.wordpress.com/tag/woolwich-polytechnic/ and the Meccano model(?) in operation. http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01bnyf4 or for those that prefer youtube zip this forward to 15 minutes. The only place I ever saw an automated car park work was on Thunderbirds! P Volkswagen seem to have had one at one of their factories (Wolfsburg?) for a good few years now. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
great central Posted January 23, 2018 Share Posted January 23, 2018 I have travelled in one. Unsafe at any speed. Re: Daewoo Matiz, a couple of years ago at Great Yarmouth in one of their regular caravan destruction derbies, a Matiz was towing the biggest caravan on the circuit, something like a 20 footer. The final result was a draw between the Matiz and a Zafira which had one of the smallest caravans in tow when they became locked together although both were still running (just). The caravans being nothing but a bare frame by now of course. 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortliner Posted January 24, 2018 Share Posted January 24, 2018 (edited) Funnily enough there's a couple who live near my son who own a Picanto & a classic Mini. I always laugh when I pass there how the Kia towers over the Mini ! Keith Never having seen the two together I can't comment, though knowing the Mini was tiny , I can quite believe you - Does anyone remember the fad for trying to get the most people into Minis and telephone boxes - another thing now conspicuous by their rarity? (at which point we shall be inundated with photos, no doubt!) Edited January 24, 2018 by shortliner 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 24, 2018 Share Posted January 24, 2018 Does anyone remember the fad for trying to get the most people into Minis and telephone boxes - another thing now conspicuous by their rarity? (at which point we shall be inundated with photos, no doubt!) People kept suffocating so they stopped doing that... Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
allan downes Posted January 24, 2018 Share Posted January 24, 2018 I had a Mini that was so rotten it was a job to get the wife to sit in it let alone a rugby team. Who remembers the late Collin Massingham, founder of MTK kits and El Crappo kits ? Well, he loaned me a Mini van into which he had fitted a Cooper engine because my own heap was laid up sick and I needed to drive from High Wycombe to Bedford to pick up a guitar amp and Watkins Copy Cat echo unit that I was having modified. Anyway, what he never told me was that the brakes didn't work and you had to use the handbrake if for some silly reason you wanted to stop. Fortunately, I found this out early just half a mile down the road as I swiftly run out of tarmac on the sharp bend at Sands where a rather large tree kindly stood in for the non existent foot brake. Colin Massingham was the ultimate optimist and never once in all the time that I had the privilege to know him did he own anything that couldn't kill you. Allan. 4 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Porcy Mane Posted January 24, 2018 Share Posted January 24, 2018 Volkswagen seem to have had one at one of their factories (Wolfsburg?) for a good few years now. Volkswagen seem to have had one at one of their factories (Wolfsburg?) for a good few years now. Ah, a VW only car park. Good for PR. Not much else. I wonder how it would cope with hundreds of cars a day in all weathers. More importantly how did they get it through the emmisions test? _______________________________________________________ Ah, a VW only car park. Good for PR. Not much else. I wonder how it would cope with hundreds of cars a day in all weathers. More importantly how did they get it through the emmisions test? PP Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
keefr2 Posted January 24, 2018 Share Posted January 24, 2018 Does anyone remember the fad for trying to get the most people into Minis and telephone boxes - another thing now conspicuous by their rarity? No photo's, and not a Mini, but after a rather enjoyable mess 'do', the hooligan student pilots of the University of Wales Air Squadron managed to get thirteen of their number in the adjutant's original Fiat 500! This just happened to have a full length fabric sunroof, so 11 were actually standing up! I was one of the two sitting down - on my mate's lap (no, we weren't that close friends..!!), with me steering & changing gear, him working the pedals, we got the thing up to an indicated 40 mph down St. Athan's main runway!! Oh, the impetuousness - and stupidity - of youth!! Keith 6 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horsetan Posted January 24, 2018 Share Posted January 24, 2018 (edited) ....Who remembers the late Collin Massingham, founder of MTK kits and El Crappo kits ?....... Colin Massingham was the ultimate optimist and never once in all the time that I had the privilege to know him did he own anything that couldn't kill you. I remember reading stories about the late Guy Williams who was apparently lethal behind the wheel of a Mini Metro. ....... the hooligan student pilots of the University of Wales Air Squadron managed to get thirteen of their number in the adjutant's original Fiat 500! .... Re: the earlier enquiry, the record for stuffing people into an original Mini stands at 27, according to Guinness Book of World Records. A new record of 28 was set later, but using a BMW Mini. Edited January 24, 2018 by Horsetan Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
shortliner Posted January 24, 2018 Share Posted January 24, 2018 (edited) The phonebox record is apparently held by South Africa with 27 people (rather them than me!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uH2FHEq_eJ0 Edited January 24, 2018 by shortliner 3 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
allan downes Posted January 24, 2018 Share Posted January 24, 2018 I remember reading stories about the late Guy Williams who was apparently lethal behind the wheel of a Mini Metro. I remember the late Guy Williams, who built the locos for Pendon, once telling me that he could never see the point in lettering and lining both sides of a loco if ever all you were going to see was one side of it going up and down. Not sure whether or not any of the Pendon locos are like this but, and knowing Guy's eccentricity, I wouldn't be surprised ! A truly wonderful man, gentleman and model maker. Gone but not forgotten. Allan. 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horsetan Posted January 24, 2018 Share Posted January 24, 2018 We're the Sweeney, son, and we 'aven't 'ad our respray.... 2 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rugd1022 Posted January 24, 2018 Share Posted January 24, 2018 We're the Sweeney, son, and we 'aven't 'ad our respray.... That makes five surviving motors from The Sweeney, the others being the Mk1 3-litre Consul GT 'NHK 295M' currently nearing the end of a twenty year restoration, another Mk1 used in the later series and one of the films reg'd 'RHJ 997R', A Rolls Royce Silver Shadow used by a couple of villains (various reg' numbers attached to this one and it was also used in The Persudaders and several films later on) and one of the Mk2 Granadas. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Horsetan Posted January 24, 2018 Share Posted January 24, 2018 That makes five surviving motors from The Sweeney, .... There might be one or two more out there. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold russ p Posted January 24, 2018 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 24, 2018 Didn't one of the consul's get stolen and bangered Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium PhilJ W Posted January 25, 2018 RMweb Premium Share Posted January 25, 2018 I've heard that one or two cars from Randall & Hopkirk (deceased) still survive, a Mini and a limousine the make of which I am uncertain but I seem to recall an Austin Princess. The limousine also appeared in several other TV dramas of the same genre. Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold chriswright03 Posted January 25, 2018 RMweb Gold Share Posted January 25, 2018 That makes five surviving motors from The Sweeney, the others being the Mk1 3-litre Consul GT 'NHK 295M' currently nearing the end of a twenty year restoration, another Mk1 used in the later series and one of the films reg'd 'RHJ 997R', A Rolls Royce Silver Shadow used by a couple of villains (various reg' numbers attached to this one and it was also used in The Persudaders and several films later on) and one of the Mk2 Granadas. 20 year restoration? Blimey a full nut and bolt job then. What happened to the Mk II Jag that was smashed up in every early episode? 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted January 25, 2018 Share Posted January 25, 2018 (edited) 20 year restoration? Blimey a full nut and bolt job then. Some recent pictures here after paint. It's a Facebook link, unfortunately, so may not be visible to all. NHK 295M Edited January 25, 2018 by Pete 75C 1 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
alastairq Posted January 25, 2018 Share Posted January 25, 2018 (edited) https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/273039941819?clk_rvr_id=1424129990049&rmvSB=true Another one for a daily driver....I like the advanced steering system...sort-of cam operated...which made the steering go lighter for parking. Proper engineering, rather than technology? These sorts of old motors , IMHO are eminently useable in today's environment...[providing one doesn't go anywhere near the South East?].....being simple, well-engineered motors, plenty of room, built like-a-tank types. I also like the escapades publicity departments thought up for makers, back in the day. During the harsh winter of 1947, Three of these were driven on a tour of 7 European capitals......and despite the horrendous weather conditions, completed the journey. The organiser, from Austin's Publicity Department, [Alan Hess] wrote book about the journey. [Gullible's Travels....one of many apparently under that title?]...I might see if I can get a copy.? These sorts of book appeal to me. Apparently, these were the inspiration for the famous London Taxis from Austin Edited January 25, 2018 by alastairq 5 Link to post Share on other sites More sharing options...
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