For those interested in old cars.

[Fat Controller]

I presume MoD 'civilian' vehicles are exempt from the prohibition on black and silver plates? We get occasional visits from 4x4s to the ranges and training areas around here (near Folkestone). Though the personnel on board are not in uniform, they are pretty obviously military. 

[boxbrownie]

8 hours ago, Kickstart said:

A friend did a load of checking up on this a while back. There is a medicine to treat it, but it is expensive and with a short shelf life so rarely kept in hospitals given the rare need for it.

 

Alfa on the gtv6 (early 80s injected car) had a cut off that worked. Worked rather too well and stranded a fair few cars where the owners didn’t know how to reset it, and hence quite commonly bypassed!

 

All the best

 

Katy

A few cars did that early on in FI days, I remember having to keep leaning down into the passenger footwell and pressing a little “button” through the kick trim to get the vehicles to start again during a rigorous workouts on the  test tracks......the 4” Chuck holes (shear edged potholes) were really bad for it.

[boxbrownie]

6 hours ago, PatB said:

No worse than a (perfectly legal) motorcycle exhaust downpipe. Thin steel headers cool down pretty quickly after switching off anyway, so the period of hazard isn't very long.

No, but it’s still illegal.......although not on a bike. C&U.....nothing hazardous like sharp edges or hot surfaces etc etc.

[boxbrownie]

6 minutes ago, Fat Controller said:

I presume MoD 'civilian' vehicles are exempt from the prohibition on black and silver plates? We get occasional visits from 4x4s to the ranges and training areas around here (near Folkestone). Though the personnel on board are not in uniform, they are pretty obviously military. 

Reflective plates while chundering across a fire zone wouldn’t be particularly clever, even if it’s the CO’s Mini 

[APOLLO]

11 minutes ago, boxbrownie said:

Glad you didn’t claim it was owned by the Queen like the majority of classic car owners do 

 

Beautiful cars, I had a job once to photograph a footballer who had opened a pub in Brentwood, he picked me up at the office and on the way to his pub it stuttered and slowed, he then turned a valve (or something) on the dash to use the “reserve” tank and off we went again.......also I loved the pull out walnut tray on the dashboard between driver and passenger, I was dead impressed as a spotty 17 year old, not by the footballer, just the car.....’kin hate football 

 

Interior of mine

 

 

The pull out picnic tray detaches, lift the walnut (Formica !!) lid and a set of tools is stored, plug spanner etc. Under the dash are four pull out controls. (one obscured by the steering wheel). Reserve petrol (1&1/2 gall approx), Choke, Bonnet release and fresh air to footwell. Note the Climate Control clipped to the tray !!

 

The rear seats are very comfortable. Lifting the seat centre squab reveals a storage compartment. Fold down the centre armrest and another picnic tray can be lowered and pulled out. At the end a holder for two cups slides out. No wonder these cars are nicknamed "The flying armchair"

 

 

Brit15

[Fat Controller]

21 minutes ago, boxbrownie said:

Reflective plates while chundering across a fire zone wouldn’t be particularly clever, even if it’s the CO’s Mini 

Agreed, but I suspect these vehicles keep well away from anything that might scratch the paint. Here's alink to similar vehicles at Didcot:- 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/brianews/5854622764/in/album-72157627008284776/

 

[boxbrownie]

1 minute ago, Fat Controller said:

Agreed, but I suspect these vehicles keep well away from anything that might scratch the paint. Here's alink to similar vehicles at Didcot:- 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/brianews/5854622764/in/album-72157627008284776/

 

Well presumably even when parked on camp amongst other vehicles it might be prudent not to have reflective plates, too easy a target at night if one in a row of useful vehicles one shouts “here we are!” 

 

And besides it’s probably just a blanket regulation.

[boxbrownie]

13 minutes ago, APOLLO said:

 

Interior of mine

 

 

The pull out picnic tray detaches, lift the walnut (Formica !!) lid and a set of tools is stored, plug spanner etc. Under the dash are four pull out controls. (one obscured by the steering wheel). Reserve petrol (1&1/2 gall approx), Choke, Bonnet release and fresh air to footwell. Note the Climate Control clipped to the tray !!

 

The rear seats are very comfortable. Lifting the seat centre squab reveals a storage compartment. Fold down the centre armrest and another picnic tray can be lowered and pulled out. At the end a holder for two cups slides out. No wonder these cars are nicknamed "The flying armchair"

 

 

Brit15

That’s what I remember the tools under the tray top, so cool.

[alastairq]

2 hours ago, Fat Controller said:

Agreed, but I suspect these vehicles keep well away from anything that might scratch the paint. Here's alink to similar vehicles at Didcot:- 

  On the contrary.

 

Scratching the paint is de rigueur for these particular vehicles.

 

Toyota Land Cruisers, heavily up-armoured.

 

Used amongst other things by personnel on attaché duties in foreign parts. [Embassies and such like. Military missions]

Where-I-used-to-work, once upon a time, our establishment ran the courses for all 'users' [potential or otherwise] of these vehicles, on & off road, CP, ,etc driving.   Bloody things weighed as much as a lorry. [Short of 5 tonnes?]   Better though than the predecessors, Landrover Discos...

They got extra wet, extra mucky, and likely extra bashed.

 

The posh side of military driving [drivers] would be the Staff car courses.  Essentially, how to  become a competent military chauffeur.

They are even taught how to clean their cars.

 

Not armoured as such [but the driver might be]

 

Driving textbook was/is Roadcraft, which might be familiar in its more basic form to ex-polizei on here?

 

[If I am silent on this forum  in the future, check out the Tower of London???]

[Oldddudders]

9 minutes ago, alastairq said:

 [If I am silent on this forum  in the future, check out the Tower of London???]

What are you raven about?

[Nick C]

2 hours ago, alastairq said:

Driving textbook was/is Roadcraft, which might be familiar in its more basic form to ex-polizei on here?

Roadcraft is also used as a basis for the IAM Roadsmart advanced driving courses. It's well worth a perusal for any driver, IMHO.

[boxbrownie]

4 minutes ago, Nick C said:

Roadcraft is also used as a basis for the IAM Roadsmart advanced driving courses. It's well worth a perusal for any driver, IMHO.

I still have somewhere my original copy, and then a few years later I was given a much thicker copy in plain buff covers 

[alastairq]

I may be wrong here, but wasn't ''Roadcraft'' the first real attempt by those who taught/instructed ''advanced'' driving techniques, to actually document what ''advanced'' instructors actually taught?

I know , for decades,specific driving instruction [Police etc etc] was taught on the basis that the apparently most ''experienced'' driver instructor was allowed to 'get on with it' [based on their own experience] ?

 

Any form of consensus in the instruction appeared to be purely coincidental, for many years.

 

I can't recall what I learnt of the history of advanced instruction within London Transport, however....my sojourn at Chiswick Works [the LT driver training school], a mere 2 1/2 weeks, was immediately after my 21st birthday [The youngest age I could take their tests], back in 1972....a loooong time ago. But, part of the course did cover the history of driver instruction [on a formal basis]

 

Of course, all forms of 'instruction', regardless of topic, underwent considerable change over the decades.

Now there are driver training syllabuses to adhere to, and confirmation. Regardless of the apparent 'standard' being taught.

 

Changes, to the extent, where I, as a one time instructional practitioner.  concluded that no-one can teach anyone, to 'drive'. {Neither was there any individual who was impossible to train..ie born pedestrians}

 

One cannot teach anyone to 'drive' in the broad sense, since in order to instruct, one must have some sort of 'quality control.'

At what point do we consider our student able to 'drive?'

WHo decides if they can 'drive?'  By whose standards are we passing  an assessment?  Anybody's? Mine? Or any readers on here?

Hence for a long time now, the first step is 'licence acquisition.'   Nothing more needs to be covered other than the specified [DVSA ] syllabus for the relevant driving test.

I hated Close Protection stuff. Mainly because I simply did not trust any of the other drivers! So, I avoided having anything to do with that.

Skid training was another matter.  We used Cedergrens skid frames, mounted under a variety of vehicles.....cars, Land Rovers, trucks, etc.  Nice piece of kit really, where the instructor  is able to simulate any sort of road surface, or mechanical, condition imaginable.  Just by playing with buttons on a control box.

Years ago, we had to instruct Army drivers in the skills of controlling Bedford TMs in skids, and emergency [desperate] stops. These wagons did not have ABS.  But they had air brakes.  If folk are not aware, when releasing air brakes, the actual 'release' downstairs doesn't happen immediately, like on a car.

There was a noticeable delay between foot-off pedal, and brakes releasing. Thus, cadence braking, as was practiced in a car [land rover actually] didn't  actually work. When that lady shoved her kiddie in a pushchair out in front of you, on a damp road surface, the instinct to pump the brakes creates one long slide....simply because the brakes didn't actually 'release'. The student had to avoid instinct, stamp down hard on the brake, immediately releasing it, followed by a pause [whilst they corrected the steering], the brakes could be felt to release, so the foot stamped down hard yet again, foot off, pause, brakes release, and repeat....Try deliberately doing that with the child screaming its head off at you [since the speed you started the exercise was about 20-odd mph...]. The Bedford TM would be mounted in a cedergrens skid frame, so a damp road surface could be simulated.

On one occasion, when I was passing the skid truck doing its stuff, the wagon came hurtling down the training area, the driver was told to 'brake' [I suppose, I wasn't in it at the time], and the front axle parted company with the chassis, and came to rest in front of the rear axle.

Interesting situation....plus, end of LGV skid training for a while....Seemed there would be a limit in the number of 'cycles' a TM would be allowed to make, on a skid frame?

As skid instructors, we were not allowed to train any more than 4 or 5  students a day, owing to the 'health' effects of being spun around so often....

Barf bags were  included.  Sometimes another student would be sat in the back [in a special seat] This practice ceased after a while.....Poor little mites had enough to cope with in the Army without having their brains rotated inside their skulls....

[PhilJ W]

Mention of the Bedford TM suddenly shortening its wheelbase reminded me of when my B-i-L was test driving the then new Ford Cargo trucks at Boreham. When they were first introduced the Australian army took a batch and being their newest trucks were used in a display for the top brass. Part of the display was putting one of the new trucks on suspended tow. Despite Ford's advice to unload the truck before putting it on suspended tow they done it with the truck fully loaded. There was a picture of the truck with the cab leaning back about 45 degrees but the frame behind it parallel with the ground.

[boxbrownie]

Just now, PhilJ W said:

Mention of the Bedford TM suddenly shortening its wheelbase reminded me of when my B-i-L was test driving the then new Ford Cargo trucks at Boreham. When they were first introduced the Australian army took a batch and being their newest trucks were used in a display for the top brass. Part of the display was putting one of the new trucks on suspended tow. Despite Ford's advice to unload the truck before putting it on suspended tow they done it with the truck fully loaded. There was a picture of the truck with the cab leaning back about 45 degrees but the frame behind it parallel with the ground.

I was just about to mention that incident 

 

In the archive we had a 16mm reel of that.

[w124bob]

Just to even things up here's Le Flic's chase vehicle

 

[PhilJ W]

Just now, w124bob said:

Just to even things up here's Le Flic's chase vehicle

 

I can just imagine them trying to catch a French onion seller on a pushbike, and failing.

[w124bob]

From a Loius de Flunes film

 

[pH]

9 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

I can just imagine them trying to catch a French onion seller on a pushbike, and failing.

https://youtu.be/QsxV49pmnL8

 

[Enterprisingwestern]

1 hour ago, w124bob said:

From a Loius de Flunes film

 

 

, and not one egg broken!

 

Mike.

[w124bob]

Louis de Flunes  seems to have had a bit of thing about cars as they feature prominently in many of his films, including one featuring an E type which grows an unusually long bonnet! The film is titled "Le Petit Baigneur"

[Captain Cuttle]

On 05/05/2021 at 10:23, 30801 said:

 

I had Mini with two faults on the float chamber. One was a bit of grit stuck in the valve. The other was a missing baffle over the overflow hole. Each stroke of the fuel pump sent a nice squirt of petrol across the engine bay.

I could never understand why there was nothing under the carb to deflect fuel away from the maniifold on the Mini/ 1100 etc

[boxbrownie]

16 hours ago, w124bob said:

From a Loius de Flunes film

 

I think I love that Nun......is that allowed? 

[MrWolf]

19 hours ago, Nick C said:

Roadcraft is also used as a basis for the IAM Roadsmart advanced driving courses. It's well worth a perusal for any driver, IMHO.

 

I still have a copy, the 1960 issue with the Wolseley 6/90 on the cover. It was relevant when I passed my test a little over 30 years ago and still is now.

I remember an ex of mine taking the IAM course, partly because I had. She quit after three sessions because she kept arguing with the instructor.

Three was the also number of cars that she had trashed in three years of driving. 

[Guest]

57 minutes ago, Captain Cuttle said:

I could never understand why there was nothing under the carb to deflect fuel away from the maniifold on the Mini/ 1100 etc

 

The exhaust isn't hot enough to ignite the petrol so I guess it gets rid of it for you by evaporation.