Look at Life, 1950s-60s motoring

[Michael Delamar]

some really good archive films if you like this period of motoring..

 

http://youtu.be/bLaRH67dApI

 

http://youtu.be/T_-Rcqq39x4

 

http://youtu.be/nX9pHzj2Uy4

 

 

http://youtu.be/wJ-R-CuZlAk

 

http://youtu.be/IgOxglry8Dw

 

http://youtu.be/VhSXNr4_hUA

 

http://youtu.be/CYvJVyXNZKc

 

there are some more but these will do for now

 

 

 

 

[30801]

some really good archive films if you like this period of motoring..

 

http://youtu.be/bLaRH67dApI

Hmm. They somehow put Hillman Minxes without wheels on a transporter to drive them miles away to somewhere else before putting the wheels and other bits on.

Yes that makes complete sense.

[rodshaw]

Excellent stuff.

 

If only modern documentaries would tone down the music when the presenter is speaking!

[Douglas G]

It is very noticeable how most of the cars are in grey tones rather than bright colours in these pictures from the early 1960s.  The range of colours in the available models tends to err towards colours, I suppose because they are more attractive as collector's items.

 

Douglas

[Metr0Land]

Some nice railway bits on High Wide and Faster approx 2min 30s to 5min

[Tony_S]

Hmm. They somehow put Hillman Minxes without wheels on a transporter to drive them miles away to somewhere else before putting the wheels and other bits on.

Yes that makes complete sense.

In the 1950s in the West Midlands it was quite difficult not to see partially completed cars moving between factories on lorries. I can remember Fisher and Ludlow being one of the companies that made the bodies as we went past the factory when visiting relatives.

[Tony Davis]

Excellent stuff.

 

If only modern documentaries would tone down the music when the presenter is speaking!

And, amazingly, we didn't need to be told 20 times what we were going to see and what we had already seen, and no gratuitous shots of the narrator all the time. 

[Horsetan]

In the 1950s in the West Midlands it was quite difficult not to see partially completed cars moving between factories on lorries. I can remember Fisher and Ludlow being one of the companies that made the bodies as we went past the factory when visiting relatives.

 

They did it in Germany as well. BMW's original 6-Series (the E24 generation) was initially built wholly on Karmann's production line but, due to unhappiness at Karmann's quality, BMW relegated them to building the bodyshells only, which were then transported to BMW's own production line at Dingolfing where the rest of the build was done.

 

In the end, it still didn't get around Karmann's reputation as being "The German word for rust"!

[Fat Controller]

It's still not unusual for large amounts of car panels, if not entire bodies, to be transported long distances; VW-Audi and Opel both send trainloads of pressings between Spain and Germany. Ford, likewise, send trainloads of pressings between Dagenham and Silla, Spain.

During Great Western days, Rolls-Royce bodies used to be pressed at Pressed-Steel-Fisher , Oxford, then sent to Crewe for assembly and finishing. Rootes used to send entire Freightliner trains between Gosford Green, Coventry, and Linwood, whilst Ford used to send several trains a day between  Dagenham and Halewood, as well as traffic from Swansea, Bridgend, and various German/Belgian plants.

[Michael Delamar]

some more.

 

 

http://youtu.be/37eizC7zW7s

 

http://youtu.be/wvd5Y_maKQc

[Michael Delamar]

there is a little car id like a model of, I was expecting to see it in the driving test film, the ac invalid car, the little light blue ones you would see in the corner of football grounds and loaded on railway wagons.

does anyone do a model of them?

[Fat Controller]

there is a little car id like a model of, I was expecting to see it in the driving test film, the ac invalid car, the little light blue ones you would see in the corner of football grounds and loaded on railway wagons.

does anyone do a model of them?

Never heard of one- they were commonplace until the mid-1970s, when someone looked at the accident rate, and likely outcome for the driver, and decided they weren't such a good idea after all..AC were better known for high-performance sports cars. AC's official history is curiously reticent about the 'Invacar'..I did find this, however:-

http://www.3wheelers.com/invacar.html

The factory was at Thames Ditton; I think they may have been loaded on to trains nearby- Staines, perhaps?

Reading the item I just quoted, it would seem that some versions were capable of doing up to 82mph!

[Horsetan]

Never heard of one- they were commonplace until the mid-1970s, when someone looked at the accident rate, and likely outcome for the driver, and decided they weren't such a good idea after all..AC were better known for high-performance sports cars. AC's official history is curiously reticent about the 'Invacar'..I did find this, however:-

http://www.3wheelers.com/invacar.html

The factory was at Thames Ditton; I think they may have been loaded on to trains nearby- Staines, perhaps?

Reading the item I just quoted, it would seem that some versions were capable of doing up to 82mph!

Many years later, the G-Swiz took its place. Its crashworthiness is equally worrying.

[skipepsi]

iirc Graham Hill drove one told the newspapers that they were disgusting death traps and that was the end of them....

[Fat Controller]

iirc Graham Hill drove one told the newspapers that they were disgusting death traps and that was the end of them....

I recollect there was a lengthy campaign in the (pre-Murdoch) Sunday Times. A lot of these vehicles went to people who had been invalided out of the Services, which is one reason the campaign was so high profile.

[alfsboy]

some really good archive films if you like this period of motoring..

 

http://youtu.be/bLaRH67dApI

 

http://youtu.be/T_-Rcqq39x4

 

http://youtu.be/nX9pHzj2Uy4

 

 

http://youtu.be/wJ-R-CuZlAk

 

http://youtu.be/IgOxglry8Dw

 

http://youtu.be/VhSXNr4_hUA

 

http://youtu.be/CYvJVyXNZKc

 

there are some more but these will do for now

Thanks for posting the one on the Cafe Racers /Ton up boys .I had just watched the BBC Britain on film  and suddenly saw a few frames of Bill Shergolds 59 club at Hackney .I was a member and  recognized it .I figured there had to be a longer clip and voila ,you came up with it .Howz that for service .I still have my original 59 badge ,no modern replicas for me .It was on at least three leather jackets over the years ..Sadly my bike in the early 60's was a 200 cc Cotton ,no Goldie for me .

[Michael Delamar]

always fancied a model of the Invacar, mainly because of what happened when I mentioned it, its a good talking point.

may knock one up in plasticard, but then one of the diecast manufacturers will bring them out and loads of layouts will have them.

 

I like this shot of some new ones loaded on a train..

http://www.flickr.com/photos/blue-diesels/3816531335/

 

 

 

back to the films, in Scooter commuter, at 58seconds in, does anyone know what the car on the left is, next to the Triumph Herald?

[PatB]

The one in the parking bays?  That's a Panhard Dyna if I'm not mistaken.  Quite rare in the UK (as were all foreign cars at the time) but reckoned to be a super little saloon with quite sporting characteristics.

[Michael Delamar]

cheers Pat, did a search, its a Panard ,but it looks like a Panard  PL rather than a Dyna

[Tony_S]

In the scooter film the automatic scooters on the assembly line look remarkably like the Triumph Tina. We bought one for spares to try and repair the Triumph T10 scooter my Dad had for commuting to work. He had actually intended to purchase a Honda 90 but somehow got talked into buying the Triumph. The scooter had a CV belt transmision. The scooter was rev limited until you sat down. I used to sometimes ride it round to the front garden ready for my father to go to work. Once I must have started it, had  too much throttle and sat down. It shot forward, hit the conservatory and dumped me in a hydrangea. .It was 40 years before I got over it and bought my first automatic. Fortunately no seat sensor in the car!

[Michael Delamar]

yeah my dad said its a Triumph Tina, he likes his classic scooters, he has a Lambretta gp150 and is restoring a Li series 2 at the moment.

[Tony_S]

yeah my dad said its a Triumph Tina, he likes his classic scooters, he has a Lambretta gp150 and is restoring a Li series 2 at the moment.

The T10 was red. The transmission was slightly different which was why the Tina wasn't too useful as a donor vehicle! I borrowed a Lambretta 150 (not sure of the letters) for a week once when my Suzuki GT250 was having a main bearing replaced.  Lots of my uncles had scooters but my father seemed to get the job of maintaining them all.

[Michael Delamar]

im not too well up on them, my dads current one he uses as a daily runner, it may have a bigger engine in it. it is nice but not my cup of tea, I think the older ones like the li which he is half way through restoring is nicer looking, he also has spares of other types I think.

he doesnt like Vespa's tho.

[kernowtim]

Going back to moving part assembled cars & parts, The Vauxhall cavalier MkII  was assembled in Luton for 6 years from 1981 but the body panels that were unique to the estate version were imported from Holden in Australia

[PatB]

In the scooter film the automatic scooters on the assembly line look remarkably like the Triumph Tina. We bought one for spares to try and repair the Triumph T10 scooter my Dad had for commuting to work. He had actually intended to purchase a Honda 90 but somehow got talked into buying the Triumph. The scooter had a CV belt transmision. The scooter was rev limited until you sat down. I used to sometimes ride it round to the front garden ready for my father to go to work. Once I must have started it, had  too much throttle and sat down. It shot forward, hit the conservatory and dumped me in a hydrangea. .It was 40 years before I got over it and bought my first automatic. Fortunately no seat sensor in the car!

 

I can assure you that you would have achieved exactly the same thing with the mighty Honda Step-Thru with its manual box but centrifugal clutch.  Neither I nor anyone else I know who's owned one has failed to either loop it, be dragged screaming into traffic or manage any of a number of other hilariously dangerous occurences at least once by giving it a handful in neutral and then banging it into gear .