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Can't remember a thread on these for a while. Always slightly looking out.....

Saw the Ford transporter at Race Retro at the weekend . Not sure if it's original but what was of extra interest was what was inside . No-one about to ask






Similarly there was a cutesie Austin outside. Would have been called a lorry in my day but now only about the size of a modest Sprinter. Off to look at Boys Book of Aged Lorries....





No complex coach stylee woodwork at least inside

That Austin's a beauty.

The Austin is gorgeous! I wonder if Halls Garage is the MG / Mini specialist just up the road from me in Morton near Bourne? They have some awesome stuff outside on their forecourt!

Tim

there is only ONE transporter that you want to buy tim............

Haha I saw the Graham Hill Racing Ford truck at the show but didn't think to look inside so I missed the Mini!!

What's the basis of the "not for hire or reward" sign writing on the near side door panel on the Embassy truck? It appears on a lot of the paddock trucks at today's race meetings. Presumably required on the Embassy truck by modern regulations and not period to the truck.

Cheaper road tax. Mates beaver tail 7 tonner is cheaper on tax than my wifes jeep. Think they can down plate the gross weight on a race transporter so a car licence will do as well.

Ah, thanks. So likely to be a modern requirement and not period then.

Over 3.5 tonne needs a tachograph unless it is used privately. Hence ' not for hire or reward' to avoid using tacho.

I saw the Mini and had to hang around to ask the owner about it. He had bought it exactly as it is now with welded in rollcage fitted, The car has flat sills, the early type seat hinges, on the passenger side only but has a recessed windscreen surround. He intends to fit an MED engine and once it is up and running maybe race it once and then sell it. I was told that the transporter is original but has been completely re-panelled.

fricsman wrote:What's the basis of the "not for hire or reward" sign writing on the near side door panel on the Embassy truck? It appears on a lot of the paddock trucks at today's race meetings. Presumably required on the Embassy truck by modern regulations and not period to the truck.

its a bit of a grey area / red herring as well


a few years ago it meant that you didn't have to have an operators licence to run the truck, so you where in affect running it as a private vehicle - the 'not for hire or reward' was to indicate that the truck earnt you no money, so wasn't a commercial application.

quite a few people have been nicked for the prize money and cups they have won though as these are seen as 'reward'


the rules are far stricter now a days and its not really relevant, but I think people just paint it on as its almost a 'period' warning sticker - now a days if your running a truck to carry a race car you (particularly for a business) you should have a operators licence to be safe.

there is a specific list of 'don't need operators licences' that allow, for example, people to run a truck to carry a old tractor to a tractor show - but a lot of police etc don't know about this - just ask my brother - he spent an hour in the back of a traffic car recently as it pinged his truck as not have an operators licence - it was to his great relief that the police man eventually discovered that he was exempt!

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

its as good as sold

Has to be my all time ultimate transporter with a tenuous Mini link....

and the sad thing is that the bus anoraks have absolutely no idea what happened to the Brabham coach

it just vanished without trace

Alright I give up. What is the tenuous link?

Trainee bus anorak

C'mon Mr. H....! you kidding?!! I'll give you a little clue.....

Thanks Rich, and Operators Licences cost how much?
Re the Brabham truck, is that Aintree with the W Watson (Liverpool) and Grosvenor Motors (Chester)
banners in the background? Watsons famous for supplying the OKD series of Liverpool Police Cooper S's in the late sixties and Grosvenor Motors a large Chester BMC dealer at that time.

su_mark wrote:C'mon Mr. H....! you kidding?!! I'll give you a little clue.....

OMG

I fail to get any house points this week

However I can try to regain face...

When I lived in Shepherds Bush in the mid 70's (with Roger Ludgate of Ecurie Ecosse transporter fame) I got friendly with a Richard Essame who lived at the end of my road. He did modelling and I was into phtography and we used to get on fine. He was putting Chevy V8s into an XJ6 then an bright yellow E type and as I had been helping at Lynx doing the D type replicas etc so we had some common ground . I had Minis at the time and he rarely commented on them

Fast forward to eighties when I looked at the Italian Job again and I noticed a familiar figure. He was the one driver who never says a thing. I wondered for a long time why he never mentioned about the film work and especially the Italian Job.

Fast forward to the noughties and finally I had a small chance of tracking his movements due to the joys of the internet. Turns out he was pretty embarrassed about his film performances and gave up trying and now seems to be in California playing with Jaguars , well he was when I looked aboout a year or so ago. He had an American girlfriend and was always flitting across the Atlantic even when I knew him.

I've got some pics of him in a Castrol ad with a Jaguar engine and it looks like him in one of the pics with a blue ST transporter in an MGB ad. I also found I have a CCC article on him and his Chevy powered E type. We used to wind him up about the heathen American motor in his E type but as he pointed out a Chevy 5 litre cast iron block weighs less than an alloy Aston block of the same size!

I am even more thick!

Is it being suggested that the Brabham transporter was converted into the Italian job coach?





If it is, I have never heard of it being the case & they look totally different, or am I missing something.