Rootes

 Two tantalising adverts for the group's offerings taken from Autocar magazine, issue dated 18 October 1963.

 Pre-war

I have not been able to post for ages, due, in part, from not being able to access my account, so here is  some definitely vintage stuff.

A Ford and an Austin on the south coast in the Portsmouth/Southsea area around 1951, scanned from a negative in my collection.

Two Bob Roller

 A little photograph, bought for just 10p in a Hastings second-hand shop a few years ago. It depicts a 1932 Rolls Royce 20/25hp Hooper limousine outside Rowheath Playing Fields at Bournville, Birmingham, perhaps later in the decade.

Accoding to the DVLA, it was last taxed in 2001 and subsequently exported, so presumably still around.

MG Magnette

Flat cap supplied as standard; Lilliput magazine, March 1957

Stutter Rap

Or Stutter Rap (No Sleep til Bedtime) to give it it's full title, this being a 1988 parody on Gangster Rap (No Sleep til Brooklyn) by the Beastie Boys, which had come out the previous year. Morris Minor and the Majors consisted of comedian Tony Hawks, on the right in the picture on the record cover, together with Paul Boross and Phil Judge.

The cover featured, appropriately, a splendid red 1950 split-screen moggie convertible, RVW 178, a car still with us today.

If you really want to hear the song, here is the official video, although sadly, the moggie doesn't appear. The chap in the blue wig at the end of it is former Queen bassist, John Deacon.

Ian Allan book counter

A mouth-watering selection of Ian Allan transport titles at their book counter, apparently at the Meccano showrooms in London, somewhere that I hadn't heard of before. The date of this magazine insert would appear to be around 1962, when the company were probably the most well known transport book publisher in the UK, thanks in no small part to their 'ABC' series of pocket books used by spotters from the 1940s onwards. Looking at this selection, I realise that I have a number of them, although not always in the best condition! There are many well-used copies around, that is, with copious underlings, that unmarked editions can fetch a pretty penny in eBay these days.

On the reverse of the sheet is an order form for the purchase of postcards, mainly from the Locomotive Publishing Company (LPC) series. Ian Allan took over this collection, introduced in 1899, in 1956, subsequently passing to the National Railway Museum in 1992.

Although still a transport book publisher, their catalogue is much reduced and their large stable of magazines have now been sold off.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Allan_Publishing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locomotive_Publishing_Company

1960s in the City

These four photographs were picked up at a local vintage shop. They were a bit battered, but the subjects made the 50p paid for each worth it. A trip through Photoshop soon tidied them up. They were taken around the City of London during the 1960s, the photographer unknown, the reportage style typical of the time. The top view of three be-suited lads was taken at London Bridge, the second is of a couple of boys closely examining a left hand drive Jaguar E-type on Eastcheap.

The third view shows workers at the top of King William Street, whilst the last shows a lady glancing over at traffic which included London Transport RTW312 on route 6 which I think would date these pictures to 1962-64.

Alcan

This advert for Alcan aluminium products appeared on the back cover of a guide to the National Motor Museum at Beaulieu, published in 1972. It features Malcolm Campbell's record-breaking 350hp Sunbeam racer of 1920, from a splendid painting by Michael Turner (b.1934). The car has been part of the collection since it's arrival in 1958 and was running again in 2014, following a period of extensive restoration.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sunbeam_350HP

Here comes spring again

A sure sign that winter is on it's way out is the appearance on our roads of classic cars, blinking in the sunlight after a period of hibernation tucked up in a garage somewhere. This 1973 MG Sprite has suddenly turned up in a road near to us, usually boxed in by other vehicles, but a clear shot was possible last Saturday. It has a round rear wheel arch and chrome bumpers, only available during 1972/73 and apparently is a desirable combination amongst enthusiasts. Roll on the rally season!

The Car's the Star

Tourists mill around Anne Hathaway's cottage near Stratford-upon-Avon in the early 1950s. Of course the real interest in this view, scanned from a recently acquired red-bordered Kodachrome slide, is the hefty-looking Hillman Sixteen of 1936/37. Of some 700 built, only a couple are known to survive.

Hillman Super Minx

This car was available in saloon, estate and convertible form from 1961 until 1967. The fold-out brochure dates from around 1962, when the mark II was introduced, the artwork making it look rather low and flat. It was succeeded by the Hillman Hunter from 1966.

This down at heel-looking 1965 Hillman Super Minx was a feature of a local street for some years, but has now gone. The DVLA list EBP 5C as SORN, so is hopefully tucked up in a garage somewhere.......

A Quick Polish

Quite why Lord Fotherington -Thomas's maid is buffing up the headlamps on his Alvis in this fashion is unclear, and what is she wearing?

Sixties Style

Model Bobo White, about whom I can find nothing, adds even more elegance to an E-Type Jaguar on the cover of Motor, issue dated 9 May 1964. The photographer was Marc Dimac.

Pimp My (1970s) Ride UK

I would imagine that car customisation began shortly after the invention of motoring itself, certainly it was popular between the wars with the advent of the hot rod, cars modified to get them to look better and go faster. The TV programme Pimp My Ride transferred this to the small screen in 2008 and spawned versions around the world, including the UK.

This little selection came from a series that appeared in the magazine Popular Motoring during the early 1970s, a bundle of which I have recently acquired.

A cheaper option is just to spray on some cool colours, even your old Austin Devon apparently......

Ford Populars are popular...........

Airfix Motor Racing

Kit-manufacturer Airfix introduced their slot-racing system in 1963, competing with the already established (in 1957) Scalextric sets. The system was made to 1/32nd scale, which also allowed for the motorization of cars in their kit range.  Always seen as inferior (at least by us, as kids) to Scalextric, they were eventually discontinued, I believe in the early 1970s. I had both for a while, acquiring Airfix cars and track as a swap for some Hornby model railway stuff; what was I thinking?!

This is the 6th, penultimate, edition of the catalogue, probably dating from around 1969/70. It was just a wee bit to big for the scanner, hence a few edges are clipped. Airfix kits are still available, now owned by Hornby, as are Scalextric.

Vauxhall Foursome

These four adverts for the products of Vauxhall Motors appeared in Autocar magazine, 21 October 1966.

Vauxhall Viva HB (1966-70)

Vauxhal Victor 101 FC (1964-67)

Vauxhall Cresta PC (1965-72)

Vauxhall Viscount (1966-72)

DS meets XK140

A nice pair of automotive imports into the USA in the 1950s; two pictures from men's magazine After Hours, an issue from 1957. The Citroen DS would have been at the beginning of it's popularity, being sold in the States between 1956 and 1972. The Jaguar XK140 (which I am assuming is the correct model, or so my friends on Flickr tell me), was on the way out, being superseded by the XK150 from later in 1957. The model is Grace Curry, of whom I sadly know nothing.

Goodbye Eric

A rather inadequate tribute to comic actor and writer Eric Sykes, who died yesterday. This advert appeared in the 3 February 1977 issue of Country Life magazine.

Full of Eastern promise?

A few adverts from 1960s issues of Autocar magazine, featuring manufacturers from behind the Iron Curtain vying to tempt the decadent western motorist away from their Vauxhalls and Austins; those from Skoda and Wartburg are from 1966, Moskvich from 1969.

No Sex Please: We're British

The farce, No Sex Please: We're British, opened in the West End in 1971, the film version appearing two years later. Although a lot of changes were made to the screen version, the basic story remained the same. Ronnie Corbett plays Brian Runnicles, a clerk at Barclays Bank, who mistakenly receives a delivery of pornography which was supposed to have been made to a nearby sex shop, rather than the expected new calculator. The parcel is opened upstairs in the flat above the bank, where the assistant bank manager, David Hunter (Ian Ogilvy) lives with his new wife Penny, (Susan Penhaligon). The rest of the film is taken up with the trio trying to get rid of this, and subsequent packages, in ever more ludicrous ways, whilst trying to avoid the bank manager himself, Arthur Lowe, and David's mother (Beryl Reid), both anti-smut campaigners. The films ends with a chase sequence featuring a nice collection of British motors tearing around Windsor in pursuit of the final box of magazines,carried by Brian on the back of Cheryl Hall's scooter.

The opening scenes sees Brian power-walking through Windsor on his way to the bank, negotiating lots of  contemporary traffic; that Volga estate is a rarity! 

A pre-Confessions Robin Asquith gets a sticky cameo

Barclays Bank, High Street, Windsor; it's odd that it wasn't renamed for the film, I bet they have a few  jokers through the door afterwards "Psst! want any porn?!"

Hello Brian, want a look in my in-tray?

The first consignment of porn is discovered.

Brian Wilde (of Porridge) confronts Brian in the park.

Guess what, you can'y get rid of mucky films down the waste disposal!

Brian tries to return a box of 'blue films' to the sex shop, one with apparently hardly any stock except for a few old copies of Parade magazine.

1001 Perversions; Susan Penhaligon looks suitably appalled.

Michael Bates played an accounts inspector, receiving the attentions of Margaret Nolan (left) and Valerie Leon 

Now it's Brian's turn.

In the 1970s, it was compulsory for TV crooks to drive old white Jags.........

A good old British car chase; Ian Ogilvy rides shotgun in the moggie

The chase is over and what is in the box? An enormous calculator.......

Although this is a moderately entertaining little film, with a fine roll-call of contemporary comic actors and a number of neat little set-pieces, there are times when you just wish they would dump the porn in someone's bin and be done with it, rather than try to bury it, throw it in the river or feed it down the waste disposal system! Forty years on, the whole premise does seem a little outdated and as a sex comedy, there is little to upset grandma, this being only a PG certificate. High points are the cars and the street scenes of Windsor, not to mention Valerie Leon and Margaret Nolan as a couple of call-girls and the rather lovely Cheryl Hall, one of the bank assistants who has taken a shine to our Brian. Available on DVD at the usual outlets................