Fascinating viewing, no clues until you watch it!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dzlR5yM6rk
Probably it really reflects the British Motor industry from the 70s rather than the 90s.
I just wonder how much the MDs vanity project impacted on the day to day production?
just to give a different perspective
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QowmOIDAOro
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Never seen the interest in them, an oddity that I'm surprised lasted as long as it did.
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We forget how expensive in real terms cars were back in the day, few people were concerned about trim levels and extras, as long as it had wheels and it went it would do. Reliant kept going for a long time because there were a considerable number of people round with motorcycle only licences, this being a time when it was bike licence first, then if you could afford it onto a car.
Quite the reverse now of course, most new bikers are older motorists who want a weekend toy to play with.
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Apparently they were "a good example of how the british car industry is surviving"
They were crap when the film was made and they were crap 30 years before that. They have always been crap.
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You could drive them on a motorbike license at a time when the motorbike test was easy-peasy and the car test was not.
Add that to British winters and the market is easy to understand.
>>Probably it really reflects the British Motor industry from the 70s rather than the 90s.
Oh 100%. I watched some of those conversations and thought of the many times I have had the same ones with the same people. Dogmatic people sure that they way they've always done it is the best.
It's a shame; EU license changes, an intransigent and largely inadequate workforce, together with unrealistic expectations. I don't think it could have been fixed as even a moderate sized manufacturer, but it could probably have found a place in the world.
Brilliant video though, I just watched the whole thing and found it fascinating.
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>>at a time when the motorbike test was easy-peasy
What makes you say that? Plenty of my buddy motorcyclists at the time (mid '60s), who failed, would probably disagree. Some, like RP and I, prepared by doing the RAC/ACU training.
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3x figure of 8 or similar around centre of town including three significant junctions, an emergency stop, and some questions all with an examiner who as on foot. I seem to recall it was about 20 minutes?
I didn't do the RAC/ACU training. It was probably a good idea from a road safety perspective but utterly unnecessary for the test in those days.
I passed on my 17th Birthday. my sister passed about 4 days after her birthday. I passed it on a bike I'd never ridden before that I borrowed from a mate for the test, insured that morning for the day on a Norwich Union short period policy.
It was, as I said, easy-peasy and anybody who failed it b***** deserved not to be on the road.
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Never saw my tester, gave me route,watched me leave, watched me come back, asked about some road signs and passed me. I think he was in the cafe. 1970 it was, been riding illegally for about 2 years prior to that on everything from a Lambo to a big AJS.
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I did my car tests at Isleworth.
Always a mild concern turning off the London Road into Wood Lane in case the level crossing gates were shut and thus being straight into a traffic queue with a mild hill start to come :-(
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The wise word at the time of car test was never take the Teddington test, always go for the Weybridge test.
Took my bike test out essex way, Brentwood I seem to recall, or it may have been Rayleigh
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>> The wise word at the time of car test was never take the Teddington test,
>> always go for the Weybridge test.
>>
>>
>> >>
The best test centres to use are the ones with the lowest pass rates. They are generally in poor areas with high immigration where language and cultural differences, along with being unable to afford more than the minimum of lessons mean people take longer to learn and take more attempts to get through. Wanstead and Wood Green in London had only a 25% pass rate when I lived up there and if you presented a candidate of average ability who would normally be a 50/50 shot they would sail through as they were far above the standard the examiners were used to.
Similarly, go somewhere affluent with a high pass rate and the examiners would be very fussy.
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Did mine at 17 in central Edinburgh. 6 lessons in a BSM Mini and about the same amount of time in my dad's Volvo 244. Passed first time and some 43 years, a similar number of cars and 1.6 million miles later I've still not managed to hit anything ( other than that sodding kerb three years ago )
Never did get around to taking a bike test, although I did own and run a kind of shonky one in Brazil for 6 years a very long time ago, Honda Africa Twin I think it was called. Bought it from a dodgy geezer who said he was Brazilian but had a German accent and name. Taught myself to ride it, I expect I shouldn't have, but nothing bad happened thank goodness, despite it spending most of its time on pretty rough rural roads.
Never been tempted to have a bike or take my bike test in the UK, I'm happy to leave that to those who don't mind getting cold and wet. At least on a mountain bike you only have to suffer one of those deprivations at a time!
Never driven a three wheeler, although I did have a Mk1 Golf GTi that quite liked to try that occasionally.
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>> some 43 years, a similar number of cars and 1.6 million miles later I've still not
>> managed to hit anything ( other than that sodding kerb three years ago )
>>
...my sympathy is with the kerb.
Patently, your driving standards must have, from an early age, advertised the fact that everything should give you as wide a berth as possible.
Being immobile, the kerb didn't have that option, and had to remain glued to the spot in anticipation of the inevitable.
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>>Being immobile...
Ah now, y'see, that's where you're wrong, that kerbstone was loose, protruding in fact, root of the problem there y'see. Not excusing myself, but there was that fairly major mitigating factor.
But of course you knew that, but couldn't resist the opportunity to be impish I see.
;-)
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>> >>Being immobile...
>>
>> Ah now, y'see, that's where you're wrong, that kerbstone was loose, protruding in fact, root
>> of the problem there y'see. Not excusing myself, but there was that fairly major mitigating
>> factor.
>>
...it was trying to get away....
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>> Never driven a three wheeler, although I did have a Mk1 Golf GTi that quite
>> liked to try that occasionally.
Like this - one from Silverstone on Saturday.
i.postimg.cc/vHFyV8Xh/06-DSC-1573.jpg
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>> Did mine at 17 in central Edinburgh. 6 lessons in a BSM Mini and about
>> the same amount of time in my dad's Volvo 244. Passed first time
Not that dissimilar. Passed at Horsforth West Yorks in May 1977 after about 12 hours in Ted Rhodes Datsun and six previously in another local driving school's Mini. They had some private land for the ab-initio stuff and instructed on Minis like my Mother had but instructor utterly lacked patience. Dad took me out with Mum's Mini a few times but with hindsight he was a carp driver who could do nowt but fulfill legal requirement for licensed accompanying driver.
Both my kids had a LOT more paid for hours. Daughter learned a huge amount on holiday it Scotland just ahead of her test; a week mostly on single track roads on the Western Isles. The mot de vacances* for that holiday was her 'baggsiness driving' every time we went out.
*Pretty much every one of our longer family holidays since 1999 (mostly in France) has had a phrase that characterised the trip. Some were quotes from books whether Dick King's Sophie stories, Harry Potter or The Worst Witch but another was the early Renault Megane ads using the line ' I See You Baby Shakink That Ass'.
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>>Both my kids had a LOT more paid for hours.
With ours it was agreed that " Forget about driving and concentrate on their school exams" and there were no rewards for the results for my two but I said I would pay for as many lessons as required.
I was not prepared for them to drive my car, to avoid any confusion in the feel of the car and they were being taught to pass the test so I did not want my input to confuse what the instructor implanted.
We also spent unlimited time on the highway code and they just laughed at the theory test.
Both shared a knackered old UNO in the early months/years but our daughter has still got her S/H y2000 Yaris and no interest in cars but son is interested in cars and has his 4th high spec s/h car, all well chosen ( one was stolen).
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>> Similarly, go somewhere affluent with a high pass rate and the examiners would be very
>> fussy.
I took my car test at Surbiton and passed first time. 1958.
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A had a relief tester from a rural area who was asking questions about mud on the road.
Only mud on the road in Isleworth was from building sites thanks to cowboy drivers not cows :-)
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Runfers 43 years without an accident post made me think of Jasper Carrotts story of his Mother in laws driving.
' Shes been driving 40 years and never had an accident......
....seen hundreds in her rear view mirror'
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I did think one of my nine lives, or even all of them was about to be called in earlier this year actually.
Northbound on the M6 on a mucky winter's night, I was in lane 1, not dawdling, but most probably at around the speed limit. Conditions wouldn't have favoured any heroics. I was gaining on a truck which was being elephant overtaken by another, so I wanted to move out to lane 3.
My immediate right was blocked by a faster moving Golf and I could see in my mirrors a very fast moving Porsche Cayenne in lane 3 so I resigned myself to waiting until they were out of the way before starting to get past the lorries.
The Golf driver either way underestimated the speed of the Porsche or simply didn't see it because the VW pulled out into lane 3 side swiping the front wing of the Cayenne, causing it to run into the Armco followed by utter carnage in front of me and to my right.
Bits of both cars flew off and disintegrated in a cloud of metal, plastic, glass and detached wheels. I had nowhere to go and simply hung on and hoped for the least worst result as my car entered the debris storm. One wheel bounced down the road and went clear over the top of my car.
I emerged from the other side of it all and could see in my mirrors the pile up that ensued as following vehicles smashed into the wreckage.
I was too shaken to do much other than pull over to the hard shoulder and to my astonishment my car was unmarked.
I guess I should have tried to go back to see if I could help, but short of reversing or walking several hundred yards back down a motorway at night in poor weather I couldn't see how that could be safely achieved.
Closest I've come to over and out I'd think.
Last edited by: Runfer D'Hills on Wed 31 Jul 19 at 21:40
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Lucky escape there, Runfer.
It just goes to show how it is possible for life to change completely in a single split second, whether through a misjudgement on our own part or an event beyond our control. As I discovered earlier this year when I pushed something through a letterbox and withdrew my hand with 3/8" of one index finger missing courtesy of a dog waiting on the other side of the door.
Last edited by: Robin O'Reliant on Wed 31 Jul 19 at 22:00
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Godamn it man, did you learn nothing from your paperboy days?
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>> Godamn it man, did you learn nothing from your paperboy days?
>>
One of the things I learnt (although I spent a lot longer being a butcher's boy than a paper boy) was to push the paper part way through and then hold it. The dog would grab the paper, pull it from the letter box, I would hold it, the paper would be torn and it would be the dog's fault.
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>> >> Godamn it man, did you learn nothing from your paperboy days?
>> >>
>>
>> One of the things I learnt (although I spent a lot longer being a butcher's
>> boy than a paper boy) was to push the paper part way through and then
>> hold it. The dog would grab the paper, pull it from the letter box, I
>> would hold it, the paper would be torn and it would be the dog's fault.
you are partly right, when the dog grabs the paper, you hold it tight then suddenly pull it out, the dog wont let go, bangs its nose on the inside of the letterbox and gets annoyed, then you let go, the dog drags it and you end up with a shredded and b***** paper, and its all the dogs fault.
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If it had been a proper Porsche, say a Barbie GTS, it would have been way down the road before that Golf moved over.
Even a green 5 series estate would have been over the hills and far away
Them Cayennes aren’t proper Porshcez
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A good timewaster for a wet afternoon. - sooty123
