Just been in the loft to get the big box for packing away the Xmas decs. Thought I'd have a nose in the car magazine stock and pulled out a 1972 Motor for tonight's entertainment.
In no particular order.....
An editorial on the 1968/69 TRRL accident investigations showed human error was thought to be a factor in over 70% of accidents with the remainder equally split between vehicle design/condition issues and the road environment (Signs, surfaces, weather etc). Guess what? Not one mention of speed!
A road test of the Citroen GS Club Estate. Plus points included - Outstanding ride, roadholding, steering and brakes. Excellent luggage platform with high lifting tailgate and self-levelling suspension unaffected by load.
A comment that the 7-litre AC Cobra had held the 0-60 record time of 4.2 secs for over four years and they couldn't see when it would be beaten.
Small ads including a boxed unused Lotus bottom half engine for £50.
A full page ad for a Pioneer 8-track stereo with long and medium wave radio.
A mouthwatering group test of the Aston martin DBS V8, Citroen SM, Lamborghini Espada and the V12 E-type. Their conclusion was that you should make up your own mind. Having said that they rated the E-type (£3519) highly besides the overpriced Lamborghini (£9505). Torque from the Jaguar V12 was such it would pull from 10-145mph in top gear.
BMW 2002Tii's were winning the production car classes which included Z28 Camaros and Citroen SM's.
There was talk about the excise duty rate on LPG for car use, an LPG conversion cost was about £175.
Adverts included Kenlowe fans, Cosmic wheels (with the completely naked girl on the car bonnet!), Hilka spanners, Ellard garage doors, Locking wheel nuts and bargain Russian radios at £9.95 from "Shoppertunities" in Uxbridge Road.
Not in the magazine but music of course. The Royal Scots Dragoon Guards Band were at No.1 with Amazing Grace but due to be knocked off for the following two weeks by T.Rex with Metal Guru.
Do you think I've too much time on my hands?
David
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I take it you can't get Cosmic wheels any more; even without the girl. Anyway, I'd have to find clothes for her, this weather; it's already a sore task feeding the birds, feathered.
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Not in a GREEN pullover. I'm neutral. I don't care who beats Celtic! But yes, my mother did have a Jowett twin (I mean motor car, of course).
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Sign of old age........I remember (as clear as dayyyyyyyyy) reading this issue in a shop during school lunch break.....in particular the 2002tiis.....happy days...
I have a number of Drive magazines from the same era....they are quite a read from time to time and very reluctant to throw them.
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David, this is just too tempting. I've just pulled Practical Motorist October 1957 out of the filing cabinet and found some advice I should have posted on recent threads.
'How to ensure trouble-free starting during cold weather' by A.M. White -- he recommends draining and flushing the radiator before adding a 20% solution of that new-fangled ethylene glycol antifreeze. Not so keen on using methylated spirit instead because of the reduced boiling point and the tendency of the alcohol to disappear in use. Other tips cover sump heaters, a hot wet cloth to defrost carburettors and petroleum jelly for chrome. A neat illustration shows a Ford 100e with all the glass covered in newspapers.
The PM is down to open the Earls Court Motor Show (can you imagine Tony Blair even going there?). First day entry is £1 but 5s (25p) on all other days.
An innovation just announced is the three-year driving licence instead of just one year. Cost 15s instead of 5s. 8m current licences to be switched.
The columnist 'Waysider' has a rather quaint grumble but on a topic still very much live today. He 'recently put my car in for repair by the makers, asking them first for an estimate'. Having pointed out to the un-named maker that the speedo and electric clock were not working, this estimate quoted full cost replacement nits. Waysider apparently said 'No' and dismantled them himself, finding a loose nt in the speedo and a burnt impulse pin in the clock, bothof which he repaired. Even then it seems the expert repair was being shunned by the motor trade.
Other snippets, work about to start on the Catterick by-pass, the Beetle got a bigger rear window, and the Nuffield Organisation took 53 long distance records with a supercharged 948cc (Morris Minor?) engined BMC experimental car.
In the printed equivalent of The Back Room, information was sought on replacing the four-speed crash gearbox on a 1928 Aston Martin with a syncromesh box, and on stopping a persistent oil leak from behind the fan pulley on a 1937 Riley Merlin.
In the ads, Stirling Moss (with hair) strongly advises all motorists to go to a BP garage for BP Super, but it's National Benzole that gives you 'higher smileage'.
Enough is enough...but if anyone every e-mails the Back Room wanting to know how to set up a double dipping system for the Bond Minicar, the answer is here.
Don't let this get competitive or I'll be forced to get the 1930s editions out as well.
David
PS Just noticed the front cover has a rather dapper fellow in a green pullover, white shirt and tie, moleshin trousers and what could be slippers working on the engine of a Jowett 7. It couldn't be. could it...?
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David,
Don't laugh about the 1930s mags, I was looking at a 1945 Autocar next so there was something for Tomo.
No doubt ladas are... will top us all with a June 1867 Ladas owners club magazine.
David
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Without getting too serious about 30-year-old car mags, they do give surprisingly good value when re-read. I do miss some of the entertaining writing from my formative years with Car and Motor Sport. Nobody has yet topped Denis Jenkinson for Grand Prix reporting and George Bishop in Car produced some of the most amusing articles I've had the pleasure of reading, especially on the junkets from which other motoring journalists reported only the plain facts as handed out in the press kit. Must be why I don't buy any of the monthlies any more unless they are featuring something I might want to buy one day.
David
PS: Tomo, the Jowett number is partially covered up but it is blue and could be GGG which would put it north of the Border.
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ditto Motorcycle News and Motorcycle Weekly.
Many a happy hour reading them in the college library when afford the motorcycle newspapers, never mind the motorcycle.
I would have read Bike Magazine and Ogri every month as well if it had not proved strangely more difficult to persuade the college library to buy a glossy monthly rather than the weekly newspapers.
Are they still going ? If so, I don`t suppose somebody fancies sticking one in the post to me in lieu of a pint I promise to buy in return one day ?
M.
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I'll take that as a "no" then.
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Mark,
I mailed you about this but our BT mail server is down so the blasted thing is stuck in our outbox.
It'll get to you later.
David
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Umm, I got your e-mail David, and I replied at least an hour ago.
Thanks.
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Having just turned 27, as of midnight, I wasn't even a twinkle in the Old Man's Eye so can't possibly comment.
The naked girl however . . . . . . . . . .
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I recently bought a heap of old Punch magazines at a jumble sale. Fantastic reading - when the cars are advertised with an alternator (gasp!), two speed windscreen wipers (wow!) and three-point seatbelts as main selling points! The hifi and electronics ads were amazing - even as late as 1985 there was the BT Transportable phone - about the size of a decent toolbox, with handset (connected by twirly cord) the size of a housebrick!
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On the subject of old car reviews, does anyone remember Tom McCahill's reports on the American (and British) cars in the 60's in the Practical Mechanics (Mechanix?) magazine? He used to get questions like:'What's the worst thing you can do to a car?' to which he replied- 'Dunk it in the harbour and then let it stand all day in the hot sun..'
I remember a couple of glowing reviews for MG's and the Jag. E Type.
P.
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