I saw this last week. How many of these can be left? The whole generation of seventies cars and vans seems to have become extinct. Not a great loss, but odd how earlier motors have hung around far longer. My mate Rich Dunnil had one like these in the late seventies. It was brush pained black, had a length of 4x2 timber as a bumper and front wings made from an old fridge. They looked rather Jeep like.
6 comments:
That HA van is 30 years old....and since it hasn't crumbled into a pile of rust, it's probably been stolen from a Museum! Do you remember the superb, stubby gear-lever? I longed for a Brabham Viva as a young man....but then, I always was nuts!
I had a Viva SL in 1970. It was so crap that when I first drove it I got out at my destination (Liverpool, I think) and left half of my Hector Powe trousers behind, due to a giant spring rocketing out of the driver's seat.
I had an ex-GPO HA van around '81/'82. 4x2 was indeed employed Toby - in my case for a roof rack. Very tough little bus but shocking brakes, completely overwhelmed by a few cwt of Collyweston Slate ......... not even a screach of rubber, just a bang and crunch as the front folded back toward the stearing wheel ........ good smell of burnt coolant and warm oil.
We've all been there Diplo. That sickening feeling of wishing one could turn the clock back 10 minutes.
I've always quite enjoyed motor accidents - that uncanny drift to slow motion, the wrenching and crumpling noises warping to a low roar like a 45 played at 33. The freeze frame visuals, showers of crystaline toughened glass like drifting snow. I once had a rastafarian complete with bigmac come in through the tailgate window of my Land Cruiser, his base-deafened coleague/driver had failed to stop and hit the back of my truck at 40. The cab filled with dust and broken glass, his face, having come through both his windscreen and by back window, was in a right old state but the freeze frame image was sharp as a needle and quite graceful. So often these details are missed by the unwary, caught up in panic and fear - we should relax a little, step back and observe the spectacle for what it is, enjoy the drama, evaluate others' reactions, savour the moment and, above all, appreciate the force of Kinetic Energy unleashed. MORE DRAMA !
Ayup! Remember those (Talbot?) Avengers at the BU? What was top speed in 2nd gear? 60mph? All that blue smoke.
Post a Comment