Gerald, Fran and Brian on Motoring

[nbear8]

I have noticed SarahJane missing she wrote some good posts and hope she and the moni are still chugging alone well

[franfran]

[BrianS]

This is a lovely period advert Fran!

I'm always fascinated by the optional extras offered and how we might now consider them as essential anyway. The list of them is right at the end of the advert.

It's a reminder that seat belts were an option at one time. In other words there was evidently a transition in Australia before they became compulsory, the same situation as the UK. it can be seen that such other things as floor mat and radio were options you could select.

I suppose really it was sensible in that era to keep your "headline" price on a new car very competitive. Once a potential buyer was in the showroom then it was up to the salesman to persuade you just how much nicer it would be if you had this or that extra!

[franfran]

I came across the scanned copy of the brochure when I was looking for something else on the internet. I was doing a Google image search and it caught my eye when I saw the results.....

The wearing of seatbelts was made compulsory in New South Wales in 1971 (provided of course that the car is fitted with seat belts, which might not be the case if it is a classic). As for the fitting of seat belts, all cars first registered after a date in the early 1960s (I think it was 1 January 1964 but I'm not sure) had to be fitted with seat belts in the front. Fitting of seat belts in the rear became mandatory later (perhaps in 1971?)

The Freeway came out in the early 1960s, which would explain seat belts being offered as an extra. Interesting that although safety equipment was optional, a cigarette lighter was standard.

[franfran]

Saw a rather neat and tidy Hillman Hunter today....

[AnneCook]

Hi Fran and Brian

I've lived in Nottingham for over 40 years now and knew that Nottingham's main connections were with Jesse Boot (the chemists) Raleigh cycles and John Player (cigarettes) Ok then - not forgetting Robin Hood or William Booth lol.
What I only found out a month ago was that the a Humber car factory ( eventually taken over by Rootes - links to Chrysler - Hillman etc etc) existed in Beeston (just outside Nottingham) in the late 1800's to before the 2nd World War.

Car history on my doorstep

My home town was 20 miles from Luton where Vauxhall Motors was a major employer. It's also the reason why there were many trucks, vans and caravettes (sleeper vans or dormobiles) were called 'Bedfords'.

Best wishes all

[BrianS]

Gerald

Must admit I didn't know about the connection between Nottingham and Humber cars. Learning history is a never ending process I guess!

interesting note about Bedfords - English places seem to have featured quite a lot in vehicle names at one time. Certainly Austin and Morris have used them quite a bit on various models but I can't think of any other makes at the moment.

Brian

[franfran]

Here's a Bedford truck I found rusting away in Rosedale in Victoria's Gippsland district:

[BrianS]

Fran

I've recently been reading about, and watching video of, a dust storm in Arizona. I know that there was a very significant dust storm in Sydney in September 2009. Of course we don't have such excitement here in the UK but I wonder what your experience was of the Sydney event?

Did you find yourself driving in it? If so, what was it like? Did the dust have any damaging or corrosive effect on the cars? It reminds me too of fairly recent pictures I've seen of volcanic ash coating vehicles in Iceland. I do wonder how cars and their drivers cope with such extreme conditions.

Any readers experiences of such events would be interesting to read.

Brian

[franfran]

It was really weird. It had been rather windy that night, and when I woke up that morning (can't remember what time it was - probably about 6.45am) the light coming in to the house was orange. It was a little bit like the effect you get when there's a bushfire nearby, but it was much brighter and the colour was much more intense. It was so unreal I was wondering for a while if I was just having a dream. The sun looked like a fuzzy white ball in an orange sky and all the trees looked a sort of brownish colour. It started to clear up about mid morning, but it left behind a coating of red dust all over the place. As far as I know there wasn't anything corrosive or damaging about it - it just got everything dirty. I kept having to clean the stuff off just about everything in the house for several weeks afterwards. I've never seen anything like it before, although I believe there was something similar once in the 1930s.

Thankfully I didn't drive in it, as it was a weekday and I go to work by train, but it looked like it would have been pretty much like driving in fog - just a different colour....

[franfran]

My two latest spots:

[franfran]

We went for a drive to the Blue Mountains today. Must have been a day for getting old cars out, as we saw a:
Morris Mini Cooper
Leyland Mini Clubman
early 1960s Dodge
late 1950s Jaguar
Morris Minor
1970 (or thereabouts) GTHO Ford Falcon
1965 Ford Mustang coupe
Leyland P76
EH Holden

[franfran]

Got pics of the Minis and the Jaguar but haven't had time to download them yet....

[franfran]

Got pics of the Minis and the Jaguar but haven't had time to download them yet....