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I remember the number plate being on the Corniche I did lots ofJensens they were a nice motor good bird puller I was working on one in the showroom and when I turned round there was a woman standing

Not really relevant to this thread but to those who know about my ordeal with my first car, Pixie, the C3. She was bought from me on Tues for £150. I didn't want anything for it other than to no longe

I had a thames camper in the sixties me and my mate put a four speed gearbox in had the same problem we put a separate lever in between the drivers legs You had to make sure you were in neutral before

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when I worked for chick Wheelhouse on plains road I had to do an MOT on an old Rolls Royce it had rod operated brakes All we had then was the old throw meter to test the brakes I set off and turned left into Arnold road I started to apply the brakes only to find little if any retardation by now I had both feet on the brake pedal and was gaining speed rapidly heading down to Arnold with thoughts of carnage going through my head out of the corner of my eye I saw a road on my right going slightly uphill I began winding furiously at the wheel expecting a roll over all I could see was the silver lady on the bonnet and thinking if this is my last day I am certainly going out in style Much to my surprise it screeched round the turn on the door handles and rolled to a stop when we got it back to the workshop I could find no sign of any servo to help with the braking I contacted a chap who had more knowledge than me It turned out to be some weird form of clutch driven contraption off the side of the gearbox which used engine momentum to give the rods extra heave only Rolls Royce could have come up with something like that I wonder if Pete the salesman is still alive he would wander round the showroom with the drifters belting out I still know every word of Saturday night at the movies great times meeowed

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point taken giga but not being blessed with your god given wisdom I mistakenly assumed that Rolls Royce would have been more than capable of fitting an adequate braking system it was not until one reached around 30mph that the horrendous weight overcame the heath robinson contraption intended to help stop the car As to the road I think it was called Wembley rd or avenue where I did most of the tests as it was quiet and not wishing to be picking motorists out of the boot The road was level then ascended at the end I also recall wheelhouse buying a Rolls Royce Corniche convertible in the 70s and one dinner time he came rushing in shouting to get the jack I went outside to be met with the sight of his roller in middle of plains rd listing heavily to port on jacking it up I found that the rear drive shaft had exited the diff and with the wheel still turning had thrashed all the sub frame Trumans came and spirited it away on a covered trailer as it was still under warranty have never been a fan of rolls Royce after seeing a plate on the bulkhead saying suspension under licence by Citreon The latest Rolls looks like it has been driven into a brick wall perhaps it still uses the same braking system Ha ha meowed

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The Brakes on Silver Shadows and Silver Spirits still had gearbox driven brake servos. Chrysler automatic gearboxes. I don't know about Rolls Royces later than that - and I don't want to either.

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I remember in the US back in the 70's Chrysler used to advertise that their auto boxes were the best in the world. They had an ad running that said "you can even throw them in to reverse at 70 MPH" without a problem. At the time the blanket speed limit was 55 and I had a Chrysler Cordoba. I took it onto the interstate and tried it at 55 and it worked a treat :biggrin:

It was a Hertz car so it didn't matter to me.

Beardall's was the VW dealer on Loughborough Road

I used to hang around with one of Beardall's boys - we used to get in to serious trouble!

They had a beautiful house in Attenborough.

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I remember the number plate being on the Corniche I did lots ofJensens they were a nice motor good bird puller I was working on one in the showroom and when I turned round there was a woman standing there and she said what does that lever do I said its automatic you put it in drive and off you go She replied what it changes gear itself I said yes She went straight into the office and signed up for it The place was an absolute gold mine the best pitch in Nottingham Pete the salesman reckoned there was over a million pounds in the showroom that was 1975 Some of the motors I remember are Maserati bora mjd engine job jensens E types 350sl mercs firebirds dodge super bee Rollers Aston db5 Lambos Fabulous job loved every minute of it we had another chap in the showroom I think he was called Bob he had two side bits of hair real flying officer kite he would go in the washroom at lunch brushing these two bits into a kind of DA then spraying them with hair spray So Pete filled the bottle with Lockheed brake fluid We were hiding in the showroom to await the result it wasn't long before we heard a loud shout of you bar stewards it sent all his neck red Ha ha meeowed

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I remember Wheelhouse being on Mapperley Plains near the Tree Tops pub, opposite Gedling Miners Welfare. That is now "executive housing" after changing hands a few times as a car sales plot.

Sytner were closer to town, between the reservoir and Woodthorpe Drive, and backing onto the old brickyard. Gouldings moved in there after Sytner moved to Huntingdon Street. The building is currently World of Mowers, but there were plans recently to turn it into a fast-food drive-in

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Top end of Woodthorpe Drive is the one where I remember Sytners until the late 80s.

Re: the site near Tree Tops; at a later stage didn't that become a dealer who specialised in diesel cars - when such things were fairly uncommon.

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I think the bloke who specialised in diesels was Charlie Gooch. I once bought a Ford Sierra ex-company car from him when he was selling from the Jet station on the A614, before he moved to the Plains. That was a lovely car for the money!

As I recall, he was also heavily involved with supplying/maintaining fairground rides.

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can you remember gorse hill garage now a mini market it was run by two brothers who constantly argued and somewhere in between there and wheelhouse the maggot farm The chap who ran it had an old ex wd Hillman pick up and it was alive all over the floor and everywhere they refused to look at it because of the stench years ago I had a similar experience with a Bedford doormobile they sometimes sheared the steering column gear lever off usual procedure was to clamp a pair of mole grips on the column and drive it back I jumped in to be met with an horrendous stink you could not get a breath it was full of pig swill the boss would not let it in the garage Meeowed

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# 373 I'm glad you said that Wheelhouse was near the Tree Tops Rob because that's what I thought, but was also wondering if I was getting mixed up with Speeds, the Volvo dealer.

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  • 2 weeks later...

My 1912 edition of The Michelin Guide to the British Isles lists the garages in Nottingham that were also Michelin stockists:

R. Cripps & Co Ltd, Lower Parliament Street, agent for Wolseley, Ford, Delauney-Belville, Talbot and Berliet

F. Mitchell, Derby Road agent for Deasy, Enfield and Rover

A.R. Atkey & Co Ltd, Trent Street, agent for Austin, Renault, Ford, Napier, De Dion and Gladiator

Empire Garage Ltd, Mansfield Road, agent for Belsize and Arrol-Johnston

E & C Astle, Forest Road

W. Stevens, 299 Arkwright Street - Motor Cycles

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  • 3 weeks later...

They had an outlet on the Melton road ar Tollerton. I bought a beautiful 6 months old Jet Black Mini from there.

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  • 8 months later...
On 12/8/2010 at 6:54 AM, Ashley said:

There was one of the "bomb site boys" quite well known in Basford, (that well known I've forgotten his name! Bob something or other, unusual surname too) am sure others will know of him, esp Craig Strongman, had various sites over the years plus a scrap yard at and behind the former five ways garage. But the "best" (some will say cheeky ist) was a guy living on the ring road in ex council semi with tarmac'd front garden, had various cars up for sale, sometimes 5 or 6 at a time c/w with proper dealers "One Owner" "Low Mileage" "P/E Welcome" etc plus price screen stickers on said tarmac and wide pavement outside! We used to joke re petrol pumps being installed and tyre fitting bay in his garage, needless to say didn't last long! but an interesting episode.

Bob Churchill was a well known bomb site boy in Basford...

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On 11/19/2015 at 8:55 PM, meeowed said:

wheelhouse moved to Nuthall rd but I don't think he did any good there the site is now Halfords

Chick Wheelhouse died last year...he retired from the car trade a few years ago when Hlafords made an offer that he and his osn couldn`t refuse..

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