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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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On 10/17/2015 at 5:22 PM, Raymond said:

Hi bill thanks for your letter to let you know freda making a recovery after falling and braking her hip with referece to the cruser it was oned by ernest watts he was resident there he was also a member of the speedboat cliub and raced against us our boat was called tarka

 

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Hi Ray nice to see one of the old speed boat photos I remember you starting watts cruiser it had twin engines  we had to take 5 gallon jerry cans down to fill it we had some great days outside the ferry boat pub at stoke bardolph with the speed boat racing  also the spread that the boss put on at Christmas  the first time I got drunk and have gone downhill ever since ha ha great times ray we had the best of it in those days   meeowed

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Hillman minx and other rootes group motors came with the heater and radios in a big cardboard box as an extra you got very little for your money in those days  The heater pump was driven off the back of the fan belt  There was also a thing called a bray heater that you could buy  This was a pipe that went into the bottom hose which could be plugged into the mains and preheated the water system for cold morning starts  Also some 1940 austins came with a built in jacking system called jackhall worked hydraulic rams on the axle  The best technology advance was the extinction of sidevalve engines they were a nightmare   meeowed

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My father briefly had a Citroen DS back in the 60"s. This had a very advanced system whereby the car could jack itself up. You put the jack into the appropriate slot by the wheel and extended it to reach the ground. You then switched on the engine, pulled a lever and the car, through its hydraulic suspension, would lift itself at the appropriate corner. Unfortunately this happened on a very hot day and the jack sank into the soft tarmac so we had to borrow a proper jack to lift it up. Never buy a French car! 

 

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#401 #403

I was an apprentice at Siddon's garage Mansfield Road from 1961 to 1964 working on Citroen ID, DS and Safaris

amazingly advanced vehicles considering they were introduced in the mid 50s.

 

The hydro-pneumatic suspension could be set at 3 pre-determined ride heights, the lowest setting gave a hard ride for heavy right boot stuff and the highest setting would allow driving through quite deep water or rough terrain. The method of changing a wheel was to raise the suspension to its max. fix a jack in the centre of the sill, lower the ride height to it's lowest setting which lifts the wheels on the jacked side. in order to remove a rear wheel on the ID and DS the rear wing had to be removed which was a simple one bolt operation.

 

The safari which was introduced in the late 50s was a full 7/8 seater.

 

 

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I do recollect driving it and, as you say, it was a very technologically advanced car. I knew Mr. Siddons and also his son, Ben, with whom I worked with when we were both training in the accountancy profession.  

We both qualified around 1969 and he went off to work in South Africa.

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Ben senior used to gather his shooting party at the garage I think a young Chick Wheelhouse was one of them - resplendent in plus4s and Labradors, on his return he used to hang his hares and pheasants in the stores. Young Ben I liked, nice to know where he went. His sister was nice too Penny? Did you work at the garage?

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No, I worked with Ben junior at Hubbart Durose and Pain, Chartered Accountants. He's back in the UK now and lives in the Home Counties. I also knew Chick Wheelhouse quite well from when I used to stop for fuel on Mapperley Plains, then at Gorse Hill, where he had Lotus, on Lortas Road at Basford, where there was a large underground storage area and at his final place on Nuthall Road. I saw him a few years ago but now he's no longer with us.

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I was saddened to here of the demise of chick wheelhouse I worked for him in 1975 one of the best  You never knew what you were working on next from rollers to American motors The pitch was a absolute gold mine I still recall Pete his salesman playing endless tapes of the drifters Saturday night at the movies I came to him from one of the coop retail garages and chick said he thought they would wipe out the motor trade in Nottingham  He couldn't believe it when I told him about the numptys who used to run it  I can still hear his most used phrase when you found any problems on one of his motors  No don't tell me that Bill  A lovely man real old school boss  I had the hots for petrol girl Karen at the time and was late back from lunch every day how on earth he put up with me I don't know I left when a job offer in Australia came out of the blue and never saw him again    meeowed

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Was the  rotary engined NSU the RO80 (Wankel engine) good concept that dindn't really catch on, I think Norton used a rotary engine in their JPS racing bike in the eighties

 

Rog

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On 14/09/2015 at 8:28 AM, FLY2 said:

Re # 317, I well remember that formidable woman at the Albert Hotel, I was told by an uncle of mine that she once broke up a fight and carried our the participants, one under each arm.

 

On 15/09/2015 at 9:14 AM, meeowed said:

Vera continued to serve in the tryst bar at the Strathdon for a while but her rather abrasive manner did not sit well with the more up market customers. the last time I saw her was many years ago shopping at Sneinton market she would walk round the tables and deliver a clip round the ear saying that was for nothing wait until you do something. A woman who would have no time for the pc riddled crowd of today we shall not see her type again sadly. meowed

 

I remember that "formidable" woman at the Albert Hotel and later the Strathdon as being called Veronica, rather than Vera. She was, indeed, formidable and there was NEVER any trouble in any bar run by her. I saw her stop a fight once by picking two blokes up, cracking their heads together and literally chucking them on to the pavement outside.

 

I remember her name in particular as a group of jazz fans went on a chara trip to Powys Castle in Welshpool (organised and driven by Johnny Johnston - any memories anyone?) and in the botanical gardens there I saw a plastic plant label for a species "Veronica hulkeana". I thought this very apt so I pinched it with the intention of presenting it to her.

 

I did present her with the label - with great trepidation, I might add - considering her reputation and the "hulk" part of the name on the label. Somewhat surprisingly she took as though I was giving her ten quid. She softened towards me after that and I managed to cut through the facade that she presented to the public and I found a very nice, kind, soft-hearted woman.

 

Everyone I knew seemed to have heard of Veronica. I'm somewhat surprised she's not one of the Nottingham legends.

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On 13/03/2018 at 8:41 AM, plantfit said:

Was the  rotary engined NSU the RO80 (Wankel engine) good concept that dindn't really catch on, I think Norton used a rotary engine in their JPS racing bike in the eighties

 

Rog

It is a shame that the rotary engine did not succeed...as Catfan pointed out, the seals were not durable enough. The reason that a rotary engine would be more efficient than a piston is easy to understand. With the rotary engine nothing goes backwards. My hobbies are indoor rowing and cycling. For a given heart rate I can produce more watts on the bike than the rower, in spite of recruiting more muscle groups on the rower. When rowing the body has to move forwards and backwards, reciprocating like a piston and the forward movement produces wasted/negative wattage.

There was a story circulating a while back, maybe just another urban myth,  that the rotary engine seal problem had been solved but that the patents had been bought out to save the massif investment required to change from piston engines??

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Another benefit of the rotary engine was the fact it had very few moving parts, and the displacement was tiny but was categorized as a higher cc than it actually was. The engine is small and revs freely and very smoothly. If only they could sort those rotor tips!!

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You have to give them credit for perseverance if nothing else, brother in law has a RX8 and it gos like stink. But it use's a bit of oil and it's not done a great milage. Still very impressive performance from technically a 1300 cc engine!!.

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