can anyone remind me if it was the law to remove the distributor rotor arm if a car was parked so it couldn't be used by the enemy. I can remember my dad doing it on our Austin 10 sometime around 1956! Was this a carryover from the war.? Thanks
I do remember that cars were put up on blocks, to take the weight off the tyres, which otherwise would end up flattened on one side - square wheels! We bought our first car (a Standard Ten) in 1959, from a priest who had laid it up during the war. The old chap converted the £35 we paid into gin, which he took back to his housekeeper.
I have digitised copies of my local newspaper for the war period and the police court reports have the offence in them in most war years although as the war progresses the result is usually a guilty plea and a notional fine. In rural areas farmers were given special leeway in operating vehicles if they could prove that it was essential to food production. One wheeze was to have a big bag of say seed dressing on the passenger seat
You ripped him off! My Dad sold his Standard Ten (which had been laid up/hidden in a barn during the war) in 1960 for £100. He was right chuffed as he only paid £120 for it in 1938. I think he forgot about inflation. Tim
My first car, a prewar Wolseley six cylinder job, cost only £35 in 1961. A bit more up-market than a Standard Ten, even if it did run a big end on my first longish trip! Chris
I didn't rip the old boy off, here is another part of the story. I was at the counter in the International Stores, listening to the conversation between the priest and the store manager, who I knew. The old chap had decided to give up motoring and had offered the car to a local dealer, it went something like this: 'it's not the £35 that I object to, it's the fact that he will make money on it, I would happily sell it for that to someone who would use it' With that the manager winked at me and the deal was done. The problem was I didn't have a driving lecence, but that's another story!
