Heralding a Mystery

As someone who appreciates a bit of left-wing satire, I follow The Daily Mash on Facebook.

But, as a UK car nerd, I was somewhat irked by this which appeared on my feed:

Every UK car nerd knows that they stopped building Triumph Heralds well before the 1976 that that P registration indicates.

So what is the story and why does that number plate look so familiar to me?

Was it one of the several "driven" by Thora Hird playing Edie in Last of The Summer Wine?

I put driven in quotes because

a) I don't know if Thora actually drove the cars herself

b) Whoever was driving, the joke was that Edie was crap at driving

But, in either case - no:

So, if it isn't Edie's, then I must know it from somewhere else.  A search or for "Red Triumph Herald Convertible" brought up no more images of it - not even the one from the Daily Mash piece.  A search for the registration number did bring up that photo though - but bugger all else.  Search by Image didn't help either - it just brought up some similar cars plus some Imps and Simcas.

So, what does mycarcheck tell us?

It tells us it really is a Trumph Herald from 1976:

But, of course, it can't be.  Can it?

The Government MOT check site tells us more.  It tells us that it is a 1969 car that was first registered in 1976.

Incidentally, there are only 5 MOTs recorded on there from 2013 to 2018 (when the rules were changed and MOTs were no longer required on cars over 40 years old.)  It looks like it was only doing about 100 miles in between those MOTs so I guess that it just goes to car shows every so often.

So why wasn't in registered for the first seven years of its life?

Sometimes it has been stuck in a car showroom or private collection and sometimes it has been a military vehicle.  Surely the military wouldn't be interested in a convertible Herald would they?

Except that is the wrong colour and it is left-hand drive.

So not the one Daily Mash have found.

So where did they find it?

And why does it look familiar?

I haven't the foggiest.

A Cruise in San Francisco

A queer story...

...from NBC.

About a Chevrolet Bolt very much like this one:

Owned by GM subsidiary Cruise, it was an autonomous taxi undergoing testing.  And it was driving about at night with no headlights on.

Which piqued the interest of the local constabulary.

So they pulled it over only to discover that it had no driver.  It then drove off - through an intersection - before stopping again.

Notice that I used the phrase "it was driving" not "it was being driven"

Now a car with no driver might not need lights itself - but other road users and pedestrians might like to see it coming. Apparently, when it got pulled over, rather than calling its lawyer, it alerted staff back at base - or "Cruise Control" and one of them decided to move it to a "safer location".

If you have Facebook and want to see the brilliant Trevor Noah's take on this - click here.

The High Road

So high you need a ladder.

I'm sharing a short bit of dashcam footage today from the M53.

It came not long after the electronic signs were telling everybody to slow down to 40mph.

Not that anybody did.

It was because of a broken-down bus on the hard shoulder - not because of this guy:

Here's a still:

I did a quick search on the Internet just to make sure that nothing untoward had come to him.

It looks like nothing untoward has come to him.

But ladders on the M53 is certainly not a new thing.

This one is from (despite the time-stamp) 2018:

Looks like a bit of sensible driving from the dashcam-owner and another driver has allowed the ladder-loser to safely retrieve it and it is probable that an accident has been avoided.

 

Meanwhile, somebody else lost a ladder in 2020 - the comments under the post on the Motorway Police Facebook Page are brilliant.

Bangers and Dash

I normally make a point of not clicking on adverts that appear on my Facebook timeline.

Unfortunately, being a gentleman of a certain age, I can't resist Sarah Crabtree.

So I was rather shocked and disappointed to find out that she is now Sales Director for Evoke Classic Cars rather than office general and tat sorter for Mathewson's Car Auctions.

Unless she is doing both jobs.

I guess I'll find out on Thursday when the new series of Bangers and Cash returns to the Yesterday channel.

She appears to drive a brown Morris Ital now:

...a quirky choice - I wonder which employer she sourced it from.

I'm not sure exactly what Evoke do - there is some auctioneering involved in there somewhere.  They are based in Dagenham which is why they refer to Sarah as from "Up Norf" which I guess should be pronounced with a Essex accent rather than a patronising faux-Yorkshire one (that would be "oop North")

They mention that she is off the telly but don't mention Mathewsons or Bangers and Cash anywhere.  And there is a bit of a dig in their website too:

"You can choose a stand-alone commercial auction house run by shareholders that you’ll have a transactional relationship with. Don’t misunderstand us. There is nothing wrong with that. Most of them are good, very good in fact and if you choose the right auction house you will not go wrong.

Or you can choose something different."

Hmmm - OK.  Not sure a business having shareholders would put me off using them.

Meanwhile, I can't find Sarah anywhere on the fancy new Mathewson's website.

And Derek doesn't look too happy - is he the new tat sorter?

Picketing

I was minded to do a Post on Thursday because two different things piqued my interest:

One was this Car+Driver article about the latest of many many many special edition Minis - this one being the 1499GT

The other was the return of Bangers & Cash to TV for a new series

But which to do?

The new Mini is an homage to the old Mini 1275GT although it is really just the stripe along the bottom that they have in common:

I prefer the old one:

But it was while looking for a picture of a black example to match the new car, that I found this picture:

It's a Wood & Pickett version of the 1275GT - Wood & Pickett being coachbuilders/car converters.  The latest evidence of their existence that I can find is this article from 2011.  I suspect that they are no more but would be happy to be corrected.

That picture reminded me of a BBC Archives Facebook Post that a friend of mine once stuck onto my timeline with Lesley Judd driving around the Blue Peter studio in one marveling at its luxury vinyl roof. Click here if you are a Facebook user who wants to see her.

Now Wood & Pickett converted several different cars, specialising in Minis and other BLMC/British Leyland/Austin-Rover vehicles including my first car - the Triumph Dolomite- this is their version:

Not sure about their paint choice though - and neither was Derek Mathewson, boss of Mathewson's Auctions when he sold it in this week's series 3 episode 1 of Bangers & Cash.  He also sold a barely used Triumph Toledo.  I always watch Bangers & Cash - I'm waiting to see if Wayne Carini turns up stood at the back of the room one week and I think I'm in love with Sarah Crabtree but it was these these two Triumphs that made me want to publish this week.

So, both stories neatly linked.  My work here is done.

Sounds Like Brewer's Telling Porkies

Well he is a used car salesman. 

I am a big fan of Wheeler Dealers - both the Edd era and the Ant era.

So I follow them on Facebook.

So I was somewhat perplexed to see this posting today:

Now Mike Brewer is obviously a car guy.

I am also a car guy.  I must be, I spend time writing a car blog that only 7 people read. And, speaking as a car guy, I am pretty confident in saying that things car guys find the opposite of interesting include:

• SUVs that farmers wouldn't be interested in
• Chinese Budget motors
• Bog-Standard Electric Cars

So I am incredibly sceptical when Mike Brewer says,

"MG has launched two new models, expanding the range to include an all-new EV and a plug-in hybrid variant of the HS SUV. Having seen the MG Motor UK ZS EV at the NEC last year, I can't wait to have a test drive in this. What do you think?"

I think MG must be paying you an awful lot of money to post that - it makes you less credible than Dominic Cummings.

The comments mostly though pick up on the fact that these cars look like a VW parked next to a Mazda.  All cross-overs look the same anyway but here I have got onto Paint and produced a VW parked next to a Mazda:

They've got a point.

I Don't Like Farming

Actually I DO like farming.  It's like-farming I don't like.

Here is an excellent example:

Where to begin?

 

This Facebook page, created on Friday, is called "Ford Focus 4x4" - that's not even a recognised phrase in the world of Ford.

 

Then they actually name A CHILD who has allegedly fraudulently won the car in a competition.

 

Then they claim it is a brand new Ford Focus when it is on a '68 plate - the '69s have been out for two months now much to my amusement.  And we had the '19s in between.  Turns out it was first registered on October 30th last year.  It really is an ST-Line X though!

 

They've changed the deadline time too - it said 1pm when I saw it this morning.

 

The annoying thing is that this has had 43000 comments and 52000 shares - plus 22000 "reactions".  Only 350 of those reactions are the Ha-Ha reaction for those who have seen through it - which means that there are a hell of a lot of people out there who have been fooled.

 

And looking at the comments, they really have been fooled.  Including those who are trying to fool the foolers - "Winning this would really help us as we don't have a reliable car to get my disabled daughter's wheelchair in."

 

I have reported this post to Facebook.  It would be nice to think that this would be taken down but I'm not holding my breath.  Facebook are too busy at the moment selling misleading political ads.

A bit of a Logistical problem for Morgan

There is a very funny post being shared by the Gammons on Facebook.

Incidentally, did you know there is a Gammon Road in Wisconsin?

For those of you not on Facebook, the text is thus:

For those of you who are on Facebook, the comments from the Pro-EU group who have shared it are very good.

Not sure where we are going to find the £10 Trillion Pounds from.

Or what you are supposed to store in a Euro crate.

Or how buying existing houses will solve the chronic housing shortage.

I'm pretty sure that prisoners don't each have a PC and they only get daily phone calls if someone smuggles in a mobile up their bottom - not something I would advise a pensioner to do.

But I do like the bit about cows.

Meanwhile, it will be very difficult to buy British cars.  While it is true that cars are still currently being built in Britain, the Germans own Mini, Rolls and Bentley.  Meanwhile, Nissan, Honda & Toyota profits go back to Japan, Jaguar Land-Rover is Indian and Vauxhall is now French.

I don't see many over-50s (and I include myself in this) tearing around in BAC Monos or Ariel Atoms.

So that leaves Morgan!

They are going to need a bigger factory.

Slide Rules

I read something someone posted on Facebook this morning.

That's not unusual - I often do that.

It asked me to share it to 15 other people.

Also unfortunately not unusual - I've posted about that sort of thing before.  It irritates me and makes me immediately suspicious of whatever it is that they want me to share - which in this case was a plausible warning about using cruise-control in the wet causing aqua-planing.

In this case it was an unnamed woman who had wrecked her car - of course there was no link to an actual story of it actually happening.

 

The article argued that a slipping wheel would cause cruise-control to think the car wasn't going as fast as it should be so it would accelerate to compensate.

 

Yes, I can see that - I'm still not sharing a Facebook article that tells me to share it though - there's still something fishy going on.

 

It's like those Posts that tell you to Copy-and-Paste their text onto your own Timeline - DON'T SHARE!  I eventually found out what that was about -  it has two benefits for the Scammer:

• It's harder for Facebook to delete 20000 copies of an article rather than one article with all its shares.
• It allows the Scammer to include an easily Google-Searchable phrase in order to identify 20000 gullible people.

Anyway, I did a bit of digging on this rainy aquaplaney thing.  I found this most excellent piece by Joe Kenwright on www.motoring.com.au which not only describes where cruise-control came from and how it works but also why you shouldn't use it in the wet and also why the Post I read this morning is complete and utter nonsense.

 

So, if you want to make wet motorways a safer place - share my article far and wide.

Old News

I really like Wheeler Dealers.

And on Facebook, I have really liked Wheeler Dealers.

But most of their posts point at a website called musclecarszone.com

And, while I think it does have some interesting articles on there, it is really very rarely that I will click on one.  Mainly because the website itself can only be described (by me at least) as very tacky due to the awful clickbait advertising you get on there:

And if you're using a geriatric laptop like mine, the page takes forever to come up.

I  guess this advertising must have some effect because while I am never tempted to watch the video that billionaires in my locality don't want me to watch or to find out which celebrity I wouldn't expect to be dead is actually dead while a picture of a non-dead celebrity is luring me in - there must be enough people out there who do click on them to justify their presence.

Any road up, the musclecarszone article that Wheeler Dealers on Facebook pointed me at today didn't seem to add up - so I clicked on it.

Apparently, "This Lady Has Been Driving The Same 1957 Chevrolet Car For 53 Years! 116,000 Miles On The Odometer"  - which is the article in the Screenshot above.

However, it doesn't take a Degree in Statistics (sad but true - I have a degree in Statistics) to realise that a 1957-bought car 53 years later only takes us to 2010.

For some reason, musclecarszone.com have taken a YouTube Posting from six-ish years ago, taken the commentary to be the text, and published it as a new story.

It is an interesting story.  I watched and enjoyed an old lady talking about her old car.  It's a Bel Air - not that the article tells you that - presumably because the YouTube Posting doesn't tell you that.

But it ain't new news.

I suppose that at least it also isn't fake news.

But either way, come on Mike, give us some real news (and without the dodgy ads - I don't care that at least 12 celebrities don't wear panties - honest!)

Click Here for Free Money

There's a stretch of road in South Manchester that runs parallel to the rail tracks between Brooklands Station & Sale Station.

I once raced a tram up it.

And won.

If I'd received this email shortly afterwards I might have been worried...

...for a fraction of a second.

You don't get speeding tickets via email.

Plus, who's ever heard of a 25mph speed limit in the UK?

I'm quite intrigued by how these scammers are targetting their victims though - do they have a list of email addresses for the Sale area?  Or do they just send them out randomly knowing that someone will click on the link so that they can prove that they were actually in Dundee at the time of the alleged offence?

I learned about this one because I follow the brilliant Hoax-Slayer Website via Facebook.

Specifically, here is their take on this scam.

Now, talking of Facebook scams...

• Nobody is giving away a new Range-Rover, Christmas Hamper or R.V. - look up like-farming on Hoax-Slayer.
• No Muslim shop assistant has ever refused to serve anyone in uniform - these are lies made up by right-wing morons such as Britains First.
• 95% of people won't fail to name a band with an "A" in their name - unless the listeners to Radio W-SNOT in Boston are particularly thick.
• You are not a genius if you can answer 9 out of 10 questions.
• Clicking on a particular link won't make your jaw drop.

If any Facebook article tells me to share it - I never do.

By the way, if you've asked me to post something to my time-line for an hour - I did that, it's just you didn't happen to be logged in during that hour. And we all know which people will do that - they are the ones with true hearts / are true friends / really care etc.etc.

So next time, you read something unbelievable on Facebook, don't believe it - check it out! 

Unless it's Nigerian money-laundering.  Those are real.

Admiral Not Being Admirable

This what a female admiral looks like:

Her name is Michelle J Howard.

This what an actress playing an admiral looks like:

Her name appears to be Lucy Barker.  She appears in the annoying adverts for Admiral Insurance.

I suppose their logo could be interpreted as male or female since I'm sure most Navys would insist on the hair being concealed under the hat:

But it can't just be that which makes our Admiral admiral look unbelieveable.

Unfortunately, this isn't the only piece of nonsense produced by them lately.

We also have Admiral First Car Quote!

Which supposedly links your Facebook profile to your car insurance quote so work out what sort of driver you will be.

By the way, here's my new Facebook Profile picture:

My hobbies involve driving slowly on Sundays and good car maintenance.

Facebook do not like this idea - and, as a lot of news outlets (including the BBC) are saying, they have blocked it.  I don't blame them.

Admiral's Q&A on their website has an interesting question and answer today:

 I hope they're not too embarrassed by all this.

(In case you are not a lepidopterist, that's a Red Admiral)

The Lighter Side of Car Crime

At least if you're not the owner of this Range-Rover that is:

Today's BBC story is here.  I seriously hope that whoever owns this is a love-cheat.  It's not even an ordinary Range-Rover - it's a Revere Range-Rover.  If you haven't heard of Revere (like I hadn't) they are one of these up-market tuner/bespoke customiser companies a bit like Overfinch.  The story first started trending on Twitter.

Meanwhile, yesterday, the BBC ran with this story.  It also involves Twitter.  It is about a car thief being disturbed while trying to perpetrate his crime.  This caused him to leave behind his bag.  This bag contained a balaclava, a glass hammer and a couple of packets of popular cheesy snacks.  Cheesy snacks that look a lot nicer  in real life than in this picture tweeted by the investigating police officer:

I have to say, I definitely prefer Quavers to Wotsits but since both appear in the picture, I'm sure the officers enjoyed them whilst also taunting the criminal on Twitter, first offering them back, then admitting they had eaten them whilst extracting his DNA from the balaclava.

Police with a sense of humour.

I like that.

I also like the New Zealand Police who have taken part in the current "Running Man" Internet challenge craze (Nope, never heard if it before tonight) whereby they dance to a particular track and then challenge others to do the same.

Here's their very good effort:

And they then went on to challenge several Australian Police Forces plus the NYPD and the Isles of Scilly Police.

The NYPD responded thusly:

But why pick on the Isles of Scilly Police?  After all, the Isles of Scilly are a very small group of islands off the Cornish Coast at Lands End.

Well their response is probably a clue:

I note that the gauntlet has been laid down by https://www.facebook.com/NZPolice/ for a dance off with us. I also note that they can draw on a supporting cast of thousands of officers and staff whereas we have a modest team of five and occasionally a cat. Our combined age on this small rock in the Atlantic (including feline years) is over 300. Ours is not to dance or body pop ever since the thespian PC Mat 'Flashdance' Collier left these shores several years ago. When we do so, we now do levity in the medium of cake.
We wish NZ Police the very best with their recruitment drive. It certainly is a remarkable career even if you have to do it upside down dancing on the ceiling.

Sgt Colin 'Dad Dance' Taylor

And their Facebook page is well worth a like.

Viral News

Mike Brewer's been getting a bit of stick today.  But only from a couple of people who you would never invite to your party.  It involves this picture which he posted on Facebook with a comment about how Curt should have asked for a replacement jacket.

Many hundreds of his fans reassured Mike and posted suitable comments against those with a sense-of-humor by-pass.  I deliberately spelled it like that because it seemed to be Americans who didn't get the joke.

I say "seemed" because it was actually two English blokes who put the main comments up there.  They claimed children could be upset at the joke.  Well children under 13 shouldn't be on Facebook and children 13 and over would have found it funny.

So there.

I guess it must have had an effect though because today he said, "What a day! trolled because of a guys name badge, abused cause I post too many times! and angered people who didn't get an answer in a clearly posted 10 minute Q&A which went on for 12 minutes with over 50 questions answered...please..if you don't like this page/me or what I do..please unfollow me.."

He does post a lot.  But that's fine by me.

Anyway, the fans reassured him some more.

Don't know if there was enough activity to call it viral though.

So here's some really viral news:

Tata to rename Zica car over virus woes

It is the headline to this BBC story. Tata are having to rename their new car being launched at the Auto Expo in New Delhi because its name sounds like the virus affecting The Americas at the moment.

 Meanwhile, it looks like an MG.

This is perhaps more horrifying news, MG are going to be selling an SUV!  Here's the MG section of carnewschina.com where the story can be found.

It will be called the MG GS Rui Teng or maybe something different if it comes to British shores.  Which I hope it doesn't.  I've got nothing against the car per se.

Except IT'S AN MG SUV!


The name Zica, meanwhile, is meant to be short for "Zippy Car" so how about they rename it "Highly Intense Vehicle"?

Or HIV for short.

Doncaster Rovers

...and other cars badly parked appear a lot in this Facebook site.  The Mail pointed me at it.

For those of you who don't know where Doncaster is, it's about 15 miles from Pontefract.

For those of you who haven't joined the Facebook revolution yet, here are the sort of pictures that appear:

...or a  not very smartly parked
Smart car.










I'm a little uneasy about pictures of Police Cars though - whoever parked this may be extremely lazy & selfish - or they may be on serious police business - or, in these modern day times maybe even disabled?

As ever, The Mail want to put their slant on things.  They start by asking "Are these Britain's worst drivers?"

No, although they may score badly as Britain's worst parkers.

They then have the following list:

• Facebook page shames dreadful parking in Doncaster
• It invites users to send in pictures of shoddily-placed cars
• Irate drivers often go on site to defend their parking
• Site also has a serious message about the dangers of blocked pavements

to which I say:

• True
• Yes, also true
• Not that I noticed
• Definitely not that I noticed

The Facebook page (entitled "Parking Like A Twat In Doncaster") has about 8500 likes including one from Metro's Car Blog - not bad considering it was only started this April.  It shouldn't be confused with, "Spotted :Parking Like a Twat" which seems to do the same job but more nationally and with added car crashes which is not the point of the exercise.  That site has over 55000 likes and only started last month.  Impressive but I think I'll stick with the original and best.  It does give you the option of having your badly-parked car removed from the site though - which Doncaster's doesn't seem to do.

Parking on the pavement seems to the current issue where I live where we have been treated to this story with this picture:

It comes with the caption, "Cllr Harry Smith ‘ticketing’ a car which is obstructing the pavement, forcing a young mum to push her buggy and child into the road."  Don't know the significance of it being a "young" mum - maybe older mothers have narrower pushchairs.  Cllr Harry Smith is clearly not a Tory councillor or he would be stood pointing at the gap between the car and the wall - or maybe the front of the car and the kerb.

 

Instead, he is placing a leaflet on the car that is designed to look like a parking ticket.

 

It was very fortunate for his argument that a badly-parked car was at the same place as a young mum and a photographer while he had some of those leaflets with him - and I bet the owner of that Mitsubishi is glad this didn't happen in Doncaster - he'd have looked a right twat.

A Kind-Hearted Traffic Warden

That can't be right!

But it is. He took pity on a Falcon.No, not a Ford Falcon - the bird of prey type of falcon. He rescued it on New Year's Day in Birkenhead when it was knackered after being blown about in the gales. The story is covered here on the Liverpool Echo site with a nice comment added by a reader at the end. Being Birkenhead, it could be the same git who booked my wife a few years back when she was three minutes late getting back to her car with a load of shopping and two bickering children. I appealed against a £60 fine for three minutes but the Council weren't interested - and they wonder why traffic wardens need stories like this to try and boost their image. Here is the bird-loving one, his name is Lee Gallagher and he is releasing the bird back into the grey skies at Hamilton Square:
The BBC also had that story, but since I posted last month about how I am finished with the BBC - I can't really link to them now, can I?

Then, on Monday, I finally picked up the new copy of Top Gear Magazine which was delivered last week but I haven't had chance to look at, what with Christmas and everything, and I saw that the new series of Top Gear TV starts on January 29th. Yippee! Well, maybe not "yippee", maybe more "I'll quite look forward to that"

The Christmas special didn't grab me the way Top Gear usually does and I'm finding I'm enjoying Fifth Gear a lot more than TG nowadays - is my disillusionment with Auntie Beeb affecting my motoring televisual enjoyment - or am I just getting bored with TG? I don't know - I'll let you know after the new series.

Then, yesterday, I got my annual letter from Richard & James extolling to me the virtues of subscribing to my next year with Top Gear Magazine - they really ought to change that letter - it's getting very stale. Anyway, could this be a good chance to show my displeasure with The Beeb?

Damn it, I still really enjoy the magazine and I pay for it with Tesco Clubcard Reward tokens so they'll not be making much out of that so a new subscription it is.

I've given up on their blogs though now - I've found like-minded people (and so far no trolls) on Facebook which leads me, rather neatly, to the fact I've joined Facebook!

I've set up a Metro's Car Blog page but I'll just monitor how that goes along and see whether or not it's worth keeping it going. I've put my two favoutite pictures of Vicki Butler-Henderson on there for starters.

And, while we're on the subject of social networking, I think I finally understand why anyone who isn't Stephen Fry might want to Tweet on Twitter. "Friends" are actually interested and comment when you add stuff to your Facebook wall so it's the same logic. I've not played with Twitter yet - maybe a job for next New-Years but someone who does is NASCAR driver Kasey Kahne.

I'll leave you with this story from last week from Autoguide.com