An insight on 70’s 4x4
Discussion
I don’t normally watch YouTube videos all the way through, but this is brilliant.
Mods, I hope linking is ok? If not, could you delete the link and people can search ‘Top Gear 4WD 1979’.
https://youtu.be/M5wBHmHGlGs?si=xIYObwkwBbTH64pf
Mods, I hope linking is ok? If not, could you delete the link and people can search ‘Top Gear 4WD 1979’.
https://youtu.be/M5wBHmHGlGs?si=xIYObwkwBbTH64pf
ChevronB19 said:
I don’t normally watch YouTube videos all the way through, but this is brilliant.
Mods, I hope linking is ok? If not, could you delete the link and people can search ‘Top Gear 4WD 1979’.
https://youtu.be/M5wBHmHGlGs?si=xIYObwkwBbTH64pf
Cracking, proper top gear, the army crashed!Mods, I hope linking is ok? If not, could you delete the link and people can search ‘Top Gear 4WD 1979’.
https://youtu.be/M5wBHmHGlGs?si=xIYObwkwBbTH64pf
Many years ago - about the time this was filmed perhaps, or maybe even up to ten years earlier - it was a Boxing Day TV regular to have contest involving production saloons, vehicles like Land Rovers, and Army vehicles. It was a sort of Army vs Civvies. I recall only three moments and they were a Triumph 2000 saloon which failed to complete the course unsurprisingly, a Mini Moke twin engined model which had a Mini engine and transmission at each end linked so that they worked as a synchronised unit, and a very special Army vehicle. There was a course laid out but contestants could ignore it and go by whatever route they wanted which was totally impractical if they wanted to finish the course. The Moke didn't get as far as the Triumph 2000 because it found itself with the rear engine/transmission in a different gear from the front set-up which effectively stopped it dead. BMC, or whatever they were at that time, had their quality control problems even then! The special Army vehicle was an Alvis Stalwart six wheel drive personnel/cargo transporter. The course was a piece of cake for this thing and for much of it the driver seemed to be setting a compass heading and charging across the terrain with no hesitation at all. Certainly not rolling on its back waving its legs in the air like a stranded woodlouse!
motco said:
Many years ago - about the time this was filmed perhaps, or maybe even up to ten years earlier - it was a Boxing Day TV regular to have contest involving production saloons, vehicles like Land Rovers, and Army vehicles. It was a sort of Army vs Civvies. I recall only three moments and they were a Triumph 2000 saloon which failed to complete the course unsurprisingly, a Mini Moke twin engined model which had a Mini engine and transmission at each end linked so that they worked as a synchronised unit, and a very special Army vehicle. There was a course laid out but contestants could ignore it and go by whatever route they wanted which was totally impractical if they wanted to finish the course. The Moke didn't get as far as the Triumph 2000 because it found itself with the rear engine/transmission in a different gear from the front set-up which effectively stopped it dead. BMC, or whatever they were at that time, had their quality control problems even then! The special Army vehicle was an Alvis Stalwart six wheel drive personnel/cargo transporter. The course was a piece of cake for this thing and for much of it the driver seemed to be setting a compass heading and charging across the terrain with no hesitation at all. Certainly not rolling on its back waving its legs in the air like a stranded woodlouse!
'Autopoint" I think the BBC called it back in the mid/late 60's.Don't forget the Steyr Puch Haflingers..
..and it was no less than Jimmy Clark who eventually got the Twinny Moke to behave :
Edited by moffspeed on Sunday 14th January 19:28
Moffspeed, you clearly have a far better memory than I do! I had forgotten the Haflingers and I am ashamed to not know that Jim Clark was part of the show as he was a paragon of perfection as a driver in my young opinion, and the announcement of his death is burned into my memory with similar permanence as the assassination of John Kennedy. My excuse is that my parents and I had gone to my uncle's house for the day and I may not have even seen the entire programme that time. Thank you for your contribution.
Good God, Moffspeed, I am in awe of both your ability to retrieve such ancient information, and your enthusiasm for the sport! My recollections are riven with errors due only to my aged memory.
You weren't, perchance, at either Crystal Palace in 1964 or 65 when during a race meeting a dog ran on to the course and disrupted proceedings? Or at Brands Hatch in the same era at the Daily Mail race of the Champions when Jim Clark and Dan Gurney were competing in single seaters, and Jim Clark was in his legendary Lotus Cortina at the same meeting when his car shed a wheel somewhere near Dingle Dell? My (then) fiancée and I were trackside as he walked past looking somewhat miffed!
Those were the days...
You weren't, perchance, at either Crystal Palace in 1964 or 65 when during a race meeting a dog ran on to the course and disrupted proceedings? Or at Brands Hatch in the same era at the Daily Mail race of the Champions when Jim Clark and Dan Gurney were competing in single seaters, and Jim Clark was in his legendary Lotus Cortina at the same meeting when his car shed a wheel somewhere near Dingle Dell? My (then) fiancée and I were trackside as he walked past looking somewhat miffed!
Those were the days...
Skyedriver said:
I'm 70, Jim Clark was and forever will be my hero but I don't recall this programme at all. Must have been watching Billy Smarts Circus or Top Of The Pops.
I don’t about now, but back in the day, at Brands Hatch you could (and I did) walk up to Jim Clark, or Graham Hill in the paddock and have a brief chat. I went up and congratulated Hill on winning the Indianapolis 500 in 1966, I was just 18 at the time. Solid memories.You may have seen on here in 'Readers Cars' that I am restoring a Stalwart. I would love to see that programme but have never managed to find it.
The armoured car that rolls over at the end of the video is a Fox CVR(W), notoriously top heavy and unstable but seriously fast for a military vehicle using a militarized version of the Jaguar XK6 engine called the J60.
The armoured car that rolls over at the end of the video is a Fox CVR(W), notoriously top heavy and unstable but seriously fast for a military vehicle using a militarized version of the Jaguar XK6 engine called the J60.
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