Del Boy
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Post by Del Boy on May 14, 2021 23:01:36 GMT
Saab - the models, well all of them disappeared. My Aunty & Uncle had a Saab 9000 (when they were doing well !) and they loved it. At Christmas my friends came over and took pics in front of it, as it was the poshest car we knew. SAAB going was a real shame. SAABs individuality is what made the brand. GM killed it really with the cost cutting, platform sharing rubbish that was churned out .
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Three Litre
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Post by Three Litre on May 15, 2021 8:36:26 GMT
It's interesting that Unipart once part of the BL empire is now more involved with the rail industry as a parts supplier than anything to do with it's former automotive past.
Been said many times, if BL hadn't swallowed up most of the UK automotive industry in the 1960's-70's I'm sure at least one manufacturer might have existed beyond the collapse of the Rover group. Having said that, they may have ended up in a similar situation to the former Rootes Group companies being a subsidiary of say Ford, GM, PSA, VAG etc. a bit like Skoda, Seat etc. today. That seems to have a bit of theme in the post war era, amalgamating smaller companies into larger empires. Be interesting to know how successful it really was.
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Post by Sam Tyler on May 17, 2021 19:31:19 GMT
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Post by Gene Hunt on May 22, 2021 18:38:09 GMT
Leyland stopped using the Albion name in 1972 but the firm continued to make Leyland lorries until 1980 when production was moved to the BL Bathgate plant. From then the Albion factory made axles for all the BL heavy vehicles and later on Daf vehicles. In 1993 the company became Albion Automotive and in 1998 was taken over by American Axle and Manufacturing Co and is still making axles today. The lorry above was loading axles for the Renault truck plant in Lyon.
Though you might be interested in this photo Pete Watts Service Station, Lydney, Gloucestershire.
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Post by Peter Picard on Jun 1, 2021 22:02:03 GMT
Nice photo Gene, the lorries have LAD Vista View cabs which were launched in 1960. LAD stood for Leyland Albion and Dodge as they were the three makes that used the cab.
The cab was popular with Albion customers and continued to be used for years after other Leyland group lorries had started using the Ergomatic cab which was launched in 1964.
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Cartman
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Post by Cartman on Jun 1, 2021 22:06:37 GMT
I liked the ergomatic cab, AEC were the first to use it, from memory. I used to have a Dinky toys model of one.
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Post by Peter Picard on Jun 1, 2021 22:13:32 GMT
Yes, there's a video called Southall Twilight which features a test run for an AEC Mandator. It also has a marketing film of the Marathon with George Layton travelling to Italy.
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Post by Gene Hunt on Jun 2, 2021 18:33:57 GMT
Gene.
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Cartman
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Post by Cartman on Jun 2, 2021 19:53:50 GMT
Great footage Gene, those are Leyland Marathons. The AEC plant closed in 79, and truck production was moved from there to Scammell. Part of AEC s problem was the 800 series V8 engine which Leyland pushed them into putting into production before it was ready and it developing bad reputation for reliability.
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Cartman
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Post by Cartman on Jun 27, 2021 21:14:36 GMT
A couple of interesting German ones have just sprung to mind, Borgward and NSU.
Borgward was quite a big combine, which had four separate makes, Borgward, Hansa, Lloyd and Goliath. Borgward themselves made the bigger and more expensive cars, their best seller was the Isabella, which was quite a good quality car. They then expanded upwards with a car called the P100, which was an attempt to compete with Mercedes, but they had a tendency to put untried features into production which result in warranty claims. The other three divisions, Lloyd, Goliath and Hands made small economy cars, including one called the Arabella, which again was rushed into production, and warranty claims tipped the combine into bankruptcy in 1961.
NSU made a small rear engined called the Prinz, which was a kind of Beetle rival, and they tried a very innovative large car with a rotary engine, the RO80. The engine was a bit beyond the technology of the time and would barely last 15000 miles, and it was also very heavy on fuel. Again, warranty claims sank NSU who were bought out by VW.
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