I’ve been doing this a long time – living my life on the road that is, I’ve probably driven more than a million miles in the last 50 years. So why when Google Maps suggests I take the A43 to pick up the M1 northbound, did I opt for the M69 route? It’s generally an easier drive with fewer roundabouts, but on Wednesday the Coventry by-pass was solid with stationery traffic, which is why Google tried to send me the other way – I probably won’t learn though.
I picked up my first classic early on this trip. I was in a bit of dream as I pottered up the M40 towards Warwick and thought that the Ferrari which was overtaking me was a, very familiar and b, overtaking slowly.
Of course it was the Ferrari GTC 4 Lusso which is pictured on the back of the van, the right colour too. I guess it was overtaking slowly because the driver wanted a good look at the van with his car’s picture on the back.
This photograph is from a set of 14 taken by our previous photographer, Peter. They are all pictures of high-end 1:18 scale models of supercars. Peter had them all emerging from smoke on which was projected the flag of the country where the car originated. We had a plan at one time to sell them as a series of framed prints.
Eventually I joined the M1 at Leicester and headed north for Newcastle, you just stay on the same road for the next four hours and you are there! My route for the two days was all motorway and dual carriageway so not much opportunity to take in the countryside, but it was a glorious day none the less.
Just after I joined the M1 I bagged my next classic, an MG TC heading south. I should imagine driving one of these on the M1 could be a bit scary, they are so tiny and a bit slow for modern traffic.
My route took me past Nottingham, Sheffield, Leeds, Wakefield & Durham. Just as I was approaching Newcastle I spotted one of these in the side of the road with an AA van for company.
It was a very scruffy old Volvo 144 facelift model in white and very rusty and tatty, less of a classic than an old banger. I once owned the 6 cylinder version of this car, a 164e which I remember fondly.
This is a long trip so I stayed overnight at an hotel, planning to collect my models from Colin in the morning before setting off home. So it was through the Tyne Tunnel to Gosforth to find my bed for the night.
I’d arranged to meet Eddie from Dalkeith, near Edinburgh, at the hotel to buy some Corgi trucks from him. This is my third deal with Eddie who is a very experienced collector which means that the models I buy from him are the most sought after versions and are always in tip-top condition. Newcastle made a sensible meeting point for us as Oxford to Dalkeith is a seven hour trip. Eddie had unfortunately picked up a nail in one of his tyres on the way so the first job when we met was to change the wheel. We soon had the models transferred to the van and his wheel changed between us, and he was away home.
Next morning I awoke to fog. Fog on the Tyne, just like the song by Lindisfarne. I was going to Colin’s house to pick up his late father’s collection of diecasts. I decided to let Google maps decide the route and crossed the river on the Scotswood Bridge which replaced the Chain Bridge in the 1960s.
I found myself in the middle of another song, being on the Scotswood Road heading for Blaydon. The song being ‘Blaydon Races’ with the line ‘gannin along the Scotswood Road to see the Blaydon Races’
I was reminded of another time I was on the Scotswood Road, it would have been 1978 and I was Assistant Manager of the K Shoe Shop in Eldon Square, I lived out at Whitley Bay. This appointment was the last part of my training as a shop manager and I was only there for six months. I loved it.
We had a stockroom lad called Neville at the shop who was a real Geordie wide boy and we got on very well. He asked me if I wanted to go to the wrestling one night. This was the same circus that was on ITV every Saturday afternoon with Mick McManus, Giant Haystacks, Big Daddy and the rest. Before the wrestling we went for a pie and a pint at his local on the Scotswood Road, the Hydraulic Crane. As I remember there was a pub on every corner and all named after shipyard machines – there was one called the Patent Hammer. There were about 25 men in the pub, no women, all having a pint or several after work. These were hard men from the shipyards – and I got a real shock when Abba’s Take a Chance on Me came on the juke box and they all joined in. The wrestling was a real hoot by the way.
Colin’s late father’s collection is a mixture of Corgi modern trucks and Atlas Editions. There are Atlas bikes, military, planes, Jaguars, classic sports cars and tractors. Suzi has already got these processed as you can see from the picture above. Most of them are still in their shrink-wrap.
I was soon on the road south passing the Angel of the North, which is a truly magnificent sculpture, you are never ready for the sheer scale of the thing.
I think there must be a tractor festival on somewhere this weekend as I saw three vintage machines on trailers.
As I was passing through Yorkshire I spotted a Field Marshall. These are odd, single cylinder machines designed to run an very low grade fuel oil..
To start the Marshall a smouldering piece of special paper, soaked in saltpetre, is inserted into the cylinder head by means of a special screw-in holder, this smouldering paper acts as a glow plug.
The engine is then turned over with a starting handle placed in the starting dog on the flywheel. This is aided by the decompression valve, which makes the engine easier to turn over allowing the flywheel to gain speed and momentum to turn the engine through compression, and get it to fire. A spiral groove on the perimeter of the flywheel carries a wheel on the decompressor mechanism and is used to determine the number of revolutions before the decompressor disengages. This is generally up to three revolutions, but can be anything up to six revolutions. Depending on the condition of individual tractors, it may need considerable physical exertion to start a Marshall.
A cartridge starting system is also fitted to the tractor. A shotgun type blank cartridge is loaded into a breech on the engine’s intake system. The smouldering paper is placed in the cylinder head, and the cartridge is fired by tapping the base of the protruding firing pin with a hammer.
Also spotted were a John Deere crop tractor from the 1940s by the look of it and a BMC/Nuffield Mini tractor from about 1965. I don’t have pictures of them.
I don’t think anyone has made a model of one of these yet as they are very new. It is a Grenadier. When JLR decided to discontinue the Defender a group of blokes in a pub (called the Grenadier) decided that the world still needed an off-road utility vehicle, the only one then in production being the VAZ from Russia. The Grenadier is now launched and I saw a transporter with four of them on board heading north on the A1M in Yorkshire. Someone in Abingdon has one and I see it out and about regularly. I hope it succeeds, I’ve had a number of Series Land Rovers and liked them a lot.
This is a 1968 Ford Mustang GT as driven by Steve McQueen in Bullitt. There was one in this colour being trailered up the A1M near Wakefield. When my wife and I took a holiday in San Francisco we hired a Mustang convertible and drove the same streets as Bullitt, as well as taking a trip over the Golden Gate bridge and up into the wine country. That was a splendid experience.
There was only one more classic on the way home, near Northampton on the M1. It was the bodyshell from an Aston Martin DB5 which had been prepared for paint, no doubt on its way to the paintshop. You have to imagine how much someone is laying out on this car. A complete basket case would cost several hundred thousand pounds and the months of labour to complete a paint-off restoration don’t bear thinking about.
I got home in super warm sunshine, just a little done in from 12 hours driving in two days. There will be no blog for the next couple of weeks, I’ve no trips planned and I’m also taking a few days’ holiday. Thank-you for reading and if you have enjoyed this week’s tale please scroll to the bottom and click the ‘Like’ button.
What’s in the Van? – Home
8th June – Bournemouth, Ringwood & Bracknell
1st June – Diss, Stewartby & Brackley
25th May – Rickmansworth
12th May – Kingston & Fleet
4th May – Witham
21st April – Staines
12th April – Dereham
6th April – Warminster
30th March – Doncaster, Gainsborough & Peterborough
18/22nd March – Bedford & Epsom
15/16th March 2023 – London, Hemel Hempstead & Stafford
8th March 2023 – Warwick & Solihull
5th March 2023 – Huntingdon & Bedford
23rd February 2023 – Little Wheels Museum
16th February 2023 – Devon & Dorset
9th February 2023 – Nottinghamshire & Lincolnshire
2nd February 2023 – Gloucester & Hereford
What's in the Van? 
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