I didn’t write up last week’s outing, it was a bit low on things to write about really. Put simply it was a very early start in the dark and the wet followed by a 4 hour thrash up the M6 to North Manchester and another 4 hour thrash back down the M6, not quite so dark, but still in the rain.
However the northbound journey was enlivened by a total closure of the M6 near Stafford. Google Maps took me off the motorway at Junction 12 and we headed into the backwoods. It was what my wife describes as a ‘satnav special’ The roads got more narrow and more twisty until there was not enough room for two cars to pass. There was a lot of backing up and inching past until we achieved gridlock. After about an hour I got my very mud-stained van back on the motorway.
This seems to be happening more frequently. When there is an accident the authorities close the road, remove the casualties and vehicles and do not open the road up again until all repairs to crash barriers and the road surface have been fixed, which usually takes a full day, the northbound side was still closed when I returned south later on.
However I was very pleased to pick up Dave’s collection of Minichamps racing cars and bikes, nearly 400 of them, and they are already starting to appear in the web store.
The plan for 19th October was to head north again on the M6, but not so far this time, to Stonnall in Staffordshire, between Lichfield and Walsall. This trip was to see Peter to collect a full set of the Eaglemoss James Bond cars.
I stated spotting classics quickly, two of them on the A34 before I got to Oxford. The first was a very early Lotus Elise. My son Phil used to be obsessed by these when he was a kid. Today being his 30th birthday reminded me of his 10th birthday. Without telling him I hired an Elise for the weekend. I asked him if he wanted to come with me on a business trip I was making in to London and he came along with me in my Grand Voyager.
We stopped at an hotel car park in Watford, where the hire company was meeting their clients for the day and there was with a man with a clipboard standing next to a green Elise. I said to Phil ‘Look at that Lotus over there, should we ask that bloke if we can have a go with it?’
Phil was thrilled, we had a real fun weekend tearing all over Oxfordshire, I was quite thrilled too. I think he’d be a bit less impressed these days, it would be a bit spartan after his Merc SLK and I don’t think I would even be able to get into it.
Then parked in a layby was a really early Toyota Hilux Surf, it had a full restoration job and looked very smart indeed. I can’t find pictures of a model although I am sure we had one a long time ago. I spotted it again later in the day after I had returned from my trip, driving through Abingdon.
Eaglemoss James Bond cars, there are 134 in the collection with three bonus models for collectors who stayed the course. I picked up a full set without the bonus models from Peter, and the magazines to go with. We don’t ship the magazines with the cars as they won’t fit in the mailing box. They usually end up going to the auctions with the Days Gone and Yesteryears and anything else we choose not to sell.
I’ve created a couple of pages on the Little Wheels Museum which will be of interest if you like James Bond cars. The first one shows all the cars in the James Bond Car Collection. Click the link to go and see it. The second page lists all the James Bond movies. I’ve shown them in the order the films were released and included models of all the cars I was able to find which appeared in the films, and where they differ, and I can find an example, from the books too.
This was an interesting exercise. Obviously I included all the Eaglemoss models and the dozens of Corgi models, from the original Corgi Toys Aston DB5 right up the the ‘No Time to Die’ version. Minichamps did a set of Bond cars as have a few of the other makers.
The next part of the plan was to look for models of cars mentioned in the books or shown in the films where the model is not marketed as a ‘James Bond’ car. For instance in the book of Dr No Bond borrows a Hillman Minx to visit Honey Rider. In Moonraker (book) there is a car chase from London to Drax’s lair in Kent with Drax in a Mercedes-Benz 300c and Bond in his Bentley, which is smashed up in a crash, engineered by Drax. On the way an innocent road user in an Alfa Romeo 8c is driven off the road and killed. Models of all of these and more are included.
In the book of Goldfinger Bond drives an Aston Martin DB2 MkIII and Tilly Masterson has a grey Triumph TR3. I had a lot of fun researching and tracking down the models.
This Ford Country Squire and the Citroen 2CV above are both from the Eaglemoss set. They represent the opposite ends of the value scale in the series. Like many of the models represented in their ‘post car chase’ bashed up state the 2CV is less sought after and gets a lower price, it could also be because it is number 5 in the series and not many collectors had bailed out by this stage, meaning that there are more of them around.
On the other hand the Country Squire is number 105 in the series and far fewer collectors got this far, the value is also enhanced by there not being many models of the Country Squire out there, James Bond themed or not. All these factors add up to it being one of the higher priced models in the set. There are thousands of models of the Citroen 2CV making it not a rarity at all.
I think this is the 55th set of these cars I have bought in and it remains very popular. A good many of them go to the US and Canada where the original part-work series was not marketed.
After a couple of early spotted classics, the Elise and the HiLux, the rest of the day was a bit of a desert for interesting cars. I guess it is not a good idea to take your treasured classic out into the middle of Storm Babet, which was doing its best to wash all last week’s mud off the van.
Just as I was pulling off the M40 for Bicester I managed to bag a Morris Minor saloon in rose taupe. It contained an elderly couple and it looked brand new, a very recent and thorough restoration. They looked quite rightly proud of it. The model is in 1:43 scale by Vanguards.
I was going to Bicester to see Barbara who wanted to sell her late husband’s collection of model cars and planes. After talking to Barbara on the phone and understanding how diverse and eclectic this collection was, I suggested I go and have a look, as it was quite local for me.
Driving in to Bicester I passed Bicester Heritage, which describes itself as ‘home to over 40 best-of-breed automotive specialists’. It is basically a petrol head’s paradise. I’ve been to a couple of events there and should go to more. Its day job is to provide workshop and display space to businesses in the classic and performance vehicle industry.
I did my best to rubberneck through the chain link fence as I drove past and could not really see anything without endangering life. However at the end of a long line of sheeted over cars I spotted a familiar shape, the Citroen Traction Avant in Silver.
This must have been a bombshell when released in the 1930s. It was a big car with powerful engines and front wheel drive, the main innovation though was to place the floor under the chassis rather than on top, having the seats between the chassis side rails, like the Lotus Elise and with the same effect. The centre of gravity is lowered and handling is massively improved. Compare it to a contemporary Austin Heavy 12, tall, ponderous and slow.
The Traction Avant remained in production for 20 years before being superseded by the DS19, another space ship coming in to land, or so it must have seemed at the time.
Barbara’s husband had been an RAF tech and a rally fan, he was also a keen modeller and restorer, his collection reflected all of that.
I very quickly decided that I wanted to buy the collection, but such a large and complicated set of models had to be valued carefully to make sure the offer was fair to both of us
There are some old favourites in the photo, the Dinky Carrimore car transporter and the Coles crane which had been very nicely restored. The Corgi Toys Bloodhound missile is in its original box with the packing pieces and the piece of roadway, which is always lost. It has however been beautifully restored with a new rubber nose cone, all the original ones have long since perished. The rally support vans at the back are very nicely done code 3s, the Peugeot one has a spare rear body section for the 205 T16 in the roof rack.
This CMR model is of Fangio’s Maserati 250 from 1954 and it is a gem. Last one to show you is this plane:
It is a 1962 Armstrong Whitworth AW-660 Argosy. This plane was developed as an RAF transport which also found use in civil aviation, remaining in service until the 1970s. The model is unbranded but I am pretty sure it is by Bravo Delta who hand carve their models from mahogany, although they always feel too light to be made of such a dense wood.
I took lots of photos and went home to value the collection properly, by close of play I had made an offer which Barbara accepted and this morning I returned to Bicester and fetched the models back to the warehouse.
As I was driving up the A34 on my return trip, a silver Morgan joined from a slip road on the left. It caught me up in Bicester at some traffic lights, by which time it had been joined by a friend, also in silver. This was not a day to be driving a Morgan, cold and wet and down there a couple of inches from the road in amongst all the spray. Not to mention constantly having to wipe the condensation off the windows.
By the time I left Bicester I had seen six more Morgans. There must be an event this weekend at the Heritage centre. The model is by Cararama in 1:43 scale.
I may be pushing it a bit here, but when I stopped at the Co-op for a sandwich back in Abingdon I found myself parked next to a Mk4 Escort
The car was nearly 30 years old, does that make it a classic? There are certainly not so many around any more. The model is by Vanguards in 1:43 scale.
Next week a good friend of Little Wheels, Dave, is calling in to sell me some of his models. He and his lovely wife like to come and visit for a cup of tea and a good chat whenever he has some models he wants to move on. Later in the week I’m heading down to the South Coast for some Minichamps and Forces of Valor military models.
I hope you enjoyed this week’s ramble, if you did please scroll to the bottom of the page and click the ‘Like’ button.
What’s in the Van? – Home
4th/5th October – Berkhamstead & Poole
21st/22nd September – Stratford & Farnham
20th September – Duesenberg Coupe Simone
14th September – Croydon
10th September – New Romney
24th August – Shrewsbury
17th August – Airedale, Gainsborough & Leicester
3rd August – Bedford
27th July – Worthing
13th July – Chatteris, Hinckley & Nuneaton
6/7th July – Magor & Westbury
15/16th June – Newcastle upon Tyne
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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