Advertising Last completed movie pages 1964 AC Invacar Type 57Class: Others, Three-wheeler — Model origin: 
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◊ 2014-04-15 20:16 |
It isn't a Reliant. I think it's an AC/Thundersley Invacar Model 57. |
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◊ 2014-04-15 20:22 |
I think Invacar as well but no ideas on type. |
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◊ 2014-04-15 20:43 |
what was the point of this idiotic 3 wheelers in the 1st place ? why were they build and who in their right mind bought this contraptions -- Last edit: 2014-04-15 20:43:55 |
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◊ 2014-04-15 20:47 |
Originally for unfortunate people who had bits shot off during the war, later extended to general disabilities. Could be driven on a motorbike licence - the test was less severe than for a car, but as the maximum speed was 3 mph (downhill) it did not matter. There used to be signs at motorway junctions specifically prohibiting invalid carriages (and mopeds under 50cc). |
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◊ 2014-04-15 22:15 |
Nobody bought them, they were available from the British national health service for people with major disabilities. I think that dsl is being either ironic or disingenuous with his 3mph top speed, it was more like 30mph. If you look, you will also find that the German government distributed similar vehicles. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invacar -- Last edit: 2014-04-15 22:16:09 |
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◊ 2014-04-15 22:18 |
and why couldn't they do such cars for people with disabilities with normal 4 wheels , that's what I don't get was there no power steering and automatic gearbox back then ? cos according to this the 3 wheelers were near death traps https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQh56geU0X8s  -- Last edit: 2014-04-15 22:20:27 |
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◊ 2014-04-15 22:21 |
/vehicle.php?id=674670 This is a German one, somewhat modified perhaps. In answer to your question about PAS and Auto boxes in small cars, no there was not. Without spending a lot of time on researching, I can say that the Mini offered automatic transmission in 1965, and I do not recall a small car with it before that, apart from the DAF, which was not British so NHS would not have bought them. Up to the late fifties/early 60s you needed probably three litres to get automatic transmission, then it came down to 1.5 litres with the Smith's Easidrive Hillman Minx, and Borg-Warner boxes in the Farina BMC cars, and the Ford Cortina. It then became much more widely available in a sort of explosion. My Mother had a Daf, then an Austin Allegro, then a Triumph Dolomite, all automatic. -- Last edit: 2014-04-15 22:34:55 |
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◊ 2014-04-15 22:43 |
Post-war austerity. UK government policy was export as much as possible, very high rates of purchase tax on new cars, no hire-purchase availability meant new cars were out of reach for much larger proportion of people than today, petrol rationing until 1950 and then reimposed 56-57 for Suez crisis - all meant tricycles were much more acceptable transport - Bond, Reliant etc all made them, plus bikes and sidecars were popular. Invalid carriages like this were therefore not too far from what many other people were driving, and cheap and easy for government to provide - proportion of disabled population probably much higher in those days due to after effects of WW2. No motorways so everyone chugged along at slow speeds anyway. Disability conversions existed for 4 wheelers, but without government subsidy so you had to be rich enough to afford to buy/run a proper car - many war disabled were probably unable to get paying jobs and had to survive on state pensions so were low income. |
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◊ 2014-04-15 22:54 |
You speak for yourself! My brother and I used to stand up in the back of the Traction Avant yelling at Dad to see if he could get 70 out of it. He could but it needed a heck of a long straight. We were very disappointed when the new Oxford that followed it turned out not to be much faster. -- Last edit: 2014-04-15 23:11:17 |
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◊ 2014-04-15 23:59 |
I can't because I wasn't born then - these were things my great-great-great grandfather used to tell us......  . And colour had not been invented in those days so it was all black-and-white - nobody realised those invalid carriages were actually blue until the 1960s. |
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◊ 2014-04-16 09:10 |
And our Mums used to follow the milkman's horse with a shovel. |
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◊ 2014-04-16 13:38 |
I thought that was just a silly game on It's A Knockout (or Jeux Sans Frontieres). |
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◊ 2014-04-17 18:49 |
[quote=mike962] was there no power steering and automatic gearbox back then ? When I grew up I used to read old motor magazines from the 50's and 60's, and I remember something called a Saxomat fitted to several smaller cars. I'm not sure, but I believe it was some kind of automatic clutch. -- Last edit: 2014-04-17 18:52:05 |
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◊ 2014-04-17 23:31 |
There were quite a number of automatic clutches fitted to manual sliding mesh gearboxes, they were probably all of similar design. Newtondrive on the 100E Fords, Standrive on the small Standard models, Manumatic available on Oxford, Cambridge, Wolseley 15/50 and MG Magnette and Ferlec on Renaults. One of my Dad's Oxfords had Manumatic and a right contraption it was; when you took hold of the gearlever the knob moved slightly and closed a microswitch which called open an electric valve which admitted manifold depression to a vacuum servo which, in turn, depressed the clutch lever. You then changed gear in the normal manner and the clutch engaged when you let go of the gear lever. Presumably Saxomat was a Fichtel and Sachs product. As these were not really automatic gearboxes I did not mention them, nor the Cotal electric gearbox where the selection was done by solenoids. As well as those were the centrifugal clutch and preselector gearbox fitted to Armstrong Siddeleys, and the fluid flywheel and preselector fitted to Daimlers. These were planetary geared systems with a quadrant to select the gear and a pedal on the left which was the gear engagement pedal, not a clutch. The Daimler system was, however, most frequently used on buses, especially in city fleets. It was also seen as the Wilson gearbox, most commonly, but not exclusively, on pre WW2 Rileys. The motor magazines from the 50s and 60s were new when I was reading them. -- Last edit: 2014-04-18 09:43:47 |
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◊ 2014-04-18 12:48 |
@johnfromstaff: Thank you for the information. My comment was because I remembered a cheaper alternative to the more expensive automatic gearboxes fitted to mostly American cars. Perhaps those cheaper alternatives could have been used as some kind of in-between a disability scooter and a "real" car. I remember having seen the Saxomat fitted to at least SAAB 96 and some models of the DKW of the early 60's. One of my all time favourite cars was sometimes fitted with the Cotal system, the Ford Cométe. I read the magazines when on holliday at my grandfather in the early 80's onwards, and they made me understand there were more cars made than meets the eye, and trigged a lifelong interest in things ingeneering. -- Last edit: 2014-04-18 12:54:11 |
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◊ 2016-12-27 19:30 |
This is AC Invacar 57 produced in the UK for disabled people. Nice 3-wheeler with a single place inside. More details about it here - http://smallcarsclub.com/catalog/ac/ac-invacar-model-57/![[Image: acinvacarmodel5706.jpg]](http://pics.imcdb.org/23418/acinvacarmodel5706.jpg) |
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