Evening Gentlemen,…as I lay upon my sick bed, wondering why ye drummer from the Muppetts was serenading me, for such is the thumping within my cranial cavities…(for they are truly empty places)…I was seized with forboding, both from Mdme Saviems dire warnings regarding my future, should I not refrain from trying to work as a young man…and my realisation that my previous post regarding Guy, contained two unforgivable innacuracies, which I have now set out to correct…although passing through the kitchen on the way to the office, (converted Cow Shed)…elucidated some fearfull threats from both Mdme, et Madmoselle Saviem…and they gave me a time limit, so I have to work quickly…
Thank you for your kind solicitations, they are much appreciated, Dennis, I promise that my head was softer than the A449…Johnnie, no need for the armoured CAT, (and those Israilites, are tough cookies, and look after their kit well)… gingerfold, oh if only my life was conventional, and free from drama…One of our friends is an eminent Consultant Psychologist, who one night after dinner was expounding his theory that we all set an age parameter in our Brain, that dictated our mental processing age, and our outlook on life, turning to me he said…“you will always be 16”!!!
The Constabulary visit, conducted by a rather elegant blonde constable of the female gender…seeing me emerge from my lair, bandaged like a Sikh Holy Man, and walking like a one legged pirate, with one and a half real “shiners”…she commenced to regail me with the “alleged” fact that I had driven away from a “clamping team” and endangered their well being. I was not impressed, and in conversational terms gave the true facts…and as I had parked my steeds under one of those shiny CC TV things, requested that she examine same…and offered her a cup of Earl Grey…
Sadly she obviously had received an "alternative " report, and warned this limping geriatric about my future conduct, and attending A&E with a tractor and trailer!!! Apparantly I should have called an Ambulance!!!..Is it me or has the World lost its common sense■■?..Upon that second the Cavalry arrived,… Mdme, et Mdmselle, …(both Lawyers of some repute and skill)…the attendant verbal blood bath made this poor old soul cringe…said Constable left our premise in some disorder… then I got it in the neck…but I think that it may be ongoing…
But back to Guy, and my erroneous post above…Of course the Raymond Baxter outside broadcast was for the 1958 show, and the Invincible he drove in was for long time Guy customer Bulwark Transport, fitted with a 4000 gallon Bilston made Thompson Bros tank, and powered by the new Gardner 6LX. (64 was the Big J launch)
That magical looking Invincible/Warrior/and sometimes even the diminutive Otter,( on whose chassis it looked less than impressive), cab was designed by Ron Thomas, a Guy design engineer from 1947. His influence for the cab, (surely one of the most handsome ever to grace a UK chassis), was drawn from, on the top half, Virgil Exnors Plymouth US car range, and the steel front bumper, radiator grill and bottom half was pure Ford Thunderbird.It had provision for an Eko radio, a cigarette lighter, and sunvisor over the twin windscreens. Plus a cab heater as standard. Removal of the top fibreglass half was claimed to be a 15 minute job…but on the worn 180 ■■■■■■■ example I purchased took a lot of heat and effort over 3 hours!!! (But she did have a bit of age in her)!!
Trevor Dudley designed the chassis, Rubery Owen pressed, with split air braking, air assisted handbrake, and a robust yet light construction, and all pure Guy. Trevor Dudley went on to collate Girlings anti skid braking system.
Engines were by Gardner, Rolls Royce , ■■■■■■■■ and Meadows .Gearboxes by Brown, Leyland, Fuller and Meadows. Arguably if the range had faults, it was too accommodating, and more important it was sold far too cheaply for the engineering, and build quality put into each one. There was little profit in what became a very desirable range.
There was also an export range using a bonneted version of the Ron Thomas cab, which was well received. I remember visiting a client in Belgium with a local dealer who was trying to sell him a V8 Saviem, and on his office wall was a photograph of a bonneted Invincible, with a tank trailer…and that was what he wanted to talk about…just how good the Guy had been to run!
ROF mentioned his Warrior tractor unit at 24tons, that must have been the one with the Eaton 2 speed, the standard single speed spiral bevel back end being limited, (ho, ho), to 22 tons. The Warrior light 8, with her AEC470, Eaton 2 speed single drive,and 6 speed overdrive was not the only “light” Warrior, there was also the Light 6, with a Leyland 375, single drive, and a payload potential of 13plus tons, (if run legally)!!!Dennis Meirs from Bushbury Wolverhampton ran one with a Milk Tank body, most handsome in silver, grey, and pale blue.
The last versions of the Invincible cab, shown at the 63 Motor Show, had full length doors shielding internal steps, a foretaste of the ex Dodge engineer ,Cliff Elliotts, Big J range to come. Cliff had been recruited by William Lyons to create, and bring to fruition a new Daimler lorry range…but then Lyons acquired the financially bust Guy for a derisory £800000 , and shortly afterwards from Associated British Oil Engines he acquired Henry Meadows right next door!
Lyons drove the new lorry venture forward with great vigor, experimental multi axle chassis were equipped with disc braking, and how about a tilting version of the Sankey LAD cab…but Motor Panels, (a Rubery Owen company were to win the day…but the Big J is another story, for another day…and what was planned for Henry Meadows…
Im away…Cheerio for now.