Picture(s) of the day....

[demag]

Ligier.

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[white exec]

Ligier it is! I google-imaged Microcar, and couldn't find it.

Here in Spain there's a very odd (and slightly worrying) category of driving permit, called "Sin Carnet" (literally without papers). Two-seater, with no driving licence required; you can just go to a dealer and buy one. Some are Ligier, others Microcar, and I think there are a couple of others too. Most seem to have a single cylinder diesel engine, around 400cc, which sounds suspiciously like a Kubota with a large flywheel. Top speed is about 70km/h, and decidedly leisurely acceleration. You can always hear them coming, and if stuck behind one can smile at the 18mm-or-so diameter exhaust pipe. Show every sign of 6v electrics...but maybe not. Beloved of farmers and their wives.

[CitroJim]

Here in Spain there's a very odd (and slightly worrying) category of driving permit, called "Sin Carnet" (literally without papers). Two-seater, with no driving licence required.

I believe they did, or might still have, a similar scheme in France...

I recall reading about it somewhere...

[Gibbo2286]

I wonder how that little car would go down in Sadiq Khan's new London anti diesel scheme.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/london/s ... 06561.html

[demag]

Actually there's a couple of Microcars floating round by us. One is quite new and looks ok actually.

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[CitroJim]

Me on one of my other very favourite forms of transport last evening

[CitroJim]

My MK Marathon race number bib..

Note the name on it

MK Marathon Bib - Own Work 080417

[demag]

Brilliant bib Jim. I used to canoe in my youth. A dear friend of mine runs a sea kayak club in North Wales, she has been all over the world kayaking.

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[CitroJim]

A dear friend of mine runs a sea kayak club in North Wales, she has been all over the world kayaking.

Given how much I enjoy lake kayaking Dave, I'd love to try sea kayaking

I'm still very much a novice and in June I'm taking a course of basic training... Hopefully then I can expand my horizons as then canal and river paddles will be open to me... The club organises a good deal of those but for now 5 or 6 K or padding around a big lake is enough at present...

Give the glorious weather last evening was sensational... Magical in every way...

I always look so happy when I'm paddling

[demag]

Talk of the devil, this was this morning off Anglesey.

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[CitroJim]

I'm green with jealously

I so want to be there... Lovely kayak

[NewcastleFalcon]

Over on the electric vehicles thread, I put up a tongue in cheek 12 volt Mercedes Electric car which £20,000 will buy you.

Here's a more "green" offering and an interesting bit of Austin History



http://www.austinworks.com/pedalcar.html
By Karen Roe - Flickr: Sandringham 23-05-2011, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.p ... d=15326641

Regards Neil

[CitroJim]

That's a J40 and likely now would cost as much as that hideous Merc thing and be far better loved for much longer...

The J40 has become seriously collectable now...

[NewcastleFalcon]

Part of the story behind the J40

"Austin J40 cars are made in a specially constructed factory at Bargoed in South Wales. Here, in good conditions with the guidance of an experienced rehabilitation officer and under the supervision of a doctor, disabled Welsh miners are able to find a new interest in life and do a job of work that is both useful and congenial. There are employment facilities at this factory for 250 men."

The pedal car factory opened on July 5, 1949 and was called the Austin Junior Car Factory. It was actually paid for by Government funds and it was run on a not-for-profit basis and purely for the employment of the disabled coal miners. The factory had a floor area of 24,500 square feet and was tooled up by the Sheet Metal Planning Department.

Production started of with the Pathfinder and it was planned to build 250 a week, but unfortunately this figure was never reached. After a year the Pathfinder was dropped and was replaced in 1950 by the J40. The cars were made from scrap off-cuttings of metal from the Longbridge Austin motor car factory and were built and painted the same way as the motor cars themselves.

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

..and a random link to Bargoed, where the J40 pedal cars were made, L.S.Lowry painted Bargeod in the mid 1960's.

If you have the time this has a tremendous amount of detail and photographs of the factory, its story, and the cars. I'll stuff it in the Pickled Egg Library, but you will have to purchase a skinny latte or a bag of dry-roasted peanuts first!

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=56479&start=151

This particular image of a fairground ride from it caught my eye.....even had the petrol station in the middle!

http://www.austinmemories.com/styled-25 ... e26_29.jpg

Regards Neil