Memories of an old car and a past employer

[Malcolm P Price]

In 1980 I found an advert in the local newspaper for an 18 month old Talbot Avenger which was a left hand drive Swedish export model. The car did not sell and the advert appeared for a second week. I went to see it and made an offer well below the asking price which was accepted.

 

I drove the car in LHD form for several months and went to my place of work which was at a research association called BCIRA where I was a development engineer. I also had an an Avenger rally car with plenty of spares. Over a Christmas holiday week I used some of the spares I had to convert the car to right hand drive. The job was straightforward involving changing the dash panel, moving the instruments, shifting the steering column  and changing the steering rack and was done in a couple of days.

 

At BCIRA there was a long approach drive with a low speed limit and speed bumps. The director there was a dedicated but stern man with the manner of a school headmaster who called everyone by their surname. He was in the habit of standing in the bushes at the side of the drive and jumping out on anyone arriving for work he thought was speeding.

One day as I went down the drive I saw him staring at me intensely. I could not understand why, I new I was not speeding. After I while the penny dropped, he could not comprehend that I was sitting on the wrong side of the car.

 

I kept the the car for several years. Several times the rubber diaphragm in the Stromberg carburettor failing stopping the engine from accelerating. One day I applied the brakes and a headlight fell onto the road.