Bird's eye view
Page 39
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* Balkan invitation
It has been Hungarian festival time in London—and no doubt elsewhere—in recent days, and one function. was a reception at the London Hilton at which Mr. Gabor Mezei, general manager of Hungarocamion, the Hungarian state transport company, met shipping and forwarding agents and folk from the UK transport industry.
Hungarocamion, one of the largest international hauliers, was also one of the first European outfits to apply for a carrier's licence in this country. The application was made through M. and S. Shipping Ltd. who produced witnesses from as far afield as Eastern Europe, as well as Switzerland and Germany (shaming some domestic operaLors no doubt).
CM reported those proceedings exteniively and on Monday we were invited to Budapest to see at first hand the running of fleet whose operations cover the area from London to Moscow, Teheran, Kuwait, Istanbul and Athens.
* Curtain aside
ek.s if to whet the appetite for those promised nake-by-make production figures which British vehicle manufacturers are to reveal n detail for the first time from the middle of his year, the SMMT is now publishing nake-by-make statistics of registrations. !ley are not so detailed as one hopes the roduction figures will be, but at least a neasure of coyness is being abandoned.
The January figures are in two classes, I me. The first is for vans, which are classified is goods vehicles not exceeding 2 tons mladen, and including light vans registered is cars. In this category British Leyland roduced 6,554 (41.43 per cent), Ford 1,595 (29.05), Vauxhall 3,254 (20.56), tootes 754 (4.77), and "other" 272 (1.72). In the column for other commercial vehicles, including Hackney carriages, British ,eyland has 2,806 (34.09), Vauxhall 2,004 24.35), Ford 1,793 (21.78), Rootes 909 11.04), and "other" 631 (7.67).
Imported commercials make up the rest. n the first category VW have 291, Fiat 20, ikoda 10, and "other" 70. In the second ategory only "other" is shown, with 88 Pellicles comprising 1.07 per cent of the otal in this category.
* Looking backwards
Preferences in rear-view mirrors are so diverse that operators and drivers frequently modify the equipment supplied as standard with a vehicle, even where the manufacturer has gone to considerable trouble to establish the type which gives the best overall result A quick check around CM office demonstrated that some people much prefer convex mirrors, while others loathe them.
This train of thought was started by a colleague who noticed that two-plane Zanet6 mirrors have been fitted by the RTTTB to its training vehicles at the new Motec instructional centre at High Ercall. This mirror, which has two convex glasses set at an angle to one another, provides two images covering an exceptional range of view. I believe it originates in Switzerland, but the company has a British office, and one sees Zanetti mirrors on a fair number of British trucks these days.
* All done by beams
Driverless vehicles directed by computers on roads with predetermined guide routes were visualised by Sir William Lyons, chairman and managing director of Jaguar Cars Ltd. at the Leyland Motors Ltd. apprentices' prize distribution last week. He thought future vehicles would receive their power from beamed transmissions from power stations, with payment made according to a meter reading in the cab—but this would not come about for a long time,
* Engineer
Seddon Motors Ltd. were quick to point out to me that there is a difference between a chassis designer and an engineer. Apparently we gave the wrong impression in our story about Seddon's new bus factory last week. To get the record straight, Roy Wild is chief engineer, bus and coach division, while Walter Booth is chief engineer, commercial vehicle division.
* Left his pint
Jim Rigby, who left his Sunday pint to help save the heat treatment shop from catching fire, was presented with a cheque for £25 by Leyland after the apprentices had lined up. The temperature in the shop, which should have been about 650deg F, had risen to 1,300deg F: it quickly returned to normal when Mr. Rigby saved the fire officers present a job by dropping cold metal into the furnace, so absorbing the heat.
*Easter parade
Lord Montagu of Beaulieu, whose Motor Museum at Beaulieu is staging its third annual Cavalcade of Transport on April 7, is hoping that owners of vintage and veteran commercial vehicles may have suitable models for the parade this year.
Anyone interested in offering vehicles for entry should write, with details, to the Cavalcade Organiser, Montagu Motor Museum, Beaulieu, Brockenhurst, Hants.