Adam Elsdon

These are great in service photos mike.

A large number of Jaguar XK120's driven by an infantry platoon charging towards the communist hordes, sprayed in the finest "British Fighting Green" sounds like eccentric fun!

Worked it out that the average wage then compared to it now, would mean that the 6000 pound conversion price falls just short of 600,000 in todays money.....bargain!

Adam just wondering is your body a Sankey? The flap you had was from a ROF pig, shouldn't be a difference, in theory!

 

Costs of FV1600:

 

The costs of manufacture varied with time. In April 1954 the first 250 of the FV1601 with the winch cost £4,250 each but by August 1954 this had fallen to £3,350. Whereas the FV1602(A) had cost £3,250 in March 1952 this had risen to £3,500 in February 1956 and at the same time the winched version came in at £3,650.

 

The cost of converting a FV1601 to a FV1611 was estimated at £6,000 and for a FV1602 to FV1612 £5,700.This was at a time when the cost of the B60 engine was £730 3s 0d. The estimated cost of the conversion of the FV1602 to the 20 FV1609 prototypes was £5,950. In fact the actual cost was £5,650. I imagine one of the few occasions in the history of human conflict when a defence project actually cost was less than estimated!

The average mans wage in 1954 was a fiver a week!, just looked up the price of cars of that period, 1954 Jaguar XK120 with racing spec cylinder head, yours for a bargain GBP 1175:wow: , so a Humber was a very very expensive machine in its day!

Clive,

Reading elsewhere on the forum about how much it cost to build different vehicles.

I remember reading something somewhere about Pigs been converted on time and to a just under budget cost, but what was it?

Just a bit of trivia for the public on my vehicle information notice board.

You will be glad to know i have been busy tidying up the nick nacks i got from you, and most of it is now adorning the Pig, the side hatch was a bugger though, took a bit of custom fettling with a grinder before it fitted properly.

Ted, your motor would be a good candidate, they'll have the complete story in a box, and the AFS side of it as well.

No doubt they will compare it to a Land Rover, but lets face it the chassis and gearbox/transfer box was miles ahead of the Rover equivalent of the time, infact probably alot better than some of the later stuff!

Nice paint job, all of our vehicles on TCW that went out to Gulf war 1 were sprayed by Brize paint shop in Light stone, and included the tyres and just about everything you didnt need spraying! naturally most of it started to flake off fairly quickly, and when they got back home thay sprayed NATO green and black onto them, which started to peel and flake, so it was spot the theatre of operation, as there was an interesting mix of green white black and sand breaking out all over the place.

PM Croc, he's the parts man for the club, and knows plenty of people with gipsy's, i have one but its not too pretty right now, no doubt there are a number of very nice examples about.

Didnt think id posted that one :shocked:

Thats why im off work with a temperature of 102 !

Another picture of a Pig in Cyprus, this time British Army, belonging to the Glosters dated 1964.

Plenty of barbed wire on the roof and the front, and note the Union Jack tied across the engine covers. The chap lying on the vehicle is a local interpreter.

Heres a link showing all of the BS381C Colours, including lots of military colours.

RAF Blue/Grey isnt the only "Blue" that features as a grey, PRU (Photographic Reconnaissance Unit) Blue is in there as well.

http://www.chingfords.co.uk/bs381c-chart.php

Everybody goes on about Merlins, and how the noise makes the hairs raise and how they sound on ground runs etc.

The most evocative/impressive piece of flying i ever seen was by a Spitfire, i was based at RAF Brize Norton in the late eighties and lived in a barrack block located adjacent to the runway, it was a fantastic summer sunday morning, not a cloud in the sky, and the sun burning the haze off of the airfield, there was no aircraft/vehicle movements at the time and it was absolutely silent, i had gone outside to get my bicycle, when off in the distance way up high the unmistakeable sound of a Merlin engine, picking up speed, i couldnt see what it was coming from at first as the haze was camouflaging the aircraft, then there it was the familiar shape of a Spitfire in a steep dive, diving for the end of the runway, the engine absolutely screaming, it pulled up over the airfield fence and levelled out above the piano keys at the start of the runway, at about an altitude of 20 feet and howled down the runway, the supercharger boosted engine at full chat, at the other end of the runway the Pilot pulled back on the stick and then done a victory roll.

It really was a moment i will never forget, and possibly somebody elses, as i heard a number of "Woohooos" and "yeahs" from across the airfield!

Afterwards i heard it was Ray Hannah who had got permission from the tower to beat up the airfield!

The sound was tremendous the whole scene was perfect and it literally was "out of the blue" in a way that you couldnt recreate at an airshow.

That to me was the most Beautiful Noise.

Where is the Chassis plate on a Matador, and is the overhaul plate located in the same place?

A substitute aircraft handling wheel, maybe while the other wheel is been serviced, or engineering on the landing gear, the wheel been fixed height/width for adjustments, but i wouldnt of thought they would risk running an expensive aircraft asset on them?

Oh yeh! the tinted specs fell straight into place!

I have been offered a Matador and need to know a few things and any other info that you can offer on points to look out for!

The vehicle in question has been sat for a long time, but has been protected by a tarpaulin over it, although that has come to grief this winter, and i think if the vehicle is left any longer, it will start to decay quite rapidly.

The owner reckons it was a good runner, but while it has been stood it has been started and at some point started to blow past its head gasket.

It still has its military cab and body, although it is missing its winch, but all of the fairlead rollers are there.

The cab appears to be bolted down at the front, there are no spring bolts to let the cab move.

Other than that, cant really tell much more about it, i didnt find a chassis plate, mainly as i dont know where it is. It is painted in RAF blue and marked with roundels etc, whether it was originally used by the RAF, i cant be certain.

Does anyone have electronic manuals i can have a read of, just to get my head around the ins and outs of these trucks, before i commit!

Quick one, for you, i have been offered a Matador, looks reasonably straight, in original military trim, i.e. it still has its back body etc, not a timber conversion.

It is a diesel, and the cylinder head is blowing, how hard are cylinder head gaskets to get hold of?

And does anybody have any reading material in the form of manuals etc, as i dont know a vast amount about them, other than i like them!

Oddities as far as i can see, are the cab bolted down solid at the front, and the winch has been removed, leaving all of the fairleads in place.

I dont know what the chassis number is as i couldnt find it, and its presently painted in RAF colours, although not sure if it is ex RAF as it may of been restored many moons ago that way

Any help greatly appreciated!

This one is definitely a runner and is pretty much as original, the owner is after a rear wheel, one of the wheels from the double wheeled axle was missing when he got it, and the Lancia radiator badge has also gone the distance.

If anybody knows of such items, PM me and i will let him know!

East European Vehicles, should cover most everything from that area, and its not era specific.

Good idea though, there are a few EEV owners here now.

Vixen was a an entirely different vehicle, based on Fox but the hull was quite different. Vixen never made it past the prototype stage. Only 2 remain, one in the Tank Museum and one in Australia.

 

The vehicle Adam is thinking of is this one:

 

 

This is a Polecat, it's a Peak Engineering GPMG turret fitted to a Fox hull.

 

There were several attempts to fit the Fox with different turrets in order to make it attractive to overseas customers, I have most of the sales brochures, but I don't think there were ever any orders.

 

I don't know why everyone associated Alvis with the Fox, they were designed by Daimler and manufactured by Royal Ordnance.

 

Chris

Thats it! i like the wooden rings they made up for the demo/show to mount the turret on, infact that looks like the back of dougs yard now i come to think of it!

Got to be a bit less top heavy that a fox i would of thought, alot of motor to carry a GPMG though!

A mate of mine up here has three foxes, well actually two and a version that was a demonstrator for ALVIS overseas sales, i cant remember what it was called, not a Fox though, looks like a very big ferret, different shaped turret, i think they were trying to punt it out to a South American country but was never taken on, i think it was called a Polecat, i will ask next time i see him, he will probably sell it/them, as he is looking at scaling down his collection to a few trucks and a ferret/pig/champ!

Another mate has a Fox as well, common as muck up here!!

Rachel,

Here we go this is how my Mk1 Pig was registered in 2005

Direct from the V5C

If the field isnt mentioned, example [y] Revenue Weight

its because it has been left blank on the V5C.

D.1 Make: Humber

D.3 Body Type: Special Purpose

[X] Taxation class: Historic Vehicle

P.1 Cylinder Capacity (cc): 4250 CC

P.3 Type of fuel: Petrol

S.1 Number of Seats: 4 (Dont ask, it doesnt make sense to me either)

D.4 Wheelpan: 2 Axle-Rigid Body

K. Type approval number: Exempt

E. VIN/Chassis/Frame No.: XXXXX

P.5 Engine Number: XXXX

R. Colour: Green/Beige, or Whatever you fancy!

Never had a problem getting the vehicle taxed, if it has been registered correctly with the DVLA, the MOT exemption will be recorded and will show when you produce your renewal letter at the Post Office. You will not be able to get a tax disc online, as it is only set up for modern machinery and requires MOT as part of the electronic search before issue.

My own vehicle was declared manufactured in 1953, with a date of first registration in 2005, obviously in your case it will be 2009 if you do get it registered.

Had no problem with the logbook when i took it into DVLA offices to get the address changed in 2007 and obtained a tax disc for it at the same time.

I think the key to registering your Humber Pig (An inspired choice of vehicle, i may add!) is not to over complicate it all.

Now then, forget the forms for a moment lets see a picture of the beast!

On behalf of the Scottish Military Vehicle Group

They are holding a Military Swap Meet on 8th March 2009, this is the first of its type organised by them and places are going fast, get there and buy/sell your pre-show season bargain part or collectable memorabilia!

Contact Al Smith Secretary on 01307 467215 or e-mail: secretary@scottishmvg.org for further information/assistance/counselling!:-D

Link to the SMVG website listing this and other events: http://www.scottishmvg.org/1.html

Thanks to the moderators for putting this together into one thread! :yay:

Would need an MPV to take it to shows Tom !:-D

:rofl::rofl::rofl: