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I loved Z-Cars and we all watched it on our little 12inch black and white tele. I wonder what 'Fancy' smith was?
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Now I understand the Fancy Smith had forgotten about that. What a shame that it was taken over by the american shows.
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Ahhh, Stratford Johns and Frank Windsor...... James Ellis.... all live and in black & white! Of course, I was nobbut a youth at the time! <g>
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When they changed the phonetic alphabet, R became Romeo instead of Roger and B became Bravo instead of Baker. A salesman who visited my group at Boeing was called Roger Baker and he started signing the visitor book as "Romeo Bravo".
I can't remember what Z was in the old set, I think "Zoo".
While I was working for the Transit agency, we got a new and rather temperamentsl electronic fare box, from a company known as GFI. I was able to say over the radio, without breaking the rules on obscenities, that my Golf Foxtrot India had gone Tango Uniform. It took Dispatch quite a while to figure it out!
The old Fords were Zephyrs. The ones Z-cars used were the Zephyr 4, which was a replacement for the old Consul and used that car's 4-cylinder engine. The up-market version was the Zephyr 6 with an in-line 6-cylinder engine, and the real top of the line was the Zephyr Zodiac. Makes you think of inflatable dinghies nowadays!
Ford UK actually used a Ford US model name - their Lincoln Division made a very nice car just after WW2 called the Lincoln Zephyr.
Frank
Frank Damp (wife Eileen, nee Nixon)
Leyland resident 1941-1965, emigrated to the US in 1968,
retired to Anacortes, Washington State, USA in 1999.
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Somewhere around the mid-sixties I was visiting a friend in Liverpool.
His dad bought a Zephyr (I don''t know the model) from a big second hand showrooms on the Wirral. So this day after work, he got a bus across
Liverpool then caught the Ferry 'cross the Mersey and another bus to the garage. They said the car had been fully checked over and my friend's dad gave it the once-over himself then paid for it and drove it home.
As he turned into his road it started to rain, that's when he found out
the wipers didn't work!!
From then on, he had nothing but trouble with the car.
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Thanks for the info Frank and DB and all of you.
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Thanks for the background, David. I'd forgotten "Zebra". I guess the "Zed Cars' terminology was pre 1937. It wouldn't have been understood over here, since "Z" is "Zee". It was an interesting show, though. Wasn't Brian Blessed one of the key players?
I was looking into the naming of the Lincoln Zephyr and found that it was named after one of the trans-continental express trains of the 1930's.
I had a 1952 Consul - least said, soonest mended. I was newly msrried, living in Bamber Bridge and going to Salford Tech every day. I bought it at an auction in Chorley after seeing the Austin Westminster I really wanted go for more than I could afford. I also lost out on a Wolsely 6/90 and a Riley Pathfinder. I used to put a quart of oil in the Consul for about every 5 gallons of petrol. I had to carry oil with me because a round trip to Salford burned more than a sump full. It put out so much smoke that people going the other way put their lights on! Maybe a head rebuild would've fixed it, and I could have used the family car repair facilities to do it, but I finally gave up on it after about 3 months and sold it at an auction in Ormskirk. I think I paid 50 quid for it and sold it for 40, so I didn't do too badly. The whole experience soured me on auctions.
I don't think the early Zephyr 4s were any great shakes. The engine was a 1.8L 4-banger (same as the older Consul) and it had a 3-speed column shift transmission. Had difficulty pulling the skin off a rice pudding. One company I worked for had three of them as "works" cars for employees to take on trips. There was a lot of competition not to have to go!
Boy, are things different nowadays! Even cheap cars are pretty good. We currently have a Kia Sedona people carrier, not too expensive and very good quality. Mind you, Ford US just announced they had lost almost $6 billion in one quarter. If you figure 100 days in a quarter, that's $60 million a day, 42.5 million an hour, $4200 a minute.
My former boss at Boeing, Allan Mullaly, recently took over as CEO at Ford. Good luck, fellah!
Frank
Frank Damp (wife Eileen, nee Nixon)
Leyland resident 1941-1965, emigrated to the US in 1968,
retired to Anacortes, Washington State, USA in 1999.
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