the way they were The publishers of 4x4 magazine recently acquired Custom Car, one of the longest-running motoring titles left in Britain. These days, it’s all about hot rods and drag racing – so when we started leafing through the first few issues from way back in 1970, we were stunned to discover an article from the very early days of green laning. We’ve republished it here, complete with some language and references we certainly wouldn’t accept nowadays, as a historical record showing how much things have changed over the last fifty years. Some of what the Custom Car team got up to is very much not the way to do it – but as you’ll see, by the end of a rather anarchic couple of days even they had started to learn the lessons we all take for granted today…
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ow look, it’s five speeds but you don’t need first unless it’s on a one in three. And you’ve got five in reverse as well, right?’ ‘Yes, Bernard. Five in reverse. That will be useful.’ ‘And that lever there changes from two to four wheel drive, okay? But not over 20mph on all four, though.’ ‘No, Bernard.’ ‘Oh, and when you go airborne, back right off before you hit the ground. Else the back axle will fall apart. Right?’ ‘Airborne, back off. Right, Bernard.’ Well we’ve turned up at the office in some oddities in our time, but this time we really hit the jackpot. It’s one thing seeing an Austin Champ ad-
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vertised in Exchange and Mart: it’s quite another to see it in the flesh, or tin as it were. It’s not just ugly – it is unbelievably ugly, but with that strange elusive charm that nature awards to its less well endowed. And big with it, as the bishop was overheard to mention about the actress. Land Rovers look suave beside it, Jeeps look positively pert, and you could drive a Moke clean underneath it. You don’t sneak a Champ into the office car park without anyone noticing. Editors of some of the stuffier magazines in the building retracted further into their Burton suits and felt their worst suspicions had been confirmed. Nervous fellow car park users found excuses to move their vehicles to the protection of the local multi-storey. A few old stagers tottered down to offer helpful
hints dating back to their days in the mob. Like ’when you go airborne,’ etc. Why a Champ anyway ? Well the idea was that we’d take a weekend off to try and prove or disprove the theory that you really can get away from it all if you try. The theory went something like this. Stay away from the main tourist routes and areas, arm yourselves with good maps, compass and hot coffee and buy yourself a rugged four wheel drive vehicle which could cope with the conditions you might expect if you tried to go where others fear to tread. We picked an area – Dartmoor – bought 1” and 2.5” maps from the Ordnance Survey and a compass from the local sports shop and borrowed a Champ from our friend Bernard’s Four Wheel Fun Car Emporium in London. Then we piled on to British Rail’s estimable Motorail service at Paddington and slept the way down to Plymouth ready for an early morning start. The first day was, er, eventful. Most of Plymouth still slept as we noshed our bacon and egg at the caff near the bus station before heading for the hills. By eight o’clock, photographer Roger was taking trendy shots of Champs rising out of the morning sunrise on the edge of the moors. By nine o’clock it was snowing and by ten o’clock we were stuck halfway up a snowy cart track and cursing Bernard for omitting the authentic WD shovel from the strap provided. So much for our first excursion off-road – the trouble with 2.5” maps is that they look too easy. Roads are marked as ’unclassified, unfenced’ and lead to intriguing ruins, Roman remains and the like. What it doesn’t tell you is that some are only used once a year to bring the lambs in. By eleven o’clock we had broken the two shovels borrowed from the nearest farm four miles away and art-ed Ridgers had been despatched for a tow vehicle. By half past eleven, by jamming rocks under the spinning wheels we had freed
4x4 27/09/2022 17:04
