Practically Classics Forum

Simple really, I was distracted by the unexpected loveliness of the local scenery, drove up onto the wrong beach and hit a submerged jetty that wasn't supposed to be there. In my distracted state I'd given the stally enough gun to get up onto the soft sandy beach that I'd been expecting at the customary 5 to 10 MPH. However, the wrong beach was littered with compacted rock and lumps of concrete so when I hit the jetty that wasn't there the stally was doing nearer 30 - 35.
After waving goodbye to said Stally as it was hauled off on the back of an Antar, I looked forward to the "enquiry" that I'd expected to follow.
Thankfully my CO had done something similar only a couple of hours earlier (OK with less damage) and I got away with it.

Sadly I never got the chance to drive a Stally again, but the next day I was told to pick up a 101 Forward Control from the MT pool to find that some bright spark had tied a mattress to both front and back bumper.

Army humour Huh ?

AHA this is where you're all hiding .......

Hi all.

admin wrote:Well it's up to you what you do of course, but it's worth noting that this was a group wide policy and not just a PC thing (Classic Cars magazine also lost its forum for example). The thought behind it (as explained to us anyhow) was to invest the money spent hosting and running the website back into the magazine rather than spending it online, which makes sense in harsh economic times etc.

So we've set up this one instead, which has cost about £30 all in.

The staff at PC understand that this will have annoyed many of its readers and it is up to you whether you wish to continue buying the mag (as is your choice of course) but we're working really hard to get the magazine back to its core values, and the team hope that you will stick with the mag.

This sounds encouraging, PC magazine lost it's way over the last 10 years or so. I got fed up with it and stopped reading it about six years ago. I'd like to see it return to being a quality magazine about the restoration and running of proper classic cars, not full of poor articles and bad advice based far too much on the staff personal preferences and "cult of personality", it should be Practical, i.e. down to earth about mechanical matters and restoration and Classic, i.e. about proper Classic Cars not just old junk!

spiderbloke wrote:Neil, how long have you had your Stalwart? I used to pass one in Sussex on my way to my Mother-In-Laws and the last time I went it wasn't there any more. I have some fond (and not so fond) memories of the Stally from my time in the Army in the 70's.
Managed to write one off once (Don't ask how, but it involved a submerged jetty and a nude bather ).

Bought her in 2006 sir! She used to live outside the Bentley motor museum in East Sussex. Still going strong although the last few months have seen some problems with one of the calipers.
Know what you mean about unfond memories - back in 2007 I was following a Saracen in convoy to a show; the Saracen stopped rather quickly and I could not stop in time so ran into the back at 15 mph...Split the heater matrix and cooked both feet rather nicely with 130 deg C coolant - OUCH!!

If you are in the Essex area at any time and would like to renew acquaintance with a Stolly drop me a message.

I get about a bit Neil as I still believe that a moving target is harder to hit so I may well take you up on your offer.

How many times though have you had to catch something falling off in the cab as you drive along?

The guys in our MT pool used to refer to the Stally drivers as the Juggling Squad. Every time we came back in we'd hand them something to stick back on.

Mind you, a lot of that may have been down to the way we chucked them about

Awww you mean this isn't the real forum? I had no idea, must be good as then!

I only signed up very recently and have been catching up on the things people have posted. It looks a very nice idea and I hope it's a success for you. Running a forum alongside the day job can be really hard work I should think so good luck.

Good to see you back.

I rediscovered the site quite by chance and hope we can all make up for lost time!