What was I thinking… what on earth was HE thinking?
It was a Saturday morning, a meeting of the management committee of the VCC at the Christchurch head office. During the morning tea break, Ed Boyd, who operates a not quite so small collection/ museum in his spare time in Wanganui came off a phone call and came over to me. Did I know of somewhere in town where he could park a newly purchased vehicle until he could arrange transport back to Wanganui for it?
Taking a bit of a liberty with Maggie’s acceptance of the strange comings and goings of various contraptions up and down the driveway of the Editorial dwelling, which is neither large nor grand, or endowed with places in which to stash itinerant motor vehicles, I suggested it could come here.
Then I asked the how and what questions. What? A mid 1990s Daihatsu Midget. Whatever one of those might be… and could I suggest a way to assist in removing it from the garage in which it has been ensconced since the late 1990s and from which it needed to be extracted the next day?
Offering ute as a tow vehicle and suggesting a hired trailer I did point out that by the time you are reading this, I will be leading the Classic Driver Le Mans 2014 tour and the Midget would need to be removed from my abode prior to my impending, lest it incur spousal disapproval.
Then a flash of brilliance (or it may have been a light bulb blowing in the office). I was heading north two days later and taking the ute. As it seemed that Daihatsu’s Midget was quite a diminutive device, if Ed could arrange some sort of A-frame for it, I would tow it to Bulls for him and he could collect it from there.
He and Beaded Wheels editor Kevin Clarkson disappeared outside where the possible tow car was conveniently parked. A minute later they were back. Kevin is a keen motorcyclist and his trailer, which is used to transport a selection of ‘bikes or a Mini on occasion would be of sufficient size to carry the Midget and although I was intending to take the ute north, do some work and then return in the Durant (more of that will appear elsewhere!), Kevin is also heading overseas and wasn’t worried about the trailer returning until sometime in July.
Problem solved for Ed; we would take him to his Midget in the morning, load it on the trailer, he would still be on his scheduled flight back to Wanganui in time and two days later my parents would be the temporary keepers of a Japanese Midget.
Ed had bought the tiny singleseater ute (no, I’m not joking!) on the understanding it was quite tidy and had only covered 11,000 km to use as a promotional vehicle for his Wanganui printing business or his collection.
At the allotted time we went to the address for Midget removal and Ed went inside to complete the transaction and collect the paperwork.
Opening the rather earthquakedamaged roller door and removing enough of the “stuff” which was basically burying the little beast we pushed it outside.
Hmmm. It looks very tidy. Then Ed got his first look inside it.
He got a little surprise. No, it hasn’t done eleven thousand km. It has done eleven HUNDRED km. The thing is pretty much brand new!