The Way We Were – Roadworks, queues… it can only be the M25…
The M25 may have been struck by a double-whammy of snow and roadworks, but there are some cracking cars
‘Ford had dominated the car market in 1995, occupying the top three spots in the UK list with the Escort, Fiesta and Mondeo’ THE BLUE OVAL REIGNS SUPREME
Chris Rea sang about The
Road to Hell, and as the January blues crept in after the 1995 festive period, occupants of this traffic jam on the M25 will doubtless have been wishing that they were Driving
Home for Christmas again. Looking at the weather from January 1996, we can make an educated guess this shot was taken towards the end of the month when freezing rain gave way to snow over southern England. It also means that the cars’ radios will probably have been playing Babylon Zoo’s
Spaceman, which was the UK number one single at the time.
The weather isn’t helping, but roadworks appear to be another culprit for this queue heading towards us, while the two lorry drivers travelling out of the picture would no doubt have been glad to be going the other way, especially with at least 20 minutes to go until a service stop, if the signs are anything to go by.
The Jeep Cherokee at the front of the picture was only a couple of months old when this picture was taken, and this version is the 2499cc TD Sport, which had only just become available. Doubtless the owner’s pride and joy at the time, the vehicle survives, and the fact that its MoT only expired last month hopefully means that it’s snoozing in storage somewhere at the moment.
In the outside lane behind the Jeep is a blue Ford Escort estate whose roof bars probably brought the family Christmas tree home the previous month.
Ford had dominated the car market in 1995, occupying the top three spots in the UK list with the Escort, Fiesta and Mondeo. The fifth generation Escort was hugely popular, despite getting a pasting from the period motoring press for its indifferent handling, harsh CVH engines and bland styling, though it looks comfortably at home in this mid-Nineties queue.
The Peugeot 405 alongside gave way to the new 406 the previous year, despite having been European Car of the Year in 1988. It’s still being produced today in the Middle East. Rather worryingly, though, this one looks like it’s about to be rear-ended by an errant Vauxhall Astra MkIII.
We’re not 100 per cent certain what the car trundling along behind the Escort is, but think it might be a B12 Nissan Sunny estate. Whatever, the driver seems to think that sidelights alone are fine for dark, snowy motorway driving conditions.
What looks like a third-gen red Toyota Celica further back in the inside lane stands out with its pop-up headlights, but we can’t tell from this angle whether it’s a coupé or liftback. We reckon that’s a Saab 9000 behind it, with a pre-facelift R8 Rover 200 in front – facelifted cars had slightly different front indicators and a prominent shiny radiator grille.
It’s not the only Rover in this image, either – that’s a Rover 600 accelerating briskly out of the bottom left-hand corner of our image, unless we’re very much mistaken. Maybe the traffic was finally clearing?