LOSE YOURSELF IN 1967

This legislation followed years of debate. The editor of Motor Sport ranted in the February 1964 edition: ‘I do not use them in my car for the same reason that I do not take a parachute when I fly in a private or commercial aeroplane.’ At that time, only Ford and Vauxhall installed belts on the production line; other major British car manufacturers used dealers. One Britax spokesperson even described their £3 8s 3d static belt for Triumph as ‘very black, very kinky’. Well, it was 1967.

Many thought that the NSU Ro80 represented the future in a fourwheeled guise when it made its bow at the 1967 Frankfurt Motor Show. Here was a front-wheel-drive executive saloon with all-independent suspension, inboard disc brakes, and Saxomat semi-automatic transmission. The coachwork by Claus

Luthe had a 0.355 drag coefficient, and there was a Wankel rotary engine under the bonnet. This did not prove wholly reliable and in 1973 CAR thought in 1973: ‘There is no doubt that the Wankels are getting better day-by-day but it would be a bit like marrying a reformed husbandpoisoner’.

The 52-minute special was a highlight of BBC1’S Boxing Day line-up but the critical response was largely one of confusion. However any production with a Bedford VAL 14 Plaxton (Ringo really did take the wheel for some scenes), George Harrison’s Radford Mini de Ville GT, an Iso Grifo, a Vanden Plas Princess 4-litre limousine, an Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint and a James Youngbodied Rolls-royce Silver Cloud II LWB Touring Saloon had to be worth viewing. All this and Vivian Stanshall crooning Death Cab For Cutie.