Memory Lane
Take a step back in time to British Car Auctions in 1980.
Reading your recent article on the Austin 3 Litre (PC, November 2017) brought back one memory of working in the BMC/BL Photographic Department at Cowley.
I was a junior trainee at the time of the launch but because of a shortage of the vehicles, we were struggling to get all the different pictures required for the press release. By the time of the launch we still hadn’t got a shot of the fascia. The cars for all the shows were completed in Show Bay at the side of our studio. The foreman said he was under strict instruction that the vehicle had to be completed that day for it to be in London the following morning and the best he could do was to let us come in at lunchtime, but we would have to be gone by 1 o’clock.
I promptly set up the lights, one of which was high up… I walked around the car in time to see it collapse on to the roof, whereupon it put a dent and gouge in
the paint and then proceeded to repeat the process on the boot lid. As no one was about I decided the best course of action was to get the shot and then go to the local pub in Cowley for a stiff drink as a P45 seemed imminent.
On returning to work the foreman was going crazy at my boss who was looking rather mystified as to what had happened. Once he had let off steam I tapped the foreman on the shoulder and – with the most sorrowful face I could muster – admitted that I was the guilty party. Imagine my surprise when he looked me in the eye, put his arm around my shoulder and said: ‘I know your dad, leave it to me son.’
To this day I don’t know what my father had done for him, but that’s how it was back in those days. After much candle burning the car was completed and repaired… as for me, I was banned from Show Bay and taken away from camera duties for a little while longer.