Back in September, start of Spring season here in Cape Town, we travelled an hour north to the small farming town of Darling for the Darling Wild Flower Show’s 100th year celebration.
In Spring the West Coast to the north of Cape Town briefly bursts into colour with wild flowers before the summer heat and winds take over. The previous year, my first visit, I was expecting not much beyond spending time with friends, flowers, a beer tent and food stalls, so finding a bunch of classic cars was a huge bonus. Its a South African thing, we can’t keep shows to one theme.
This Austin Marina panel van was not part of the show, it was a traders vehicle I found in the car park. Seems if these Marina’s didn’t fall prey to tin worm they can go on forever.
This Austin FG lorry started life at the AECI explosives factory in Somerset West here near Cape Town. When it was decommisioned the wooden load bed was destroyed due to the danger of explosive particles being embedded in the wood. It was in constant use up until 2009, its last stint was spent carrying the apple harvest out of orchards in Grabouw, and it’s now still earning its keep, see below.
The FG series was built from 1960 to 1968 and has a 2.2 litre diesel engine. The cabin doors are angled three quarters to the back, unfortunately I didn’t take a picture.
Beaded Flamingos, lions and toilet paper holders, you can get the most amazing handmade items here.
I’m not sure if these two were placed next to each other on purpose but the Silver Cloud makes the Messerschmitt look even more dinky than it normally does.
This is a KR200 Kabrio. they were built from 1955 to 1964, and had a 191cc single cylinder two-stroke engine.
A lovely Jaguar Mark 2 3.4 litre.
And now something rather different, a 1951 Bentley with special bodywork, see the story two pictures below. Here the car is about to leave to make it back to Cape Town before sunset, note the drivers flying goggles.
The detailing on the car is superb and the sound it made on its way out of the paddock was a throbbing roar.
The Bentley has had quite life, and has a lot of life left in it.
A grand old Mercedes 250S. This car still has the original white on black number plate, It looks like it’s travelled on gravel Swartland roads all it’s life, the hubcaps have amazing patina from flying stone chips. The Swartland is the name of the surrounding wheat farming area.
An Alfa Romeo Guilia Sprint GTA. At the time of the show I didn’t realise the GTA was made in really limited numbers, 450 to 500 per series, and I’m not sure if this is one of these or not.
Inside the hall flower specimens were on show. The Cape floral kingdom is a World Heritage Site and is by far the smallest and richest of the world’s six floral kingdoms. 70% of the Cape’s 9600 plant species grow nowhere else on earth.
A Volkswagen Caddy being used as a mobile bank, South Africa is Volkswagen country, oh, and Toyota.. and Ford..
A lovely Sunbeam Alpine. I met the owner, Hazel, briefly at our street’s street party at New Year. She arrived in this car. Hazel is involved in classic car events and I gather was part how these cars came to Darling. I asked her if she had another car, expecting her to say “Ford Fiesta’ or similar. “Yes, a Sunbeam Rapier, I couldn’t imagine having a modern car.” was her answer, that’s the spirit..
There was an impressive collection of old farm machinery at the show, I’ll include a few, see a Model A John Deere above.
Here are the stats, built between 1934 and 1952, impressive.
And here’s an even earlier John Deere, see stats below.
Built between 1923 and 1953, wow! How are you doing understanding Afrikaans?
Here we have a Thames Trader truck built by Ford of England from 1962 – 65, with a 5.4 litre 6 cylinder diesel engine. The Massey Ferguson tractor in the background is known here as a Vaaljapie [grey Jim or Jack, translated from Afrikaans], my Dad had one, they were everywhere once.
On the back of the Thames is a Caterpillar 22 dated 1937 with a 4.1 litre 4 cylinder engine.
Time for an ice cream, or how about the excellent local Groote Post wine from around the corner? You are not wrong thinking everything looks a little dusty, it was. we are still experiencing a terrible drought.
After a long hot day everything went back into and on to the Marina.
..and we hit the road back to Cape Town. I’ll definitely return come next spring.
A lot of great stuff there, but that Austin FG lorry takes the prize for me. What an unusual cab! And the entry door, which come in at that crazy angle. Never seen anything like it. I’d love to have it; it would make a handy compact ruck, and I know I’d never see myself coming!
Thanks for the tour.
Thanks Paul! Im just noticing how many English cars there are in the group. The Austin lorry was quite popular here when I was a kid. Looks like you could stand on the running board with the door open at low speeds and not protrude beyond the sides of the truck, handy..
Yes, the FG was designed to suit urban deliveries so the driver could open the door without obstructing traffic either foot or vehicular. Also handy for tight parking spots. They were produced right into the early 1980s, latterly at the Bathgate factory in Scotland.
I remember them delivering coal and milk and everything in between in the 60s and 70s. Inside that cab was basic in the extreme, but there was good view out. Lower front windows for an even kerbside view.
I just did a Google Image Search for “austin fg lorry” and it looks like this style of truck was also sold under the BMC, Morris, and Leyland names. Badge engineering at its finest!
What a fun tour! The English cars are certainly well represented there. That Sunbeam Alpine is a cutie.
Nice selection, I felt kind of hot and sunburned just looking at the photos.
I’m not that bad at Afrikaans, but I should probably be better. I’ve had limited Dutch spoken and written exposure. Also one of my co-workers is from SA and when I hear her speaking to her mother on the phone it feels oddly comforting, like being at Grandma’s.
A feast of diversity and colors, as usual. Lovely.
The specifications on the John Deeres, great. What always puts a smile on my face, is the use of “nie…nie” in het Afrikaans. Not once, but twice, if you know what I mean.
Thanks for the comments everyone! Bernard, that door configuration should make a comeback.. Johannes, “nie..nie” laat my lekker lag..! British cars sometimes get a bad rap for durability, but here are a bunch who survived the everyday rough and tumble to eventually find a special loving partner.
I photographed the back of one of those FGs at a rally in the ’90s. Here’s a view from the back:
and this is the side. FGs started out under the Austin and Morris names but were later BMC and lastly Leyland. The little ‘kerb view’ windows are another quirky feature.
I’ve not seen a Marina van for ages!
In the UK these trucks were very common. The cab was known as a ‘Thruppeny piece’ cab after the little 3 penny piece, a serrated edge coin we used to have before decimalization.
That Bentley is a ‘51? I would have guessed ‘31.
Re-bodied and converted to look like a 1931 (or actually 1926-30), from a Mark VI sedan. It is a reasonably common conversion.
Mind you the original sedan arguably looks closer to 1931 too… It was built from 1946-52 and little changed from pre-war cars.
Great article, and thanks for sharing. Hope fortune smiles and you come out of your drought soon.
Looks like my sort of flower show…….
…..out of interest, what engine di the Austin (!) Marina van likely have? UK models were 1275cc A series
Hi Roger, I cant find any solid reference to what engine the van has but 1300cc sticks in my mind. When the Marina was first introduced to South Africa we got the B series engine with 1750cc, and later a 2600cc 6 cylinder engine. A 1300cc sedan was intoduced later but dumped soon along with the whole range. not a success story.
The UK Marinas were 1300 and 1800 A and B series engines, Australian models had the O series 1750 and the 2600 from the P76 plenty survive in NZ but the 262 six cylinder models are rare.
Roger, I’ve got the introductory brochure for the ‘Marina’ van and it’s actually badged ‘Austin’ (“The new Austin 7/10cwt.”). The 7cwt had the 1098cc engine as standard and the 1275cc as an extra cost option. The 10 cwt had 1275cc only. The van above is a little later as it has the revised front bumper with the slightly thicker centre section.
Lovely stuff as always, Pikesta.
I will echo Paul about that green Austin truck — so weird. And having the Messerschmidt and the Roller next to one another… I like a car event that doesn’t take itself too seriously.
Thanks for the safari to view the exotic local car life. If the Silver Cloud is a 6 I’ll take it!
And only because it’s CC…the neat 250 S pictured has the the later grille insert (6 cells, rather than the earlier 8, between the horizontal divisions) of the 280 series.
Thanks Jim! wow, thanks for the grill info, what I learn on CC!!
Thanks, Pikesta, for the tour of this show… I keep coming back and looking at the pictures. And the last image of the Rolls-Royce driving down the highway looks like it ought to be a picture from a travel brochure!
Great trucks, Austin and Thames Trader cabs bring back great memories of childhood streetscapes, although I seem to remember our FGs had a different grille treatment.
Not sure if it applied to all GTAs, but the doorhandles suggest the one featured in this carshow is a ‘tribute’.
Oh, the FG Austin, I loved these no end as a kid. So much character. I mean, knee windows! I seem to recall them as local firetrucks, but that might be my mind playing tricks. They haven’t been seen on the roads here for a long, long time. Neither the Thames Traders, which I also liked.
Thanks for the tour, sir. Most enjoyable.
Nice selection of vehicles here. Haven’t seen a Leyland FG truck in years; they came in heavy duty form as well and the last one I knew of in my part of the world had been converted to a food truck I patronized regularly. The most interesting photo here is the Rolls next to the “bubble car”; the latter looks like one of those Cozy Coupe children’s cars by comparison.
Wonderful cars and trucks, beautiful country, and thanks for the Deeres! They look to be well maintained. The A was Deere’s first “row-crop” tractor, and on this one you can see the curiously forward mounted wide front end. The D in the photos is a late build of Deere’s first successful tractor, and the model was indeed built over that long a period of time. Deere wanted to phase it out after they introduced the row crop G-about the same power-but farmers kept buying the D because nothing matched it for lugging ability. They even had to bolt together some in the alley outside of the factory out of leftover parts at the end of the run to fulfill some of the last demand.
My brother’s restored Model 60 (replacement for the A) is on its way to Waterloo this week to be exhibited at the Deere factory museum. I need to get a story and pictures together here in case any of you are in the area soon and can stop by.
Was there room on the floor of the cab of that Austin FG for a boy to sit and look out of the knee windows? Cause that’s where I would have been.
I fondly remember peering through those windows as a tiny kid but have no recollection of what I saw inside!