Invacar on BBC Radio World Service radio

[Dogsbody]

Sleeping badly, I was listening to Radio4 World service and a programme on Helen Keller ended and the next one in the disability series was Britains little blue disability car. Will be available after broadcast on BBC Sounds. Not often the word Invacar crops up on R4.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/w3cszmqd

[John Wakefield]

Thanks for the heads up on this programme DB, one of the less glamorous products of Greeves. its now live on the link given, and will stay up for a year.

[druid]

The invacars may have been less glamorous but unlike the majority of the bikes they actually made money for the company.

Greeves were often vilified for the design but the later design was all DHSS. Greeves were only allowed to make minor mods to ease production and this was rigorously monitored by the DHSS. What was worse was that when the proverbial hit the fan with tv reports etc Greeves were told not to respond in any way.

Druid

[Phil Hyde]

We also have to remember the views expressed by Graham Hill. A fine racing driver, but no so good a pilot. He tried and succeeded in crashing an Invacar. Quite easy when driven outside of its design envelope.

[Brian Catt]

He managed a direct hit on a local Golf Course roof.

[Dogsbody]

Bit of a biased view. None of the satisfied drivers that had their lives transformed by Invacar . Like giving a D1 Bantam to a Fireblade owner.

[Colin Sparrow]

We also have to remember the views expressed by Graham Hill. A fine racing driver, but no so good a pilot. He tried and succeeded in crashing an Invacar. Quite easy when driven outside of its design envelope.

Especially while driving a bare chassis. See page 205 of my book.

[John Wakefield]

The programme only covered the later fibreglass bodied cars, Greeves pioneered the earlier canvas bodied 125cc & 197cc engine Invacars. I remember when working as an apprentice at Pyes in Cambridge between 1960 & 65. A disabled guy Phil Lane had one of the early ones with a 8E 197cc engine. Phil worked in the mechanical inspection dept. and was allowed to park the Invacar inside the factory grounds and was allowed to leave off about 10 mins early to enable him to get to the car on crutches and get it started and away before the rest of the workforce left en mass. In the winter he often used to get one of the motorcycle owning lads to go out and kick start it for him. I seem to recall that it did have a 6 volt electric starter from a Ford 10 car driving the flywheel by belt. But in the winter the battery could not cope so it had to be kick started. The guy use to travel in every day from Barton some 7 miles away. (Pic shows a 125cc version DHJ 828)