James Bond, Look Out!

So much fun and so many memories with our 1960 Bond Three Wheeler Saloon. Fibre glass top, aluminium body, and an average of about 85 m.p.g. with a two stroke engine running on a mixture of petrol and oil. Flat out it could achieve 50 m.p.h. (with luck), but I think that could only have been with an undernourished midget behind the wheel; whilst going up steep hills we were often passed by racing bikes! One windscreen wiper which on occasion needed assistance. It had no heater or radio, and the side windows were sliding plastic. Weighing about 800lbs, two people could move it a short distance and which we did on several occasions.

 

I couldn't afford driving lessons, my father refused to give me any, and the Bond was the next best thing as I could drive it on my scooter license.

 A tiny engine mounted on the front wheel with a chain to the back wheels, but every so often the chain would loosen and miss a cog. Whereupon, Ulrike would promptly insert a broom stick to tighten the chain whilst I tightened the bolt with a bloody great spanner. Two people were required to perform this procedure.

We went to a posh Christmas dance given by the Rover Car Company in Cardiff. Driving into a parking space was fine, but there was no reverse gear for backing out and Ulrike had to push me in all her finery and stiletto heels! Otherwise, it could turn on a sixpence.

On one trip to the seaside, we packed in a friend visiting from Norway, Peter and his chum, Phillip, Ulrike, Lassie, and myself, plus some folding chairs and a picnic hamper. We pulled up alongside a Bentley and decamped much to the horror of an elderly couple lunching within and from the look on their faces must have thought, "There goes the neighbourhood!"

We had just moved into the bungalow when I had a puncture, but of course, no spare wheel. Undaunted, my neighbour removed the tyre from a contractor's industrial wheelbarrow. A swap was made and the replacement tyre was tickety boo!

 

Our Bond was second hand and three years old which cost £159, whilst today I saw the following at auction for £5,000 as they are now collectors items. If we only knew then what we know now in so many ways.