Car Dealers, Garages, Petrol Stations

Similar shot and era to a previous one I posted but a slightly different view of Coventry Garage - probably not long before it was bulldozed -

With the threat of fuel rationing being introduced during the fuel crisis, from November 1973, motorists were issued with ration books. These two were issued to my dad:

I remember those. I had three of them: one for my car, a Vauxhall Viva FXE 610C; one for my bike, A Norton 350cc ABW 374A, and one for a Raleigh Roma scooter, 80cc BRW 24. In the end they were never used, so went into the bin.

We had 2 cars, an Austin Cambridge, which had failed its MOT at the Godiva Garage (but kept for a few months parked-up), this was replaced by a P6 Rover:

On the face of it, this MOT failure was not catastrophic with shock absorbers and kingpins both relatively simple bolt-on jobs. However a 10 year old Austin Cambridge would not have been worth much back in 1973 and possibly the dreaded rust would have been a limiting factor for the car's longevity. Godiva Garage always had a fair reputation so their judgement would have been sound. Maybe their advice was to not spend any more money on what was seen then as a car near to the end of its life (my current car is 11 years old this year). In the 90's my son did his work experience at Godiva Garage and thoroughly enjoyed it. I also recall that the father and son were involved in banger racing with the Coventry Avengers team. Like so many other former garages, the Godiva Garage site is now occupied by a block of flats.

I do recall the old fuel ration books of 1973. You probably know this, if not, you might be interested to know, I had to have a nosey to see if the Norton was still around (I have a soft spot for old Brit cars and bikes), and it seems the reg is associated with a blue Norton 350cc.

Yes, it was a blue Navigator, a 350cc twin with separate cylinder heads, like the Jubilee, which was the same bike but 250cc. It had the old Amal Monobloc carb, which I changed to a Concentric, which gave it a crisper throttle response. Apparently, BW reg was originally from Oxfordshire.