92 LANDROVER MONTHLYWE rolled six or seven times”,re-
members ColinParkes. “Dan Ar-
cherwas driving the RangeRover
and Iwas in the passenger seat
with a recording and measur-
ing rig onmylap, andwe’d just
come onto the banking at MIRA
when the offsiderear tyre blew.
The speedowas showingover 105 mph at the time.Dan tried
to bring the car off the top of the banking but a wheel dug
in and the back end cameround, and thatwas it.Wehada
load of filled sandbags in the back, and itwas said that one of
these had shifted and knocked openDan’s seat belt. In those
days the latches were aircraft-type lift-up jobs.Dan was
thrown out on the firstroll but Istayed strapped in for the
ride, andwas still in when the car finally bounced to astop. It
was a good thing Iwas,because I’m sure that if I’d gone out
I’d have been crushed.
“Dan suffered three broken ribs and a broken leg and I cut
myhead badly on the sun visor bracket. The doctors said that
myshoulder blades had actually been pushed together and
had touched, and itwas a miracle they hadn’t severed my
spine. I felt like I’d been hitby a train but Iwas discharged
thatevening andwent home.Meanwhile, BernardPoole and
BillMorby had rushed from the factory to tell [my wife]
Lesley about the accident and take her to the hospital, but
unfortunatelyby the time they got there I’d already left for
home, so I had to sit on the doorstep andwait for her to come
back and let me in! Iwas offwork for three months, andeven
todaymyneckstill locks in position sometimes and needsa
good crack to free it up!”
Colin had onlystarted his job as a mileage driver at Land
Rover thatyear, 1972, and he’d just been part of a spectacular
accident that he feltvery lucky to have survived. “It did make
me askmyself whether Iwanted to continue,” he says. “But
thiswas mydream job and I decided tostick with it.It was a
shame thatwe’d just written-off one of the 20 pre-production
RangeRovers that were built for the 1970 press launch,
though! Therewas some gossip afterwards that Michelinhad said they’d calculated the load on the back tyre at speed
on the top of the bankingwas over 70 tons, and they’d found
the mark of awood screw on the tyre that blew, althoughI
can’treally believe therewould have been a screw on the
MIRA test track.But itwas only hearsay as far as Iwas
concerned, and I never saw anything official about it.
“I’d been akeen LandRover fan since Iwas a lad, and I’d
enteredmyfirst trial in 1957 at the age of16. Mybrother and
I both entered inWJW 957, whichwas our dad’s2.0-litre
Series II.Hewas a keen caravanner and therewere a lot of
people in the MidlandRover Owners’ Club thatworked at
Solihull, and always plenty of LandRovers around.
“A few years later Iwas working for a company that
delivered petrol to theAustin factory at Longbridge, andI
bumped into DennisPatstone whowas working there. I
knew Dennis from the caravanning and he told me that he’d
just been offered a job as a mileage driver with LandRover at
Solihull, and that sounded likemyperfect job. I told him that
if anyvacancies came up I’d bevery interested, and thought
no more of it.
“A year or two later Iwas working as awelder atJohn
ThompsonMotor PressingsLtd, who had the contract to
manufacture the chassis for the RangeRover. We’d work
from Monday to Thursday fabricating the chassis
components and then on Friday they’d all go into a jig and an
automated welder was supposed to weld all the parts
together.It never reallyworked properly somy
jobwas to make good thewelding before the
finished chassiswere delivered to Solihull.We
were supposed to make around 100 aweek butI
reckonwe were doing more like 25!
“In those days a lot of the jobs atRover and
LandRover were given out to the family and
friends of the people whowere alreadyworking
there, so itwas always good to have contacts.
One day Dennis called me to ask if Iwas still
interested in a job as a mileage driver and of
course I saidyes,and Iwas told that I’d get a call
about it from the foreman,Ken Twist. I didn’tLAND ROVER LEGENDS“I’d been a keen Land
Rover fan since I was
a lad, and I’d entered
myfirst trial in 1957
at 16. Mybrother and
I entered in our dad’s
2.0 Series II. There was
always plenty of Land
Rovers around ”Dutch Army trials.The LRteam with ColinColin’s LR being driven in a trialbyhis wife, LesleyYVB 156Hcameoffworst after its encounter with a skip lorryColin’s YVB in actionatthe 19 76 Castrol National Rally“