OK, does anyone remember Fahys of Morecambe? They used to be on the prom between the train station and the old Empire building, dealing in quality British Leyland vehicles!! They no longer exist.
Many years ago a mate of mine inherited a bit of money via his grandad and was in the market for a newer motor. So he roped me in to pootle round a few garages and see what we could find for around 1000 quid, a tidy some for those days.
So we do Pye Motors with all the Dagenham dustbins, (Cortina's, Escrots, Grandads etc) and eventually end up at Fahys.
Now my mate Chas takes a fancy to a second hand mini, in red, white roof, wide arches, chubby tyres, spotlamps, the works, proper sporty and cool.
He does the usual tyre kicking and gawping under the bonnet with the polyester suited moustache thats attempting to sell it to him before asking for a test drive.
He trots off to get the keys and returns clutching some boiler suits and crash helmets for us all. We stare at one another blankly but put them on and I climb in the back (despite my asthma) and Chas climbs behind the wheel and off we go.
Well, he really gives it some, through the streets of Turin, down some steps while a wedding is coming out, through a piazza dragging a washing line, onto a marble floored covered arcade (bloke cleaning the floor gets annoyed and throws his chammy to the floor and gives up), before you know we have the cops chasing us through sewers and across a wier!!! Imagine?
Eventually, we end up running up the back of a specially prepared coach in the lower alpine mountains and ditching the mini out the back, complete right -off!!!
Fahys no longer exist!! I for one, know the reason why!