Stu Owers Cool-man

Old family friend. I very much enjoyed Martin Buckley’s article on the Vauxhall Royale. My own example, despite also being a coupe, is a true family car. It was registered in Cheshire as LLG 999T on 11 April 1979 to my father, Howard Worth, and was one of the first Royal’s sold in the UK. It was fitted, from new, with the saloon’s two-tone silver and grey wheels, front fog lights, three dummy dashboard switches in place of die plastic blanks and a towbar. Other changes during the first few months were the fitment of the later model of Phillips Turn- lock radio (the early models simply locked rather than turned) and a one-piece fake veneer dashboard (as fitted to the 1980 model), rather than the two-piece version.

If you find yourself living in the Manawatu, I strongly suggest you turn straight to the Federation of Motoring Club's page. If you have a couple of parts cars stashed away on your property, beware, as new Council by-laws will affect you, especially if you don’t get on with the neighbours!

Look ahead to save gas! Tackling hills on my bicycle has taught me a few things about how to extract the best fuel economy from my car. The first time I saw the gas pump register $120 after filling up gave me a jolt of motivation to get the most from each expensive tank of gas. A while ago, I bought a digital speedo for my bike, primarily to see how far each journey was taking me. But once out in the hills, watching how fast I was travelling up the big long ascents soon took my interest. I realised that to increase my speed by even one or two kays an hour while I was climbing required a lot of extra huffing and puffing on my part. Conversely, when descending, it was easy to add another ten kays an hour by putting in the same amount of effort. On longer rides, I began saving my energy for where I was going to reap the biggest reward.