Tuesday 10 November 2009

Find The Fault No 47



I must apologise for the poor quality of this image. I snapped it last night, and it looks like I did it by candlelight. So you'll have to puzzle over it very carefully. I note that the number plate says the car was apparently registered in the North Riding of Yorkshire, but I wouldn't mind betting the letters are the artist's initials. When I worked in what was then called 'commercial art' we were always doing things like that. Hiding questionable details in silhouettes of trees or clouds, putting spurious headlines on newsvendor's placards and our girlfriend's or wives' names above shop fronts. Sometimes both.

23 comments:

expat said...

Blimey - it's got some back lights!

Is the fault that it is left hand drive or possibly the strange radio-active glow on the buildings on the right?

Chris Partridge said...

There are no road markings at all, making this a very early example of the new trend for traffic calming by replacing white lines with strategically planted trees.

Peter Ashley said...

C'mon everybody, I need my bacon sandwich and a few espressos.

bikerted said...

It's got to be the indicator, It would not stay in situ for long being that way round.

Anonymous said...

The rather sinister lack of an exhaust pipe? Though details like that don't normally seem to trouble our illustrator.

Peter Ashley said...

Bikerted, you're getting close.

Vincent said...

The erect trafficator, the whitewall tyres - no fault there, in the Fifties at any rate. The trafficator glows a little greenish but you've explained the colouring anomalies.

There was a time when you had to have at least one rear light, it didn't matter where; but the Ministry of Transport started to demand red reflectors, which would give an indication of the vehicle's width on a dark night. My grandfather had to have them installed on his Ford Model Y (bought new 1934, scrapped when he was persuaded to give up driving in 1964).

But the artist could hardly start acknowledging lack of rear reflectors as a fault, at this point in the series. I'm baffled.

Chris Partridge said...

Didn't you have to make a hand signal as well as use the indicator at one time?

Peter Ashley said...

Mmm. Bit of a quandary here. You've actually unwittingly hit on it Vincent, so I feel you are this week's winner. That traffic indicator is not the usual colour anomaly we've got used to, the answer is indeed that it should be orange and not green. Which must seem a mute point to those who didn't witness these strange clunking protuberances.

Peter Ashley said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

As you say, given the illustrator's history of a rather 'inventive' approach to colouring (I am always vaguely reminded of the post-nuclear-blast forest-glade-with-unicorn images that the neo-Daubist school try to sell on Sundays at the railings at Green Park), we can be forgiven for missing this one!

Peter Ashley said...

You're quite right DC. We didn't stand a chance really. Well I did, cos I've got the answer sheet.

Simon said...

And there was me thinking that the gutter was in the wrong place to catch any surface run-off.

Jon Dudley said...

In my experience (bikerted) those old semaphore signals remained erect until you turned around and gave the side of the car a hearty thump at which point they obediently wilted. Mind you I'd probably neglected to lubricate the mechanism every two days with Morris' special lightweight trafficator oil as per the substantial handbook.

Peter Ashley said...

Do you know, I love all these comments. And thankyou Jon for the reminder of Morris' oil. Many years ago I found a big drum of their Golden Film at the back of a deserted barn. Made in Shrewsbury I believe.

bikerted said...

You are correct Peter. Morris' oil does come from Shrewsbury, Castle Foregate to be precise. Well that's what is printed on the back of a plastic container of their finest SAE40 that I have in my oily paw.

Anonymous said...

no door handles.

Bucks Retronaut said...

So there`s the fault then, Anon.
This car must be a bit of a heap, as any halfway decent motor should be able to corner on its door handles notwithstanding the colour of its trafficators.

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