What I Saw Today: The Gipsy Edition

This olelongrooffan did this post over at Hooniverse back during BikeWeek and I thought all y'all might enjoy it as well.



Welcome to Hooniverse Truck Thursday. I know this is Hooniverse Truck Thursday and I am confident my fellow Hoons are wondering what the hell this trailer has to do with that.

This post needs a bit of a setup so bear with this olelongrooffan. In May, 2008, I was laid off from my long held position in the construction industry and relocated to the Birthplace of Speed to be a bit nearer to my closest brother thejeepjunkie. Since then, I have been applying and applying for positions over the past four years but to no avail. I guess there is not much market in the Sunshine State for middle aged, middle managers with no experience other than 28 years of management in the construction industry. I have been surviving by doing mostly small remodels, diminishing my savings and using my blogging as a way to maintain some sense of sanity. I'm not quite sure if the latter has worked though.

Well, anyway, late last summer thejeepjunkie left his position with the company that supplies NASCAR their tires and went to work with a smallish Mom and Pop shop and has met with great success there, although the hot pit pass connection kind of went to the wayside for this season. Anyway, last fall he hooked me up with his bosses, the owners of The Car Shop, who were interested in having some sprucing up done around their place. After I had been working around there for a few weeks, Robin takes this olelongrooffan over to his place next door, bestpricetrailers.com, and relays to me some of the remodeling plans he has in mind. I related I could easily perform the tasks he set forth and even provided some upscale options for his office with which he fell in love.

So this olelongrooffan commenced to kicking construction butt at the trailer place and about two weeks into the project Robin offered me a real job being the lot boy selling trailers and responding to the ever growing number of email inquiries he has been receiving. It seems the two existing sales guys are overwhelmed by the ever increasing number of net inquiries and needed some additional assistance. Well needless to say, this olelongrooffan was extremely flattered and on Monday of this week I began training to sell trailers. As I had been around the place for a few months, I pretty much had some idea of what was going on and Quickbooks is well known to this olelongrooffan. So, on Tuesday morning upon arrival at work, my cool ass sales manager said, and I quote, "This training crap is bullshit. Starting now are selling, now go sell something."

Well my fellow Hoons, the image of the above trailer is the one I sold two hours later, to a rodeo clown, no less. Yes, the clown salesman joke has made the rounds.

Now, is this the gipsy referred to in the title of this post? Not even close.



Now one of the cool things about having a brother who is fairly well known and respected in the automotive repair business in what is really a small megopolis, plus the fact he drives a Michigan yellow 1946 CJ2A, is that he tends to attract some kind of cool stuff to his shop.

By that, I am not talking about that almost run of the mill Land Rover I spotted with fellow Hoon Jim Yu down in FantasyLand a couple years ago. No more of something like this



and my fellow Hoons can read the whole story here.

Or even something like this,



But my fellow Hoons will have to wait a bit until this olelongrooffan does a post about that Kissimmee Mecum purchased Corvette destined for upper PA.



Hell my fellow Hoons, I'm not even referring to this continuation Cobra a buddy of thejeepjunkies and mine brought around the week before the Rolex24.

No, one of the coolest Hoon sightings, among many, this olelongrooffan has seen around thejeepjunkie's place is this one.



Yeah, it's a Daimler Dart SP250 that I Hooned about here.

Well, on Wednesday as this olelongrooffan was headed out back to have a coke and a smoke in the service area of both The Car Shop and bestpricetrailers, I spotted the, almost, absolutely coolest vehicle I have seen in some time.



And, it is owned by the same dude who owns that Daimler SP 250. See that Austin A70 based 2199cc BMC motor?



Well my fellow Hoons, there is no way it powers a mere Austin A70.



No, it is under the hood of one of only 21,208 of these



Land Rover fighting military dueling machines ever produced.



And this olelongrooffan would love to the have the half cab version, such as this one is, of "The Charles Barrett Special."



Yes, Hoons, it is the Austin Gipsy. The first one was, appropriately, built on February 28, 1958 and the last one, a Gen IV model, was built ten years later. And that is thejeepjunkie's Michigan yellow 2A in the background of this image as well as his DD Ranger and one of several Panther's that seem to congregate around his shop.



Now this thing is as utilitarian as they come but it works. Clever compartments surrounding the rear fenders and minimalist decorations only serve to make this rare buggy more desireable.



Drew, the seasoned wrench around this shop approached me as I was gathering some images of it. "Austin Healey?" he queried. "No," this olelongrooffan responded with and set forth a bit of a disertation about the Austin Healey, Jenson Healey, Nash Healey, and Healey in general. DDrew, whose wrenching abilities have had the respect of this olelongrooffan since day one, looked at me and said, "You really know your shit, don't you?" And the only response this olelongrooffan could come up with was, "Yeah, BS is my middle name." We both had a chuckle over that but I am pretty sure the information I relayed to him about Healey's in general was correct. Having said that, I am confident I will see the need to correct something in the future about them.



So back to this buggy. The above image is of the inside of the driver's door. That chain operates the release for the door latch as well as serving as the pull to close the door.



But the thing that both Drew and fellow wrench George noticed was the independent rear suspension with components known as "Flexitor" containing rubber springs on the rear



and trailing arm suspension on the front. Just a note, in the trailer industry, I am told this is known as a torsion arm suspension. But what the hell does this olelongrooffan know? I am a total newbie in the industry. But certainly happy to be here.



Now, subsequent to gathering these images of a never previously seen by this olelongrooffan vehicle, I touched base with thejeepjunkie and he connected me with several sites pertaining to the Austin Gipsy. Of course, wikipedia and google, but also YouTube this, and the spelling is correct, and check out the ability of the Rover contesting light weight. I gathered the above image of the assembly line from a blog devoted entirely to this vehicle and this link should suffice as its credit. Be prepared to lose a hour or so there. The rest of the images in this post are originals from this olelongrooffan.



However, my fellow Hoons, as cool as this buggy is, remember it is British afterall and the only reaffirmation you will need of that is to check out the liquid seeping from the connection between the head and the block in the above grainy image.

But ya know what? I WANT IT!! BAD! And this olelongrooffan would venture that I am not the only Hoon with this case of want.