Post by Stiffy on Feb 28, 2023 11:40:58 GMT
The first time I ever read about the Bond Bug was October 1970 when the Meccano magazine dropped through my door with the Bond Bug resplendent on the cover.
The Meccano magazine started life in the 1910s and over the years got a full cover in colour. It was produced through both World wars but due to the war effort shrunk in size during the 1940s.
The golden era for me was the 1930s when the magazine was the A4 size with Britain producing some of the worlds best engineering products.
By the 1960s the Magazine was back to being the larger size but shortly after I had started to subscribe ( I was 9) it ceased production. But in 1968 it was re released. These were smaller but still contained all the usual stuff including Trains, Stamps, Hornby and interesting articles.
The new magazine was produced in Hemel Hempstead my home town. As mentioned earlier the October issue arrived not just with the Bond Bug parked up in Hemel old high street but also with Harvey Canadas one of my Neighbours on the front who had been lucky enough to do a road test of this new orange car. The Magazine was not known for doing car tests. It did bikes but to my knowledge the Bond Bug was the only car I ever saw reviewed in the magazine.
The Bug received a nice review. I will reproduce it soon. The car they used was on loan from 2 strokes of Stanmore who provided DNM44H a car with no side stripes or engine cover.
I was contacted by Harvey's sister years later and she asked me if I would like photos of the road test. Of course I said yes. I did an article on this for the Bug Club Magazine with a few shots enclosed but I couldn't post as many as I wanted. Harvey sadly has died but she gave me permission to publish them.
So in all there glory for the first time in 53 years here we have them. My thanks to Maria. Click for full size image.
