So, amazingly she turned up. Out front was a quite sad looking Ford EL sedan with a body about as straight as a drug dealer. She assured me that the man in Sydney said that it has never had a re-spray, and in that time that it took for her to tell me that line; I counted about 4 different shades of blue…..

This poor thing has had a hard life. A man in a coma could sense that.

I looked at the factory Ford stickers on each panel, and the ones that weren’t painted over told me that about 4 sections were original panels.

On lifting the hood, I automatically found a Tickford gas compliance plate, a quick look inside finding no clock as standard told me immediately that this nice young girl – young mum of 3 – was the proud new owner of an ex-taxi cab….

Yep, you guessed it. "But the speedo reads only 141,000km" she said.

I replied "sweetheart – this old girl has been to the moon and back, and pissed off to Pluto for a U turn. This car has done the 999,999 rolled over the magic million – and has gone on to do another 141,000km"

Closer inspection showed a dash in not too bad a nick, minimal holes from radio mics and stuff, the hole in the centre of the roof had a bog shrink about the size of a 20c piece – so ok – that’s where the aerial was.

The 4.0 litre six was pretty amazing. It had a new cylinder head on it (no oil pressure – but a new head) and funny enough, runs as smooth as silk….no smoke on the rev, and it drives remarkably well.

Not the car I would have purchased, but, buyers are caught every day.

Cab company owners have told me that the Fords do stand up best to long kilometres...I reckon that’s a great test for any car…..

Some early Val taxi stories would be good. Know any? Bring them on !!

Cheers,

            Fletch.