I remember an event that had me and my family puzzled when I was in my early teens. Now in those days my Dad had a Reliant Regal Supervan 3 in yellow, which if one did not know what they are, they are 3 wheeled vehicles designed to get round UK laws enabling those with a motorcycle licence to drive a car if it had 3 wheels and weighed less than 400 kgs, and Reliants were so ahead of their time they not only outsold their competition, but also bought out two of their main competitors. Those who may not know, but when developing these vehicles, in order to produce a much larger vehicle they were amongst the first to use what was then relitively new fibre glass material, and they started building their own lightweight engines which were the worlds first aluminium engine in mass production at the time.
Anyway... My Dad owned a saloon version before that and I remember him leaning over while me and my brother were in thenback to help the car slide round the bends at its top speed of 80mph when my Mum was not in the car. The bend was a fairly sharp left hand bend and the car was right hand drive, and it was a bend that even today I have known cars to not make that bend at lower speeds! My Dad could handle these cars! Unfortunately the Reliant Regal saloon which the style of the back reminded me of a Ford Angular, though I think Reliant got there first with the inward sloping rear window... But sadly though those that know 3 wheeled Reliants, will know that they make great vehicles to drive in the snow as their front wheels are always gripping on the fresh snow, and they are so light their rear wheels that drive them tend to find grip, where heavier 4 wheeled cars may struggle, unfortunately in one bad snowstorm, someone coming the other way skidded out of control in his Austin Maxi and wrote my Dads 3 wheeler off. My Dad was lucky in those days that he never wore the seat belts so he could get his legs and body out the way just in time as the Austin ploughed into his car because had he not done that he would have been crushed.
Now the yellow van he had, my Dad had fitted the rear seats out of the saloon to make the folding up part have proper seats, so me and my brother could sit in the back with my Mum and my Dad in the front.. The vans rear differential was lower geared as they had been designed to carry more weight, so the vans top speed with the same 700cc engine was 70mph rather than 80mph with the saloon, and on this particular day on a long straight with a gentle downhill my Dad hit his vans warp speed, so we were flying along at 70mph, and I loved the excitement of hearing the noisy engines hit their warp speed because they suddenly went quiet. I have had class 143 trains with official 75 mph top speed ride dead quiet as they hit 82 to 83mph which they could certainly do. All the shakes ceased and it felt like one was floating on air! It was an exciting feeling that is hard to describe. The only other thing I have felt this in is my Aunty's 1500cc Lada estate when she touched 85... I have only personally ever hit a vehicles top speed on a Fiat van, other than a 2 stroke 50cc moped, and this van didn't have a very high top speed, and that wasn't that quiet. But on the Reliants it was rather noticable because they are normally loud, as the engines sit between the two front passengers to give these 3 wheeled vehicles good stability, and the fibre glass bodies amplify the sound. The exhausts, though fairly small are minimal in regards to sound deadening as they are on the edge of assisting with the performance rather than making them run quiet. The type of car when being worked hard one could do with ear protection! So when everything rode quiet at top speed, and for that moment we were enjoying the thrill, as I don't think my Dad had taken the van up to 70 before, but then disaster. The engine suddenly became loud and the oil pressure warning light came on. We did not know what had happened so my Dad found a place to pull in and had his carpenters tools in the back, so removed the carpet to expose the three panels one could remove to check the engine, as if opening the bonnet (Hood) one can't see so much as these engines are set back. There are two removable large fibre glass panels, one in each front footwear, and a smaller panel right in the carpet below the centre of the dashboard just above where the gearstick is. This panel exposed the problem. The engines main core plug had blown completely out!
So my Dad walked back to try and find it but wherever it went it was no where to be seen. So returning back, he took his tobacco tin and using some of his tools, cut a new temporary core plug to get us home.
Now we needed water as though my Dad happened to have mastic on him, the car had lost water as behind the core plug the engines internal cooling system was open to the elements so the van was low on water, and the mastic tobacco tin temporary fix was not perfect by any means, and this is where Divine intervention played its part.
We had pulled in near a small junction and right within a triangle of land between this Y shaped junction, for those who wanted to bridge the Y coming off the minor road, there was another road to form a land triangle, and on this land triangle was a cottage with a lovely garden with old hedges round it and my parents called in and the elderly couple helped with water and found a bottle or a container and filled that full of water for us to get home. We were miles out from where we lived and exploring new areas whiel we were there. My Mum remembered the name of the house and the nearest village, and we set off to head back home. My Dad kept the panel open so he could see the engine, so hot drips of water sometimes shot themselves out, but watching the temporary plug was a must. He stopped every 20 miles to cool the car ready for topping up the radiator, and we limped back home keeping the speeds low at 40-50 mph most of the way, and finally we got home.
My Dad had a spare engine from the old car so until he got a spare, he would have used that to keep us on the road.
Now my Mum wrote to this elderly couple to thank them for all they had done, but a few weeks later her letter came back to her stating that no such place existed. We were all rather puzzled. A little while passed and by then my Dad had a Reliant Robin instead, and we went to try and fine the cottage. We found the village if one carried on further down the road, and we found the triangle of land. But this triangle of land was just a green grass verge with no lovely hedges and no gate and no lovely cottage either. Not even any evidence that there had ever been a cottage there at all!
We drove into the village and Mum asked around. No one knew what we were taking about and no one knew the names of the people we had met back then. They seemed as puzzled as we were!
Over the years we have gone up and down that road and on all other roads in the area just incase we mistook where we were, and when I started driving I also have made several attempts of retracing our steps, but nothing. Nothing else like it! And yet that was the very same junction and the very same gentle hill my Dad had hit warp speed in his yellow 3 wheeled van all those years ago! Yet no cottage. Not even any remains. Nothing! Just mowed grass!
Over the years, as in life so many other things have happened since then... So much so we could easily write a book, and we have come to realize that those people were angels in disguise and the cottage, which was so lifelike and physical, had never existed on that spot. We even went to research if there had ever been a cottage there and no. Never was!
So this is where I will say that in life, one will entertain angels and not know it. One may be helped by a few! And nothing is impossible to God. Even to the creation of a temporary house which appeared for one moment in time, and completely vanished without trace!
I thought it was interesting to record this on this thread as it is the type of thing that is unexplainable. And yes, we explored the entire area! Every single main road and lots of smaller roads as well which we knew it was not on... Yet we knew the way we got there and the way we got back home. Yes. An act of God!
