Jowett Cars Test Route

[Music] it's astonishing today to imagine there was once a car factory here on what is now a retail park from the start of production in 1920 on this site in idle on the north side of bradford the jarrett cars limited factory was to produce reliable and durable vehicles for over 30 years a mural inside Morrison's supermarket and a silhouette of a van on the carpark wall are the only tangible reminders for the former production facility many of Jarrod's cars and vans have survived to this day due to the superb build quality and the reliability of the two or four-cylinder horizontally-opposed petrol engines but more than this Jarrod's pioneered destructive testing of their prototype vehicles a test route was devised by Horace grimly the manager of Jarrod's experimental department just before the Second World War no other motor manufacturer in Britain had adopted such an exhaustive proving regime it has put Jarrett cars ahead of all their competitors from 1950 to 1953 Philip Green was employed in the experimental Department as a test driver we met up with Phil at the Bradford industrial museum where he described the test route from his personal and recollections Horace grimly who was the head of experimental set up the route pre-war it took into account every possible type of terrain it was quite unique by the very fact that we have the option dales on our doorstep this is what gave us the uniqueness we had a route which to go through the whole 200 miles took 8 hours of very hard driving it was during Phil's tenure that Jarrett's developed a replacement for the successful but dated Bradford van the new vehicle known by its factory model designation CD would be available as a fan state car pickup and saloon the prototype required intensive testing within a short space of time this was to ensure the new range was running in what was quickly becoming a competitive post-war marketplace Phil green explains the post-war van the commercial vehicle was the Bradford van and there was a CA which was then superseded by the CB and by the CC so what we were then replacing was the CC because the CD was C commercial d the next model in line what year were we looking at here this was 1952 52 fill what was the duration of a typical vehicle test and how did the drivers rule to work really we only did it once which was the 12 weeks run for the CD and the new CD Bradford which started at the beginning of February 1952 and ran through to the end of April 1952 because we took three more ads out of experimental to join me there were four of us running this one vehicle over appeared of 12 weeks this meant the first man went out at 7:00 in the morning and came back at 3 in the afternoon the second man went out at 3 in the afternoon and came back at 11:00 at night and then two of you went out at 11:00 at night through to 7:00 in the morning it was necessary for two men to run through the night because if you had anything happen bearing in mind we were in deep snow up the dales if we went off the road you disappear without a trace it was not only the weather conditions the CD vehicle had to contend with it was also loaded to capacity to prove its carrying capabilities as Phil remembers he must bear in mind that the vehicle we were using was the estate car version right we took the rear bench seat out and in its place we mounted two wooden boxes to the floor which would which contained 56 pound waves to the total weight of ten hundred waves in order to get a flavour of the conditions experienced on the test route we'll be showing six different examples of restored giant vehicles running in all types of weather during what must be one of our severus twin ters on record the owners of these precious Jarrett's volunteered to help us recreate just one circuit of the route around Yorkshire geographically the factory at idle was at the centre of the British Isles and located conveniently close to York's finest rural asset the Yorkshire Dales a test route was designed around 200 miles of varying roads passing through many now-familiar towns and villages but remember that in the mid 20th century not many people had cars and they were not familiar with these sparsely populated areas the test route starts at the factory site heads off down to the valley bottom left onto the a six five eight and crosses over the River Aire before reaching Rawdon here a left turn onto the a sixty five takes the route on two guys Lee then oddly the Gateway to open countryside our early morning start with Doug ross'll in his 1953 jar javelin deluxe saloon [Music] probably the most well-known Jayate the javelin was designed by Gerald Palmer formerly of mg the prototype was sent out for a rigorous test on the Yorkshire route in 1945 further testing and development continued in 1946 before it was put into production for its official launch in 1947 it was claimed to be the first all-new post-war British car Doug bought his javelin in 1958 he used to work at doon ray in Caithness scotland he would drive ru b-59 one from dune ray to Leeds twice a month stopping only to refuel traveling on the old a9 and the original narrow roads the one-way journey was 500 miles the car never let him down [Music] at white cross guys Lee the Jarrett's past the now world famous Harry Ramsdens fish and chips recipe [Music] for motley the road travels north to meet the a 59 York to Liverpool Road at Glover houses [Applause] [Applause] [Music] leaving behind the prominent church at Bluebird houses it's only a very short distance to a left turn to head north again in the direction of purely in litter Dale for the next few miles we're traveling with Phil green in his 1951 charge Jupiter this is a nostalgic trip fulfill who drove this route many times whilst working for Jarrett's experimental Department it's spitting MacPhail should be used in the Jupiter he bought in 2008 as his favorite car driven of the test run was a Jupiter which was he favorite calf oh my running tests but it was our 1951 Monte Carlo class winning Jupiter gky 107 why was it very well it was a is a magnificent piece of kit it had enormous performance I could get a hundred and fifty mile an hour out of that car [Music] negotiating hills and twisting roads on the rural stages of the route provided thorough testing of the vehicles steering and braking systems leading Bureau Lee and turning left on the westbound roads to grassing ttan the cars are immediately challenged by the long steep climb up Greenhow hill the high level wall and road then continues on to grassing to [Music] the climb up to the summit at Greenhow hill was the first of three major hill climbs to be encountered on this Brewer linger [Music] the road is now through limestone country below the ground of stumped cross caves and caverns and rock formations created over thousands of years by the dissolving power of water on limestone [Music] [Music] at grassing t'en the route turns north along the valley of the river war through Kettlewell and buck turn on the b61 sixer it then begins the ascent to 1394 feet above sea level at kid stones before dropping down into Bishop Dale and on to West berth [Music] we're now traveling with Steve waldenberg in his 1951 standard javelin steve has owned this javelin since 1995 a previous owner was Alf Thomas ajar dealer in Bedford who famously bought the three prototype R for Jupiter sports cars [Music] [Music] the climb too kid stones is the second of the challenging Hills to put the Jarrod's to the test during these snowbound conditions from the CD Bradford prototype was being tested this location was a test for the car and it's driver Phil green again kid Stearns was at a difficult run especially with the snow especially at night and you had to take the decision to commit yourself to that part of the road before making a start at all because you couldn't stop on it and turn down and come back the road was too narrow to be able to do this the lying snow here gives a good idea of how it must have been in the winter of 1952 but amazingly having dropped it down into Bishop tale we found it clear of snow at west burton this gives an indication of how the Pennine weather can be so unpredictable after West versus the be six one six zero meets the a six eight four in Wednesday no an easterly direction is followed to the market town of Labor and then the long the a six 108 Southeast terrific the route continues northeasterly on the a61 tosses the a one before entering the market town of Thirsk then proceeds on to the third of challenging Hill Climb at something back the Jared Jupiter featured on this section is owned by Howard Brian I was Jupiter HKU 56 was first registered in 1951 to the giant company who ran it on the test route they also used it for promotional work and as a customer demonstration [Music] [Applause] [Applause] at rippln the root only just skirts the town and at the junction overlooked by the Victoria clock tower built in 1897 makes a 90-degree turn to head out to the moor Phil Green describes how the 1950 cars coped with a torturous climb up sudden bang very well indeed I mean it was a merely a matter of pointing the vehicle out the hill using the right gear to get the right talk capability from the engine and letting it get on and do its job and pull out at the top of the hill [Music] [Applause] two weeks before the weather had been dramatically different he had to abandon the day's filming the root now returns back down sucker back on through Thirsk again then right on the a14 a fast run after leaving bar [Music] [Applause] in the days of the Jared test route there was along this stretch of the a1 a rare section of dual carriageway which was suitable for testing the vehicles at high speeds Leeming bar was a convenient transport cafe but the drivers would stop for refreshments back on the road again and they were driving at speed down to borough bridge where they would lead the a1 and travel west back to Ripon then onto Ripley the test route enters the center of Ripon and passes within sight with a magnificent seventh-century Cathedral bypassing the historical village of Ripley and its splendid castle the route continues to a right turn onto the a59 and proceeds west for 20 miles for the Dales market town of Skipton so far we have seen javelins and Jupiter's on our recreated test route but here we have a Bradford utility van this represents the twin-cylinder commercial vehicle which also benefitted from Road testing on Horace grimness proving run this attractive example of the utility deluxe van was registered in 1951 and is currently owned and driven by John a town in 1976 it was rescued from a scrapyard by Eric Moore who completely restored it including repainting the original ex-works color Catalina tan this color is obligatory for a graph of utility denotes g-e-t 8 9 8 made various appearances on TV and in film over the next few years John became its custodian six years ago and has driven it extensively including in several tours of northern France in one year it travelled further than any other side valve vehicle in the giant car the test route passes blubber houses once again on this occasion we're heading west long with a 59 - scooter jon's Bradford is now traveling along the original route to the a 59 this short section having been bypassed by a new straightened section of this busy road [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] the final section follows the air valley to Bradford and the return to the factory site a diver the village of killed rig five miles along the road from skin tone and here Michael booze 1950 to Bradford CC van travels along the original test route avoiding the modern air valley trunk road four years ago Michael bought the van back after having owned it once before he now uses it on a regular basis and has rallied it in Scotland Norwich and Coventry [Applause] [Applause] the route continues down through Eton and crosses the a65 Oh outside the imposing gates of Bradford's mr. Park steep climb up two rows reveals a panoramic view of Shipley at the air valley beyond back to the factory and that would be the end of one drivers 8-hour shift we have come to the end of our journey along the original test route taken by Jarrett's experimental Department drivers 200 miles of grueling driving uphill and down dale as they say in Yorkshire when Jarrod's used the route to test the Bradford CD model a lot depended on the outcome data from the test was urgently needed to speed up progress on a new vehicle unfortunately it was all to no avail as events overtook the company with the result the giant factory closed in September 1953 during the production of this video we experience the diverse nature of the route and very adverse weather conditions with blizzards and freezing rain it was at times a challenging production to be involved in but we should spare a thought for Phil Green and his colleagues they didn't have our modern creature comforts in their vehicles they were often literally freezing due to a lack of heaters even suffering ice on the inside of their window screens they had to cope with traveling along narrow country lanes of inferior services no grit salt on the snow and ice no street lights strained farm animals wild rabbits and no mobile phones [Music] thanks must go to the owners of these splendid jarred vehicles who helped us recreate the test route they have been instrumental in revealing a long-held secret but not many people outside jarett's knew of the existence of the test route and it's fascinating story [Music] you [Music]

Channel: The Happy Pensioners

Views: 3,269

Rating: 4.9000001 out of 5

Keywords: Jowett, Car, Club, Test, route, rally, Bradford, idle

Id: AAeBB2n4Jr8

Length: 33min 22sec (2002 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 06 2020