After pondering what to do with their car-mad son, the parents sent me off with the neighbour on his power meter-reading job during school holiday. Ostensibly I was the gate opener to access farms and ranches to read meters at cowsheds and pumps hidden on the back of farming properties. But we would swap seats at the gate, and I would nervously–at first–pilot the truck along farm tracks, up and down steep paddocks thru swampy ground etc..
The truck in question is a 1966 Austin Gypsy SWB hardtop, 4WD hi-lo transfer case powered by the same 2.2 motor as the Austin 16 I wrote about. It had an all steel body with fibreglass top. This was Austin’s reply to the Landrover.
This particular Austin was replaced with a new Landrover in 1973 just prior to me gaining my license at age 15, so I have quite extensive experience with both. The Gypsy was much heavier and sat on the road better, bearing in mind these were the gravel back roads of my home counties. The slightly longer wheelbase made for greater stability over the Land Rover on loose shingle, and it actually drove reasonably well with no need to stop to disengage 4WD. I preferred it to the newer vehicle.
As an aside this job was initially done in an ex-WW2 Jeep, but it proved incapable (war weary?-ED) so it was replaced with a Chevy pickup until 1954 when a Landrover was used. Then came this Austin, the other LR, and finally a Subaru ute before my driving instructor retired.
The Jeep had no real weather protection so all the book work would get wet and it lay down on hillsides a couple of times so was replaced with a closed cab ute/pickup and walking.
Where that pic is taken, is a peninsular with no road access the power meters were read once a year during fine weather allowing a vehicle in, residents used boats to visit their properties or 4WD and took their chances but all building materials and whole houses were delivered by barge.
The dream of everyone here at that age – driving! Off road, even. That kind of early experience paid a lot of dividends later, I’ll bet.
Great story & picture Bryce,I don’t remember the Austin Gypsy in the UK,was it an Australian Leyland vehicle?I’m around your age as I turned 16 in 1973 but had to wait til 17 before getting a provisional(learner) licence.I could have had a licence to ride a 50cc moped but declined as I would look like a performing bear!
Austin UK made them originally with flexitor suspension later with leaf springs same as Landrover when BLMC was formed landrover was kept aqnd the Gipsy was dropped, I guess they are quite rare now they were never common here. Wolseley/Austin series C 6 cylinder motors bolt in though they have a weight disadvantage to go with the extra power
Thanks Bryce,I’ve never seen one in the metal or heard of it before.
I’m pretty sure they were designed to be a British military vehicle
Many more people need to learn how to drive the way you did. And the Austin is pretty intriguing also.
I’ll admit to being a big jealous here. I learned to drive the normal way, in a car on a road. Great story!
It was a great way to learn driving. I was allowed to go flat out, get the truck sideways all the things they tell you not to do I was shown how it was great fun my instructor loved being driven around his run, people used to comment on it and I got to play all day in a real car/pickup. I passed my licence in a Morris minor I had never driven until that morning the cop said I needed hill start practice the owner mentioned I had never driven it before then, the traffic cop seemed impressed and since the Gypsy I have driven hundreds of different vehicles.
What a great introduction to driving Bryce! I’ve mentioned before that the Motorcorp dealer Dad was mechanic at had a Gypsy in the 80s – the dealer’s owner used it to tow his boat. I was really confused when I first saw it, wondering if it was some sort of Land Rover – maybe another bit of BL badge-engineering I thought. The workshop vehicle was a Series II Landie though, so when they were parked side-by-side one day I compared them and saw the Gypsy appeared to be a different vehicle. Dad then confirmed this and filled me in on the background of the two vehicles. Been a while since I last saw a Gypsy, but there’s the odd one pop up on trademe so I guess they’re still out there.
Great story Bryce. I first started ‘driving’ my grandfather’s Subaru ute when I could barely reach the pedals – idling along in first gear, low range while he was in the back feeding grain for the sheep and he would call out when he wanted me to turn etc. The speed was slow enough that he could get out of the bed of the ute, walk/jog alongside and get in to take over driving.
Years later I did a similar thing with his 7 ton Acco truck with the tipping tray raised so he could unload large round hay bales – that would have given an OHS person a heart attack! I remember the clutch pedal needed quite a shove, I nearly had to stand on it.
Neat story Bryce, sounds like a lot of fun. I’ve never heard of the Gypsy or seen one, but it looks like a cool little four wheeler.