Just happened across this superb documentary as part of the New Shoots documentaries by disabled directors.
Fascinating, and quite emotional stuff - it involved a disabled lady (did not get her name, was not paying attention at the start, sorry)who drove a rather rare and unique little vehicle called the Elswick Envoy. The programme was about the car having come to the end of it's life and needing to be replaced, but the lady had become quite attached to it so letting it go was not going to be easy.
I loved the way she described her connection to the car, because it struggled to get going and had difficulty getting around, just like herself (I believe she suffered from a muscle wasting disease).
Such was her affection for the car that she set about trying to find a suitable home for it, contacting private owners, car museums and even a farmer who wanted to mount it on a tree and turn it into a chicken coop.
The programme also looked at the history of disabled vehicles and found some original ones in a museum, which was fascinating.
Thankfully, one of these museums agreed to take the car and look after it. The lady ended up with a brand new, bigger and better vehicle, but the sense of loss was quite palpable.
I also looked up the Elswick Envoy and found out some interesting things - it originally started life in the early 80's as a 'towncar', but was never comissioned. It was bought by the Mini group who redesigned it and put one of their engines in it and called it the Minimissa, but again it never really caught on and never went into production. Finally, it was bought by the Elswick company who decided to redesign it was a disabled vehicle and call it the Elswick Envoy. I believe only 200 were ever made.
It's greatest advantage was a large rear door and ramp that could be worked by a remote, and the fact that it could be driven by the passenger while still in their wheelchair - it even had 2 passenger seats in the back.
A fascinating programme, shame it was tucked away in the early hours of Sunday morning though.
I've just read a lovely piece from Alan Smithee about my documentary - THANKS. I'm slowly getting to grips with the new car... I hope the science museum at Wroughton will have an open day soon, so i can go and visit Elswick and make sure its happy and being looked after ok!
