Author Topic: Red Garages  (Read 27588 times)

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Offline Cambrian

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Re: Red Garages
« Reply #15 on: January 29, 2012, 11:42:26 am »
Sounds like "Jock" who lived in Jubilee Street and was married to Phyllis Wynne.

Offline suepp

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Re: Red Garages
« Reply #16 on: January 29, 2012, 01:43:54 pm »
I remember Jock putting a Tiger in our tank!


Offline DVT

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Re: Red Garages
« Reply #17 on: January 29, 2012, 10:12:24 pm »
Just to add a little bit ...

G A F Wilkes was known as Tony (I assume his second name was Anthony)

Colin Mack drove the Red Garages Avengers and later Sunbeams on rallies.  I navigated him in the Avengers in 1974 when he won the Welsh Road Rally Drivers Championship (I was second in the navigators as I missed one event - the Cambrian which I was in charge of!), then in 1975 we became the first-ever winners of the Welsh Stage Rally Championship.  We also won the North-Western Rally Championships.

In 1979 Colin won his class on the RAC Rally, co-driver was Keith Williams who is Sales Manager at Pentraeth Honda now.

Red Garages sponsored the Cambrian Rally through the 1970's when I was clerk-of-the-course for the event.

My sister worked in the showroom during the 1970's.


Offline Bri Roberts

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Red Garages and the late Colin Mack
« Reply #18 on: January 29, 2012, 10:29:11 pm »
DVT, can you answer this for me?

I was on holiday in the IOM in the early seventies and I seem to remember taking a B&W photograph of Colin in his Avenger presumably in a rally of sorts over there in Douglas.

Did I imagine it?

If I didn’t then does a registration number starting OCC ... ring a bell?

Offline DVT

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Re: Red Garages
« Reply #19 on: February 01, 2012, 10:20:23 am »
Hi Brian ...

... yes, it would have been Colin, with me co-driving.  September 1973 on the Manx International Rally - we finished 32nd overall, 3rd in class in the yellow Avenger reg'n OCC 3M.  I'd be interested to see the photo!

... the following year we had the red/white Avenger, reg'n GCC 11N, and finished 13th overall, 2nd in class (beaten by the "works" Avenger!).

Happy days!!!

Offline Bri Roberts

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Re: Red Garages
« Reply #20 on: February 01, 2012, 05:16:37 pm »
OMG that is a coincidence.

I remember it was definitely in September but I find it hard to believe that was nearly 40 years ago.

I am afraid finding the photograph now, DVT, would be like looking for a needle in a haystack in our home of 30 years.


Offline Dave E

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Re: Red Garages
« Reply #21 on: May 01, 2012, 01:04:19 pm »
Hi all, i found this forum whilst searching for Red's info, so i joined.
Born and brought up in Llandudno, now living in sunny Cyprus.
I left Mostyn Central school in 1970 aged 15. And started work as an indentured apprentice panel beater at Red Garages when it was a Rootes group dealer, ( I still have my interview acceptance letter! and Indenture papers) You want to try and knock a dent out of a super snipe front wing, solid beasts they were. I stayed there for many years. I fully remember The gang, Jock and Ken on the pumps, Ken (after Colwyn bay depot closed down) and Norman Jukes the two foremen ran the mechanics, Alec the scots electrician, Wally Butler the commercial mechanic and David his son, My body repair mentor was old Cliff Brownson, along with Gordon Roberts (whom previously owned "U Bend em, We Mend em" uptown), there was also Johhny France in the bodyshop.
 It was owned when i started work by G.A.F Wilkes he had a bloody great Jensen Interceptor, and a very bad speech stutter.
I remember Colin Mack's rallied up yellow Avenger Tiger.


Offline Gerii

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Re: Red Garages
« Reply #22 on: November 15, 2017, 05:08:21 pm »
"Our Head Booking Office, Vaughan Street, Llandudno.  Next to General Post Office. Show room and lounge waiting area. telephone 6055." taken late 1920s.

Offline Ian

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Re: Red Garages
« Reply #23 on: November 15, 2017, 07:17:55 pm »
Excellent picture.
Nothing is so firmly believed as that which we least know.  ― Michel de Montaigne

Si hoc legere scis, nimis eruditionis habes.

Offline Michael

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Re: Red Garages
« Reply #24 on: November 16, 2017, 09:06:42 am »
 The end of this great old business was a crying shame. I,m not afraid at all by writing that in my opinion it was terrible management plus a team of workers at the top who considered they could do what they liked and act like tin gods. The young boss trained at Manchester business school. Lot of good this training did for royal reds

Offline DaveR

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Re: Red Garages
« Reply #25 on: November 16, 2017, 09:09:04 am »
I remember going with the my Dad to look at the used cars for sale behind the showroom part of Red Garages in the early 80s (now  the British Heart Foundation shop is). The showroom was a Talbot dealer, I think?

Offline Michael

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Re: Red Garages
« Reply #26 on: November 16, 2017, 09:20:05 am »
It was a rootes dealer. I think talbot part of that group. Of course the decline of rootes didn’t help the Reds one bit. Same with m and k in old colwyn. Unfortunately business times change constantly and it no use for companies to think because they part of a big family for maybe 50 years, it will go on for ever without change

Offline DaveR

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Re: Red Garages
« Reply #27 on: November 16, 2017, 09:43:00 am »
It was a rootes dealer. I think talbot part of that group. Of course the decline of rootes didn’t help the Reds one bit. Same with m and k in old colwyn. Unfortunately business times change constantly and it no use for companies to think because they part of a big family for maybe 50 years, it will go on for ever without change
Wasn't M&K also a British Leyland dealer later on? I also remember going with my Dad to get some spares from the Unipart branch that was there.

Offline DVT

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Re: Red Garages
« Reply #28 on: November 16, 2017, 09:49:10 pm »
Red Garages was Rootes, which included Hillman, Sunbeam Humber and Singer ... Rootes were taken over by Chrysler and then Talbot, and then Peugeot which is how it ended up.  Taken over by Mochdre Garage which was also Peugeot and remains Peugeot to this day.  The old showroom was where the BHF shop is now, the current Mochdre Garage is where the old red Garages workshops were.  Kwikfit are where Red Garages had their petrol pumps.

M&K in Old Colwyn was always Austin-Morris, British Leyland, Rover as far as I am aware.  My first car was an Austin Mini Countryman bought in 1966 second-hand from Slaters Abergele, but I had the servicing done my M&K.  I donlt think it was ever any other dealership other than the BL Group, but will stand corrected on that.

Offline SDQ

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Re: Red Garages
« Reply #29 on: November 17, 2017, 08:11:08 pm »
Following the demise of BL/Rover/MG I think M&K went with a couple of other brands before they closed, Alfa Romeo springs to mind as one of them.
Valar Morghulis