Transport » Taxis

Old London Cabs
http://www.lvta.co.uk/

Why were black cabs called Hackney Cabs, London Cabs or whatever. When they had very little to do with London other than the fact it was where you would find the highest concentration of them.

As far as I am aware most of them were built in Coventry at Carbodies werent they? and now they are built anywhere there are that many different types.

This photo is of what you call a real cab, designed by the man who designed Birmingham Town Hall. It's waiting for me outside my front door.

Phil

Phil
I don't know about the Hackney derivation, but understand that the reason they are called london cabs is because of a requirement of the London licensing authorities to have a very small turning circle (it is said to navigate round the Savoy hotel entrance) and , at one time being tall enough inside to allow a gentleman to wear his top hat in the cab without removing it. When other authorities used these vehicles they were therefore called london cabs.
Mike

Mike

All you have stated is quite true, and I have no objection to cabs operating in London being called London Cabs or Black Cabs, but I see that is becoming a misnomer now as they all seem to be a dark wine colour now, or is that just in Birmingham?

Phil

Phil, you won't know this but FX4s or "Black Cabs" as I prefer to call them are also in use abroad though of course not always black.

This one was in Guia, Algarve.

were these made by Carbodies Coventry

SB

Not a 100% sure but I think the engine a chassis were made by Austin and the coachwork was by Carbodies. I think that Carbodies were still doing the coachwork right up until a few years ago.

Now I think most of the taxi's are just glorified Renault & Peugeot vans

Phil

Done a bit of research and have found the following info:

FX4 was made for 39 years 1958 - 1997
Austin Engine 2.2 1958 - 1982
Rover Engines 2.2 & 2.5 1982 - 1989
Nissan Engine 2.7 1989 - 1997

The Nissan 2.7 continued to be used in later (non FX4) models unti 2002 when it was replaced by the Ford 2.4

Production of the FX4 was by Carbodies until 1989, then they became London Taxis International and the FX4 was called the Fairway series

The current model is the TX4 (after the TX1 and TXII) which looks like an updated FX4.

A year 2000 model TX1 with half a million miles on the clock will set you back £4,500.
A year 2007 model TX4 with 100,000 miles on the clock will cost you £17,500.

VM

In the early 80's we had a lwb land rover pick up truck. The fuel consumption was horrendous so we bought a second hand black cab engine and with the help of a conversion kit that cost us £60 our mechanic changed the engine. What we lost in power was well worth the increase in miles per gallon.

Phil

Phil, A pick up truck would have been a good name for a Black Cab. SB

SB

A Land Rover pick up was a great tool for us, it was great for towing an empty tuck but not really a good idea if it was loaded. It also could be used for running heavy spares around like replacement wheels & tyres and even engine parts. They were a great working tool and the great thing was anything could be changed with a spanner and screwdriver even body parts.

Phil

I knew a guy years ago, who had a landrover because he never had to clean it. It never went rusty.

Aluminium panels were the reason for the low levels of visible rust.

Has any of our resident brains, any idea how many models of LANDROVER have been turned out of Solihul.
This isn't a quiz I havn't got a clue what the answer is. SB

SB

I don't know the answer, but I don't think its that many because for years the Land Rover was basically the same model. You could modernise the body parts year by year just by changing the body parts.

I'll try to find out what the number was.

Phil