QUICKFIT SBS HAS just moved into huge new premises in High Wycombe, employs 12 staff, is the number one supplier of classic car seatbelts and currently fits out around five cars on-site every week - yet it all started on my dad's Edgware driveway in 1962. After leaving the Navy, Bill (his real name was Cornelius, which he hated, and he was known to the family as Conny, which he hated even more) was a sales engineer for Delaney Gallay and they knew seatbelt legislation was on the horizon so saw it as a potential opportunity.
When dad looked into it for them, he discovered loads of people were starting to offer belts, but no-one knew how to fit them to cars that didn't have anchorage points. So he started doing it and ended up running a team of 30 mobile guys fitting belts. They would even fit them to imported cars at the docks before they were transported on to dealerships.
His first workshop was in Kenton and, having read Business at Westminster University, I joined the family firm in 1982. The 1980s were an amazing decade for us. First of all rear belts became compulsory in 1987, which led to the same retrofitting frenzy as front belts had in 1965. The other big breakthrough was that people started taking baby seats seriously, largely thanks to the television programme That's Life! Britax made one, but it was £39 and no-one wanted to pay that so we started renting them out and at our peak had 1000 out there.
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Esta historia es de la edición September 2023 de Octane.
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Will China Change Everything? - China is tearing up modern motor manufacture but is yet to make more than a ripple in the classic car world. That could be about to change dramatically
China now dominates the automotive world in a way even Detroit in its heyday would have struggled to comprehend.Helped by Government incentives, the new car world is dominated by China's industries: whether full cars that undercut Western models by huge amounts, ownership of storied European brands such as Lotus and Volvo, or ownership and access to the vast majority of raw materials that go into EV cars, its influence is far-reaching and deep. However, this automotive enlightenment hasn't manifested itself in the classic world in any meaningful way - until now.
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