THAMES WITH A SECRET
This vehicle would never be a show prizewinner. The paintwork doesn’t gleam, there’s general unevenness on the panels and even, shock horror, visible brush strokes.
Be all this as it may, place RGC 996 at a show and any automotive exotica would be ignored while people clamour over the old Thames. This vehicle has obviously been used – it has seen things and it has lived.
The vehicle is a crafty old thing however, still hiding an important part of its history, and confused two owners 40 years apart by revealing just a little!
WHAT WE KNOW
This Thames E83 left Ford’s Dagenham plant in 1956, in Utilicon, ie estate car, form. Originally marketed as a Fordson, the 10cwt E83 model was built from 1938 and 1957 as a cheap, rugged, reliable and
