Old Thunder Guts retires

In September I received another welcome email from Mike Houghton. He said he'd just been with his wife to check out an AEC Marshall that was still working on a farm a couple of hours away. Peter Vincent, of yellow Octopus fame (see below), had bought the truck and asked Mike to go over her. As you can see from the photos, Mike found her very scruffy and well named - "Old Thunder Guts". How did she get this name? "Well, the muffler is very small and right behind the driver's ear and she does thunder", said Mike.

Above: note the muffler and exhaust. Mmm, noisy...

Mike reported the good news to Peter and they arranged to collect the AEC on Thursday, October 1 before checking her over on the Friday prior to an early start on Saturday morning for a 9am arrival in Gore for the start of the Southern Classic Commercials tour of Southland.

At the time, Mike said, "None of the other guys know that Vic is coming or that the Marshall will be there." It stands to reason that you can imagine their immense surprise at seeing the Marshall turn up. More on this and other wonderful Kiwi trucks on the run shortly.

What a magic, magic machine. She looks rough but if she can do the Southland run after a day's TLC...