Torque of the town
Page 74

If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
They sold a Volvo F86 for £11,000 in London on Friday night, but don't get the idea that even our inflation has yet gone that far (the list price is £8,500). It was the 10,000th Volvo truck to be imported into Britain, and Jim McKelvie's Ailsa Trucks had donated it, for auction, to the National Society for Mentally Handicapped Children. The £11,000 was the auction price which went to the Society from Gabriel Harding of Gulliver Truck Hire, Bristol — the big-hearted bidder who topped the lot.
Ailsa had taken over the Talk of the Town in London's West End and filled it with customers, suppliers, colleagues, visitors from Sweden and "the gentleman of the press" (recognition at last). Between wining, dining and floor show they had Charlie Chester as auctioneer — and then the generosity of others present was demonstrated when the assembled company collected a further £1,000 in a matter of minutes to provide a whacking total of £12,000 for this tremendously deserving charity.