chugga boom
Non-LMC Seller
Permanent resident
Posts: 1754
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« on: 31 May, 2011, 08:56:36 AM » |
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Norman Stewart was a true Lancia legend, my story is of my memories of him from a young boy to a teenager, I always remember 1 thing in particular about Norman and that was his lambda, even as a young boy I was always excited to see Norman and "the car" . My first ever ride in a lambda was in the back of Normans car when I was approximately 8 yrs old speeding up on the striped yellow lines heading into a roundabout saying " look at these stupid lines!!", I remember seeing Norman at many Lancia events that I was dragged to as a child and always enjoyed his company and looked forward to seeing him because he always made a fuss and acknowledged that I was there. In later years when SAS (Stewart Automobile Services) was established, Norman called for my dads help finishing a B20 that was being exported to Australia, this work happened to be in the school holidays so at 15yrs old I was helping with my dad at his garage in Middlewich, I remember fitting most of the exhaust to the B20 and Norman checking my work, "good job JP" will always stay in my memory as I remember being really chuffed that id done the job correctly at that age. Most of my other duties were finding parts and cleaning them up ready for painting etc, part of my payment was an appia windscreen as a spare for my own car which is still on the shelf just incase.
Sadly not long after the B20 was finished Norman fell victim to a haemorrhage at 55 yrs old which left him brain damaged and needing 24hr care, we went to visit him after this had happened on one occasion in my dads astura which Norman had found for him, Norman knew my dad however I don’t think he recognised me as id grown considerably by this stage, my dad pointed at the astura and said "you found that for me Norman" he looked at it and said "down south" the car came from Southampton ,on our way out he said "give my love to Carole" (my mum) , so even is his poor health he still knew the cars and friends , sadly not long after this he passed away at 65 yrs old
Norman was a character that I can only describe as " a lovable rogue" by no means take this as derogatory to him in anyway he was generally the life and soul of the "the party" . an example of his humour and manor : I was sent to the local shop for lunch, whilst we were eating I offered Norman a French fancy , he replied "bloody hell NO! I’ve got one of those at home thanks" referring to his French wife Josie , when we were buying the Augusta off him which he was about to scrap he suddenly turned into Arthur Daily ( in a joking manor) he opened the boot lid and pointed at this bent rusty useless spanner and screwdriver and said "there you are see.....toolkit ready to go!" , another example was a friend of his went on a diet and lost a considerable amount of weight, he then became known by Norman as "the not so fat man" ,my point is that he had a real cracking and generally cheeky sence of humour which made me take to him like a duck to water
To Norman Lancias were more than a hobby or business , they were his "way of life" his obsession, I have never met anyone who lived and breathed the marque with such passion about it as the way he did, he was a real fanatic for originality and making the cars "correct"
His memory still lives on with myself and father on a daily basis, we always use the "ready to go" term in a joking manor, and another of our favourites is "Lancia weather" Norman always had this philosophy that whenever you were going somewhere to pickup a lancia or parts the weather would generally clear and be fine whilst your doing it, he would always say "see Lancia weather " the ironic part of this tale is that we recently visited his old workshop to collect some parts, in the morning the weather was miserable, in the afternoon the weather cleared whilst on the trip over to middlewich and while we were there the weather was really good until we literally closed the rear doors of the van the and the heavens opened, my dad turned to me and said "See Lancia weather!"
Norman had many cars of his own through his life, some of which were a b20 , a lambda, Augusta ,aprilia, jolly van and super jolly , thema v6 and the beta hpp yes hpp ( high performance pickup!!) on return to his garage recently the thema and the hpp were still there covered over, it was great to see them both and brought the fond childhood memories flowing back, however on the other hand it was incredibly sad to see the old workshop in such a poor state .
We have allot to thank Norman for as a family as he found my dads aprilia astura Aurelia and Augusta for him along with tonnes of spares!! but more importantly I thank him for the great memories that he left me with , as a club we owe him for the cars and their owners that he kept on the road and the humour and knowledge that he shared with many
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