I think the other chap in the picture might be the late Dave Smedley, HTOEC editor for sometime. One of a line of very good editors that club had, but it also was a club that lost to many very active and skilled organizing and committee members to early deaths or debilitating illness. One wonders what it might have achieved if these guys had remained hale and hearty. It wouldn't have needed me on the committee for one thing. Anyway that is all history and we have the HTC Ltd instead.
Have not seen Arie for yonks. Last met at a few Mannheims after perhaps a 7 years gap. He was at that time doing trips into Italy buying up Italian motorcycles and launching them into the Northern European market. I think he was into Scooters briefly too. He tried getting me interested but UK to Italy is a van breaker and what with the time taken on a trip I was happy to leave that trade to folk hungrier than myself. Buying from him in Holland and shipping back was not economic. He was rather taken aback by my much more conservative rationalized profit and loss estimate based business planning. I had sort of outgrown his way of doing business by the time we met again. I struggled to understand quite what he had gained from all the wheeler dealing as he seemed to be living in the same place doing similar things where as I had moved up the pecking order. Pity as I actually enjoyed doing deals with him even though he was sharper than a porcupine with a pencil sharpener. I got some rattling good stuff off him back in the day.
I recall he bought quite a few Berkeleys off me at one time. What he was doing was then tidying them and selling them off registered using the one ID that historically appeared in the Dutch system. This was fine until some 9 had been sold and the owners started getting out and about. Ultimately there was an official knock on the door so as to find out what was going on with these clones. I confess to finding that quite funny. Ultimately he ended up with 7 ID-less cars in a container in the garden. I assume he had to buy them back from disgruntled owners. This in itself then encouraged further problems when Customs, Tax and Dept of Employment inspectors arrived mob-handed to investigate his entire lifestyle. Several conainers full of cars and a girt garage full of stuff behind your house is a tad tricky to hid. Fortunately I was long off the scene by then, and had done my business correctly anyway, but one can do without officialdom being nosey.
Given the affor mentioned situations at Story and within DWAC before this event I could not comment on if Arie had been too lax with his 'collecting', or if he was bubbled by someone, for him to get into deep trub with the Dutch Government. It certainly saw him off the scene with Microcars and but for a few occasions his name has all but disappeared from buying and selling them.
I also did not forgive him for dumping me un-advised right in the middle of Nick and Ant getting ready to drive off to marry. Totally uninvited. Not normal for me to be speechless but I really did not know how to conduct myself in such an embarrassing situation when your not wanted. In itself an unhelpful situation between sparing micronauts and I could have done without it. It was one of the reasons I terminated business soon after as it was crass and the heat was getting a bit warm.
I am not certain what happened to the Berks but I think Thomas Luck might have bought them, though Harry Conners had a load of them as well at one point.
