I remember the launch of this model >>>

at the UK Motorshow in 1978, (I believe it was when Jeep first officially launched in UK), the first time the show was at the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, as opposed to Earls' Court in London.

The Jeep stand was an imitation mountain-side with cardboard rocks and real vehicles posed at extreme angles, the first time anything like this had been done. I liked those models which seemed much bigger in real life than in pictures. Also there that year was the 25th Anniversary Corvette - I absolutely coveted the two-tone grey/silver special anniversary paintwork one and made a Revell plastic model of it for my desk.

I went to the show on my motorbike (Yamaha RD400E) and made a girlfriend come with me on the back and then hold the box on her lap, full of free brochures the 150 miles home again, which I later traded for £120 worth of motor racing textbooks (a lot then). I was 19 and wearing my first Seiko, a nice sunburst '5' I got on my 18th, but which later got stolen while I was taking a shower at a campsite in 1982.

Memories good and bad that make us who we are today!



regards, Peter

so many watches, so little time