6. After The Gyratory - page 36
6. After The Gyratory - page 36
page 36
"I have to go," Milgrim said. "We're at the Hanger Lane Gyratory System."
Wikipedia entry on Hanger Lane Gyratory System
From the BBC's H2G" (inspired by the late Douglas Admas, of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy fame The Hanger Lane Gyratory System
The lane markings are there to give the experienced drivers an edge: they do this by utterly confusing neophytes through the simple expedient of being inaccurate, so it's best to ignore them. Simply select the lane which is moving fastest, or which is least crowded, and then aim towards your exit as it approaches. This can be easier said than done - if you are not in an appropriately-marked lane by the time you get within an 1/8th of a gyration of your exit, you are in danger of getting elbowed out either by drivers who are already in the correct lane, or more likely by the other chancers who are doing exactly what you're trying to do... In fact there's always a good chance that even if you are in the proper lane you'll be forced out of it by someone attempting an audacious run all the way around the outside of the gyratory system for a laugh.
[...]
The icing on the cake however was an act of sheer town planning genius! What else would you put smack in the middle of the meeting of several major roads and an assortment of minor ones but a London Underground station? To keep in the spirit of the whole affair there even appears to be road access to it from the gyratory, presumably for the benefit of adrenaline addicts who have long since tired of relatively sane pursuits such as bungy jumping.
Pocketing the he brought himself more upright, feeling the Jankel--armored, four-doored, short-bedded Toyota Hilux's ferocious engine-transplant gather itself for thei plunge into England's most famously intimidating roundabout, seven lanes of fiercely deter-mined traffic"
Note the number of hyphens
c.f. this Zero History blog entry on Jankel armoured Toyota Hilux:
"Zero History" signals hiding in the Twitter noise - Bigendmobile
Since William Gibson abandoned his blog back in July 2009, in favour of his Great Dismal identity on Twitter, it is very easy to miss clues and hints about his work in progress novel Zero History.
The Signal to Noise ratio of Twitter, and the use of opaque, inhuman URL shortening services, is a real hinderence to communication.
None of the Twitter specific add ons or search engines are of any help, when we are on the look out for new stuff, which, by definition does not have a previous history of existing keywords or meta data e.g. a new term like "Bigendmobile":
Only a tiny minority of recent Tweets are probably relevant to the Zero History novel in progress, and the ideas they represent may, or may not actually end up in the finished novel:
Thu Dec 10 17:47:35 +0000 2009:
RT @bittersweetdb: The latest Bigendmobile is a Jankel-armored Toyota HiLux pickup, "cartel grade".
from Brizzly
GreatDismal
William Gibson
"Bigend" is a reference to the major character in the previous two novels Pattern recognition and Spook Country - Hubertus Bigend
Jankel are based at Hamm Court Farm, Weybridge, Surrey, just south west of London, UK, but they also manufacture armoured Toyota Landcruisers in Jordan.
There are some (stupidly file locked .PDF) brochures about the range of armoured Toyota Landcruisers from the Jankel website
There are some Jankel sales videos on YouTube e.g. Jankel Armoured Toyota 76 LandCruiser
Armour Installation
The vehicle is armoured using proven armour materials and installation methods to include substantial overlaps and splash returns on all door apertures to ensure the passenger compartment is ballistically sealed.
The standard level of ballistic protection is NATO Level B6 (7.62 x 51 NATO Ball) with ugrades available for other selected rounds if required. The standard level of fragmentation protection is STANAG 2920 / 2 x DM51 hand-grenades with upgrades available for increased levels of protection.
They also claim to protect against bullet rounds such as:
• 7.62 x 39 mm, FJ/PB/SCP, AK 47 (Kalashnikov) , OBR-43 PS
• 5.45 x 39,5 mm AP, FJ/PB/SCP, AKS 74 (Kalashnikov), OBR- 7 4
• 5.56 x 45 mm, FJ/PB/SC, US rifle M16 A2, SS-109/M-855
• 7.62 x 51 mm, FJ/PB/SC, "FAL" NATO rifle
and against hand grenades but not against Rocket Propelled Grenade (RPG )type anti-tank weapons:
• STANAG 2920 V50, 1.1 gram FSP @ 500mps, this has equivalency to DM51 hand grenades.
An upgrade is available to provide 1.1gram FSP protection at 600mps.
Given that manual or electric windows add complexity and weakness to an armoured vehicle, one interesting optional feature offered is a:
Ballistically Sound Door Document Slot :
A slot in the drivers door to enable the safe passing of papers at checkpoints, used in conjunction with the intercom.
Surely this is not usable with urban multi-storey car park ticket machines, so either the door has to be opened, or a manual or electric window fitted ?
Jankel Armouring hide behind
PO Box 1,
Weybridge,
Surrey,
KT13 8XR, UKbut they can be tracked down via the web via the Companies House WebCheck and Local Council planning applications :
