Manhattan Transfer

It is very big, very yellow and attracts a lot of attention.  It is a symbol of New York and an American icon. One of a few surviving original Checker taxis was recently saved from cab-tivity by an enthusiastic SA couple and taken from it’s natural habitat. It is currently cruising across the States.

Text: Dieter Losskarn

What do Robert de Niro, Al Pacino and Kurt Russell have in common? Well, they were all acted in films featuring one of Hollywood's most famous movie cars: the chubby Checker taxi.

The mother of all taxicabs was first introduced in 1959 and until 1982, when the Checker Motors Corporation stopped making cars, there were only minor changes to the exterior look.

For years Checker held the Guinness Book of Records' distinction of being the only car to cover over a million miles (1.6 million km) with the same engine. A number of Checker cars have exeeded that magic mark and most made 800 000km-plus with ease.

Of the many thousands of Checker cabs that  once cruised the big American cities -   mainly New York, where it appeared in its characteristic yellow war paint - only a handful are left. The original Checker taxi is now a sought-after collector’s item.

The last two official New York Checker taxis retired in 1999, one with 640 000km on the clock, the other one with more than double that. The very last one, owned by the Jamaican driver Earl Johnson, was sold at Sotheby’s in New York in December 1999 for an unbelievable $134 500 to an anonymous phone bidder. That’s about nine times what Earl originally paid for it. He is now happily retired in Jamaica, where he runs a Bed & Breakfast establishment with his wife.

The strict rules of the New York Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) denied the two last Checkers another go, after they both failed their last technical inspection.

Checker taxis were built to last, strong as tanks, with a mighty X-braced chassis, independent front suspension, and a live axle of monstrous girth supported by heavy-duty shocks and massive leaf springs at the rear.

In 1973, tougher federal regulation forced car manufacturers to install front bumpers capable of withstanding 10 km/h crashes. Instead of the ugly black plastic protrusions fitted on the cars of its competitiors, Checker opted for something different and very characteristic: an enormous aluminium-alloy bumper that looked like it had been borrowed from a Mack truck. Even in rush hour traffic the mere sight of those bumpers enabled Checker drivers to get the right of way without arguments.

Some people might wonder: "But what about the famous London taxi? That must be almost as reliable?" Well, a New York taxi company thought it worth a try. The poor vehicle ("an English man in New York") didn’t know what hit it. With the pot-holed streets of Manhattan and the reckless driving style of its cabbies, the car literally fell to pieces after only three months. Yeah baby, the Big Apple is a tough place for cabs!

The reason why Checker cabs nowadays are rarer then Ferraris or Bugattis, and therefore causing more of a stir, is that they were built as commercial cars. While non-commercial classics rested peacefully and well cared for in garages, Checker cabs were driven to destruction.

A typical Checker taxi in a fleet would cover 190 000km a year and would then be sold after three years to a taxi dealer with about 500 000km on the clock. He would sell it to an independent taxi driver.Some cars would last well over a million kilometres - and that without regular or proper maintenance and having been driven mercilessly driving on the potholed streets.

Checker did produce a non-commerical sedan version of its cab in the sixties, the Marathon (A-12), and some people have converted these into taxis by painting them yellow and adding the signs and decals – but that’s not the real thing.

By surfing through the internet, Elke and I found an original A-11 Checker taxi in "immaculate condition", built in 1976 with a mere 130 000km on the clock. The reason for the low mileage? Our car was ordered from the Checker factory in Kalamazoo, Michigan, by the New Yorker office of the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency), who used it as an undercover police car to track and hunt down drug dealers. The powerful and rather enjoyable 5,7-litre V 8 Chevy with around 180 kW under the hood is an engine that was seldomly used in taxis, but was available - mainly for Marathons - on request.

Driving a Checker is like driving a truck, a street cruiser and a limousine rolled into one. It is surprisingly comfortable and fast, despite the weight.

In October 1999 we drove the car from Manhattan to Miami, where we stored it for a couple of months. It was the first time the taxicab was able to breathe something other then polluted downtown air. The highlights of the first trip were the magnificient Skyline Drive in Virginia and the shapely mega-babes in Daytona and Miami Beach!

We decided to do the trip first and restore the car afterwards. Whatever broke during the journey we would fix on the spot. That meant changing front bushings, tyres, shocks, brake pads, spark plugs, oils and filters within the first few hundred kilometres. Unfortunately we didn’t stay anywhere long enough to fix the leak in the air-conditioning system and subsequently had to revert to the good old 460 aircon – four windows open at 60 miles per hour.

During the second leg of the trip in April/May 2000 the cab experienced the tropical Florida Keys, jazzy New Orleans, the seemingly endless mountain deserts of the Big Bend area in Texas and the Indian pueblos of New Mexico, again with 460 air- conditioning.

Close to San Antonio, in Hondo, the Checker got a taste of its future home. The surroundings of the 777 Ranch owned by Kevin Christiansen bear a stunning resemblance to the South African lowveld, an impression reinforced by free-running zebras and antelope. And on top of the hills the straw and mud dwellings of a Watussi village reach into the sky. The warrior tribe was invented for Jim Carrey’s hilarious movie "When nature calls", which was filmed on location at the 777 ranch. Fiercely painted Afro-Americans played the native parts.

After several other encounters of the strange kind and 9 000km with only minor problems the big yellow car made it to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where it is currently waiting for the final trip to Los Angeles before being shipped to South Africa.

T i p s   f o r   T r a v e l l e r s

How to get to the US: The new and very convenient South African Airlines (SAA) direct flight from Cape Town to Fort Lauderdale, Florida enables South Africans to reach the US without changing planes, in about 14 hours. The plane is fueled up in Fort Lauderdale and continues to Atlanta, Delta airline’s buzzing metropolis. As SAA is now cooperating with Delta, their carriers will fly you to any destination in the States - a clever joint venture, that works actually both ways. On the way back to Cape Town there were a lot of American tourists on board, bound for South Africa. Contact your local SAA travel office for flight schedules and tarifs.

Where to stay: Between New York, New York and Santa Fe, New Mexico we experienced a couple of really nice places to stay overnight (the country code for the US from SA is 091). Our favourites are:

B&B in a historic home, very close to Key West’s major attractions along Duval Street.