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A small established family
business,
trading for almost 50 years,
with a
reputation for
the:- "quality
of our stock & after sales service"
historic pic
for
Quality Sports/Prestige/Classic
Cars/ Motorcycles
+
Servicing on Petrol/Deisel cars
+
Diagnostics available for many
modern Vehicles
Direct Mobile Contact
: 07768 726644
or
Office 01383-723222
for
An online showroom displaying our stock
with large pictures & comprehensive vehicle history details
WANTED' ---- Sports,
Interesting , Prestige, Classic Cars & Motorcycles
--------- the quality required
is reflected in what we sell - e.mail or call with full details
including price expected
POST SALE or PURCHASE
Vehicle delivery/Collection May Be Available @ extra COST
Garage Contact Details
Showroom is Open 7 days ; 01383 723222 or mobile; 07768
726644
1
Green St, Townhill, Dunfermline Fife KY12 0HE
Ronnie Cowan Specialist Cars &
Superbikes
for
Recent Low Mileage Sports
, Prestige, Unusual Cars & Superbikes
The company
is operated by Linda & Ronnie Cowan.
Specialist Cars Company Blog;- A small
family run business
with good old traditional values, formed over 40 years ago
Now approaching
his mid seventies and semi-retired from car sales, Ronnie Cowan
is a former Queen Anne pupil (Dunfermline) currently:-
Specialist Car Dealer, Instrument/PBN Rated Commercial Pilot,
Townhill Community
Council Chairman (since 2012) - Qualified 'Master Reiki Practitioner'
- General Election Presiding Officer 2024 - Soul DJ
Former:- Biker/Rocker
in the 60's (Ex 'Devon Valley' Chapter member & 'Satans
Slaves' co founder) , Electronics engineer, Personal security,
Disco/PA Equipment supplier,
Ronnie worked as a
Club D.J. from the early 70's throughout the 80's with
most of the major 'Disco' record labels of the day promoting new
releases & supporting many touring chart bands for CBS/Warner
Bros/Magnet/Phonogram etc.
He worked in various
Discotheques when not on promotional tours or general mobile Disco
gigs with " The Explosion Road Show", such musical variety
included being the support act for the Bay City Rollers when they
were at No 1 in the Charts and gigged in the Kinema Ballroom playing
to over 1400 tartan fans. NB the bespoke platform shoes from
'Mr Bumbles of Edinburgh' Ronnie wore at this gig are now on display
in the new Dunfermline City Library !
However, other than
chart music Ronnie was also a well known 'Soul DJ' ........Funk,
Motown, Reggae .
One such long term
soul music residency was at Brian Joyce's inspirational
and innovative 'East of Scotland Soul Club' (ESSC) every Sunday
evening in Edinburgh's West End 'Grosvener Hotel' (1974 > 1980).
Held initially in a small annexe of the hotel, but within a couple
of weeks due to the rapidly increasing membership the club took
over the entire Rosebury suite and it was packed out from 6pm
until 10pm, also featuring guest DJ's for the Northern Soul
slots for fans returning from their regular Saturday night
at Wigan Casino complete with their own 'vinyl rare finds' - Major
touring bands of every musical genre staying at the hotel often
attended the Sunday club night !
Many of the lesser
known Soul 45rpm 7" & 12" discs played were imported
weekly from the USA and were carefully selected each Saturday
afternoon by Ronnie with help from Bruce Findlay of 'Bruce's Records'
(he later became Simple Minds manager) in the room above
his music shop in Shandwick Place Edinburgh.
Ronnie owned the Sound
& Lighting Equipment in most of his regular venues and was
officially the resident DJ at the following permenant disco sites:
Kinema Ballroom (Dunfermline) , The Palace (Rosyth), Birchgate
Hotel (Kirkcaldy) & the Forum Hotel (Glenrothes), he also
has guested on a local radio station as a 'Soul DJ', Radio Forth's
first outside broadcast delivered from his 'road show set up'
in Dunfermline.
Another exceptional
experience and long running DJ mid week gig was for SMG (Scottish
Minorities Group), these Wednesday night / Thursday morning
events were held in Edinburgh's Stewart's Ballroom for the 600+
in attendance .
This SMG gig was a
vibrant melting pot for the latest Euro disco tracks and dance
trends and subsequently led to Ronnie hosting numerous fashion
show events in the City.
Technical Note:
early days the 'Explosion Road Show' utilised two new Wem X29
Speaker/ Horn Stacks (as also used by Nazereth) driven by Wem
amps and a loop echo chamber. A Custom built broadcast standard
'Chymes of Wokingham' audio mixer featuring integrated Jingle
machine, Background music and the twin Garrard Record Deck outputs
to the 600 watt of amps. Later, four of the latest American Electro
Voice 'W' sound bins with built in Hf Horns driven by H&H
amps were purchased to replace the 'Wem' stack/amps, a revolutionary
'Millbank' crossfade mixer was introduced to increase the overall
sound quality. Shure
mic set ups were always the preference for the road show's DJ
/P.A.
The bespoke Explosion
Road Show Jingles were all professionally recorded in the 'Roger
Squires Studio' in London (where Ronnie had completed a DJ course
with the then producer of Top Of the Pops Tony Newman). All Lighting
Effects other than local custom built units were created/supplied
by 'Pulsar' & 'Optikinetics' sound driven light and strobe
units - a dry ice machine and a cine projector showing cartoons
were also included for large events.
2024: Ronnie still has his entire Soul Collection of vinyl
and in late 2024 Ian Parker who now runs Soul events in Dunfermline
kindly invited Ronnie to cover a DJ slot (at the age of 74yrs) to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the 'East of
Scotland Soul Club', this event was held in Dunfermline Glen Pavillion
15th March 2025.
2025 > update: The success of the Glen gig reminded
Ronnie of his love for playing Soul/Disco music .... suitably
inspired to then aquire his own top quality 8Kw DJ Sound system,
complimented with a spectacular modern Light 'set up'.
To then host a monthly Soul/Disco
Music event in Townhill Bowling Club (all genres of Soul/Disco
on vinyl) & promoted under 'An Explosion of Soul'. The name
paying homage to his 70s/80s/90s Explosion Road Show.
DJ'ing under the name "Captain
Ron (the old man of soul)" this brought about a new chapter
in his life's journey. Linda (Ronnie's wife of 45years) actively
promotes this Soul/Disco event via Facebook & Tik Tok and
she loves the music.
The Townhill event is further
improved with the assistance of DJ George Wallace on the decks,
whom Ronnie has known since the ESSC in 1974. Both George &
his wife Maureen were regulars at the ESSC and have travelled
the country attending N/S gigs. Both are very knowledgeable with
regards to Northern Soul Music scene and George also operates
the https://www.scottishsoul.info
web site documenting
a history of Scottish Soul Clubs and Soul DJs (check out the 'East
of Scotland Soul Club' listing which was indeed a pioneering event
run by Brian Joyce & where Ronnie was the sole Funk/Motown/
TSOP/ Reggae DJ 74 > 1980) with the two Northern slots then
covered by Tommy Cockburn from Falkirk.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Linda Cowan is a well
respected Master/Teacher member/Scottish and was a representative
of the 'UK REIKI FEDERATION ' in Scotland, now retired from Reiki
to concentrate on the family business and her Community Council
secretarial duties.
Linda has a enviable knowledge of the car business despite
the fact she does hate driving!
He
is a qualified Reiki Master/Practitioner ... having firstly studied
thro' levels one, two.
He is an eccentric
'fast' motorcycle & specialist car petrol head and is responsible
for our Web Site & all paid advertising avenues such as e.bay,
Auto Trader, Car & Clasic, Local Papers etc.
He is the holder of
a current C.A.A. Commercial Pilot's licence and held an unrestricted
Multi Engine Instrument Rating C.P.L.I.R./PBN (Performance
Based Navigation), he has also held an American FAA Certificate
and annually flew around the south of the USA.
He has also been Pilot
for the 'Golden Lions' crack British Army Parachute Display Team
& was also a B.P.A. Parachute Pilot Examiner (Trained &
Flight tested Pilots for B.P.A. licence - required in order to
fly Parachutists in Uk).
This was followed by
some years of Corporate Flying ferrying Directors, Sales Executives
& I.T. engineering teams all over Europe for a well known
'Call Centre Software' company,
Until his 60th he was
'Freelance flying' commercially under an AOC (Air Operator's Certificate
-- something all airlines/Charter Companies are required to have)
for the 'Edinburgh Air Centre' a small 'aerial survey' company
based at Edinburgh International Airport.
From 2002 until July
2024 he was the Chief Commercial 'Fixed Wing' Pilot for 'Operator'
Historic Environment Scotland (HES) formerly known as the Royal
Commission for Historic Monuments Scotland (RCAHMS) until they
ceased their aerial operations abruptly due to Government cutbacks
in May 2024, their Pilot and aircraft owner contracts were terminated
immediately, resulting in Ronnie deciding to hang up his wings
after 35yrs of Commercial Flying.
Survey flying for HES
was a role that demanded a great variety of flying skills as the
crew operated a single engined aircraft in extremely varied &
remote locations, covering the length and breadth of Scotland
including its mountains and many islands eg the
Highlands & the Western
Isles.
He also worked concurrently
as a freelance 'Co Pilot' in the right hand seat of a privately
owned Edinburgh based Citation Corporate Jet (CJ1 ) operating
all over Europe.
Whilst employed as
a Charter Pilot (for another AOC holding operation) which
have a fleet aircraft based around the uk specialising in Executive
Uk/Europe wide 'charter/air taxi' travel, document movement and
Ambulance flights Ronnie also operated 'single crew' on the mighty
'Piper Chieftan Twin' engined (350Bhp per side) aircraft - he
covered many of their routes as a holiday relief pilot, invariably
in all weathers (any time of day or night).
Having carried out
operations from many European airports eg Gronigen, Rotterdam,
Schipol & most UK airports including Inverness, Aberdeen,
Edinburgh, Glasgow, Manchester, Leeds/ B., Birmingham, Biggin
Hill, Galway, Dublin, Belfast & Heathrow which made a interesting
diversion from his Specialist Car Sales business !
Over the years he has
been involved as the Chief Pilot flying for a number companies
producing of Glossy Picture type Books on archeology and scenic
views :- Fife from Above, Glasgow from the Air, Scotland's Landscapes
, Above Scotland, Above Scotland's Cities, the Sunday Times &
Britain from Above with various BBC type documentary work involving
aerial photography- most recent being the three episode series
entiltled 'Scotland from the sky' first aired in 2018.
Ronnie has accrued
over 5,000 thousand hours experience of Corporate, Charter, Aerial
Survey & Photography part time flying duties, ............
but now only flies in December Ho Ho Ho
still
driving unique vehicles as a supplier of a mobile sound system
rig for parades - 'Buggy' seen here at Kelty's Coall Race.
some of the aircraft flown by Ronnie:-
The Specialist Car business is operated from
a modern showroom with an adjoining 'well equipped workshop' situated
in Townhill, a small village located in the country just South
of Knockhill Race Circuit - 10min from M90 - 14 miles North of
Edinburgh.
The premise of the business has always been
to supply not the cheapest (cheap usually equates to ongoing
expense) but carefully sought, good quality low mileage Sports,
Prestige, Unusual Cars , in the knowledge that all of the stock
offered for sale has been selected, purchased and fastidiously
prepared for sale by a competent motoring enthusiast.
Now semi retired he now focuses on more
interesting/ unusual vehicles whilst still carrying out electronic
diagnostics and all the vehicle maintenance / repairs .
" Whether it is selling
or purchasing a quality vehicle please be assured that your business
is important to our business & you will receive a personal
service second to none",
Kind Regards,
Ronnie
Showroom Open 7 days @ 8am
until 8pm
Detail & pricing
of goods/vehicles can vary without prior warning and any confirmation
of information published on this Web site should be verified with
our office before proceeding with any intended purchase.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Beech
Duke
Kingair 
Beech Bonanza 
Beech Duchess 
Diamond DA42 twin 
DA42 Glass Cockpit (G1000)
Cessna
310 Turbo
Cessna
340
Cessna
206 Turbo 
Cessna
172 
citation
Cessna
172 
C310 
PA31 (Piper Chieftan) 10 seater 
seneca
2 
Seneca
V 
mv augusta
mailto:ronnie@ronniecowan.co.uk