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About Quiz #390 1935 Steyr 530 'Karl Rob' Limousine

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About car puzzle #390
Told you so: many readers had last week’s mystery motor parked somewhere in their memories. We had plenty of good answers, although the majority of these were rather dull. Come on guys, we like some more information then just a make, model and year! It was indeed a Steyr and plenty of you recognized it as such. But we saw all kinds of model designations come by, from Type 125 to Type 630 and anything in between. The one and only right type was the 530 of 1935, built in that year and 1936 only with six-cylinder engines. 

The outrageous special body on this specific example was commissioned by painter Karl Rob, of whom we couldn’t find more. We weren’t on our own as just about none extras on the artist landed in our post box. Pity, as this was what we were hoping for. Fortunately there was jury member Stuart Penketh who said the picture was taken at Saint Michaels Church Gateway in Vienna and believes that this car led to the Type 630 6-seater limousines, used as taxis in Vienna until the end of the fifties. Thank you.

But it was Thomas Billicsich who came with the best answer. He wrote: “This Steyr 530 was presented in the Allgemeine Automobil Zeitung of August 1935 and the car was commissioned by Karl Rob, painter and publisher. Before this vehicle he commisioned a sports car and a limousine on similar Steyr 30 S chassis. History says that this car was later used by nazi Gauleiter Eigruber in Oberdonau." Reader Moritz added to that: “In a newspaper advert for the Steyr 30, Karl Rob was called the ‘Cabriolet-Poet’. Thanks to all, and congratulations to Thomas!

(Words and archive pictures Jeroen Booij)
 

Reims or Rust

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Reims or Bust.What is it about auto jumble's that makes you want to drive a very long day to an industrial estate in the depths of France?
It's the smell and feel of rusty old parts, that butterfly feeling you get when you find that elusive part to complete a restoration or to start another. We also want to be the first to find those parts and to be the next owner. If you throw nostalgia, good company, food, drink and France into the pot, you have the perfect recipe for a vintage enthusiast's weekend away.

Four of us made the trip this year to Le Salon Champenois du Véhicule de Collection, in Reims. It's a grand auto jumble in the car-park of the Parc des Expositions, combined with an exhibition in the main halls made up of local classic car clubs, organisations and event promoters. This year's celebrated manufacturer was MG; with a rather comedy circus theme that seemed to be throughout the exhibition halls. Some clubs and organisations had really gone to town to make you feel like 'The circus' had come to town, whereas, others had 'just made do' having raided the local 'time warp' department store of their stock of 1970's mannequin's and had given up after the red wine started to flow during build up.

But it was the auto jumble we were interest in. All of us looking for different parts. Bob needed a gearbox for his Robinson cyclecar, Andy, was looking for pedal-cars and Marchal lamps, Graham, belt drive rims and me, anything Cyclecar, motorcycle or early bicycle. But dealing with French auto jumblers is like playing poker with a blind clairvoyant. Firstly, nothing is priced, secondly, there is a sliding rule of pricing depending on if they've met you before or if you're not French. This seems to also fluctuate as the day goes on, once the red wine is opened and they have that sinking feeling that they may have to take it all home again. If they still have what you are looking for by this time, then this is the time to go in for the kill. But joking aside, the whole experience is another reason we love auto jumbles.

After two days of hunting, Bob found his gearbox for the Robinson, Andy found three lovely 1930's pedal-cars and a sack full of Marchal lamps, Graham found some belt drive rims for his OTAV Cyclecar and me? Three engines, a gearbox, a front axle, a steering wheel and two 1890's bicycles. A splendid weekend had by all, but next year; I'm going back ready to haggle with red wine and foie gras. 

(Text and images by Tim Gunn and Jean-Jacques Cherdo)
 
      

Average cars in a perfect barn

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Usual cars in perfect barn

Like an impressionist painting. In fact these elaborate walls beg for finds with more pedigree... The two 1930s cars are sort of middle of the road. The first one is a second series (1934-1937) Fiat Balilla four door berlina, the other is a 1933 Dodge that at some point was cut to create some sort of pick up. Both cars have been discovered recently in the basement of an old abandoned building with stone made walls and timber roof... and yes, perhaps this is which makes the discovery more interesting. The cars were found in northern Spain by a young photographer who has the habit - or hobby if you prefer - to visit old abandoned places. He didn´t plan to enter this vintage house -well known for him- but the last time he passed he was surprised: the garage doors had been opened for the first time after many years. Inside, he casually found perfect material to play with his camera: Old cars -apparently parked there since the 1960s- perfect 'claire obscure', plus dust, rust and 'pretty' waste everywhere. All the ingredients which a proper "find" should have.

(text Francisco Carrion)
 
     

Build your own Phony & Flashy

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delahaye usa_470
We know that you all love a good replica, especeially when it's made of the good type of resin. So we thought why not present to you the best of show in this category at Amelia Island. No it's not a Volksagen or anything near what's hiding underneath. It's up to you to decide what would give a nice fit under this shiny skin. Yet to keep your creativity alive, we decide here and now there is no Delahaye or Delage gear available. We love to hear your opinions and ideas...

Auburn going places...

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1926 auburn_groningen_470
When you live in the Netherlands the province of Groningen is not exactly the place where you expect high-end cars. Certainly back then it was a remote rural area mainly inhabited with relatively poor farmers. The attached photos were a wake up call for your editor. We never thought of the upcoming industrial culture of chaps producing carton, potato flour and more. The issue came up when a nearby living friend, architect Matthijs Neven was clearing out family archives. And came up with three interesting cars from Groningen:
- The above 1926 Auburn six cylinder, interestingly the owner of this cr first drove a 1920(?) Minerva motorbike with the same A-5028 registration. About the XL headlights on the Auburn we thought they were a later addition. But a nearly identical car is known in Kalkota, India
- Second car is a 1928 Amilcar CGSs, registration A-807, appearing at the start in the same tour, rally, sprint (judging the skid marks in the Amilcar shot this may have been a short sprint with 'a cheval' stop...?) The photo soon will be added to the online album of Dutch Amilcars.  
- Third car is an Essex, registered A-20231, presumably a 1927 Essex Roadster or? We wonder if the horizontal lines in the radiator were a one year only thing? At the end of the war a Pontiac car with the same registration was taken by the Germans.
We started with three old B&W snaps delivered to our office at the end of last week...

(family archive Matthijs Neven)

Give your Bentley a day out in Holland.

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bentley 3litre_470

Is your car tired of the City? Then consider this. It may not have come to your mind, but it's 2015 and so Bentley cars show their aristrocratic face around the globe since 95 years. The clever organisers of  The National Oldtimer Day in Holland (always on Father's Day; this year Sunday, June 21 ) must have thought, let's not wait for the centennial  in 2020 when everybody claims these cars. So why not do a Bentley 95 celebration?
Bright idea! This in cooperation with PreWarCar.  Our common goal is to get together a crowd of 95 vintage and classic Bentleys.

So if you own a vintage or post-vintage Bentley you are most welcome as a special guest at the largest and pre-war & classic car event of the Netherlands. All participating Bentley crews will receive a 'Certificate of Participation' handed out by the British Consul-General in The Netherlands, Sir John Haseltine Cameron-Webb, which of course is fun but more important is the outlook on a super Bentley gathering with many PreWarCar friends. We are really looking forward to welcome you and your car at the PreWarCar hospitality. Now if you consider coming over, be sure to contact us at office@prewarcar.com or contact organiser William Vermeulen at info@oldtimerdaglelystad.nl

(photo is showing the 1925 43 litre Gurney Nutting sports tourer owned by Bert Degenaar)

On My Merry Oldsmobile

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On my merry Oldsmobile.

Recent sunny weather plus longer daylight hours convinces us that Spring is truly sprung and we should all jump in our cars and celebrate the new blossom, daffodils, baby lambs or whatever takes your fancy in this new season.
Our Friday lady has Agaves growing nearby – not the prettiest of plants – but never mind, the jaunty angle she holds her head, and her choice of pleated frock tells us she would love to go for a drive in the country and enjoy the fresh air.

The car she carefully climbed upon is a 1928 Oldsmobile Coupe, also known as a Landau Coupe because of theose 'Landaubars' ( short for Laundaulette) which were carried over from horse-drawn carriage days. The Oldsmobile name goes back to 1901 when the Curved Dash Oldsmobile was made from 1901 to 1904 – some say the first mass produced car.

Notice the radiator has vertical radiator slats, controlled by thermostat, which allows the reduction of air flowing through the radiator in cold weather. The history books tell us that the first pilots to fly the Atlantic Ocean were Alcock and Brown on 14 June 1919 in their twin-engined Vickers Vimy, but the previous month, Hawker and Mackenzie Grieve took off in their single-engined Sopwith but were forced to ditch in the ocean when their cooling water boiled. The radiator shutters in front of their 350hp Rolls Royce Eagle motor were closed because the lever in the cockpit had mistakenly been fitted to read back to front !

The quality of the Shorpy image reveals the sparkling paint of a brand new car, not yet fitted with registration plates,  and notice also the creases in her stockings. Nylon wasn’t used in stockings until 1940, and the stretchy lycra fibres weren’t added to women’s stockings until after 1959, that leaves silk ( or rayon) which was notorious for bagging at the knees and ankles as the day wore on, so our lady is looking as good as possible early in the day.

The early cars were officially known as “Olds Automobiles”, but the name “Oldsmobile” was popularised by the lyrics and title of the 1905 hit song “In My Merry Oldsmobile” and if you take our lady by the hand and help her down from the car, you can ask her to dance to that very song. Listen HERE. The gentleman playing it for you is Graham Rankin, who periodically corresponds with PreWarCar.com and has a passion for early gramophones of the best quality. Oh, and amongst several other cars, he also owns a Curved Dash Oldsmobile.

(Text Robin Batchelor, photograph courtesy Shorpy)

What is it? Quiz #391

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What is it? Quiz #391

We found you another striking mystery motor from our files and were surprised not to be able to find it on the world wide web. That means you’ll have to know it or recognise its shapes, sizes, dimensions and detail and carry on puzzling from there. Sleuths, come on in. Oh – we have obscured some small detail, which would immediately give away its base just to make things not too easy. Having said that we can tell you this car carries a well-known make, which produced substantial numbers of this chassis. The airline/airstream/aero/speedline coupe body, however, is something else. Please do astonish us with details about that. So please provide make, model and whatever you can tell about the coachwork.

Answers in the comments below (please do not e-mail) and be sure to read The Rules under Read More. This may be your chance to win the infamous PreWarCar T-shirt and wear with with pride at this season’s events! Results and photo source will be published next Saturday.

La Vie au Grand Air...

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1925 renault_45_torpedo_sport

Nowadays 'La Vie au Grand Air' is the name of a French organisation which is helping deprived children. Not so in the beginning of the last century. It was a well known magazine about the wonders of a new century. Biking, ballooning, boating and motoring! Weekends and holidays were a new thing rising in popularity at steamtrain speed.  The magazine hooked in with the new trend and helped their readers feed their fantasy.  Rural France opened up, especially with the easy transport which came available.
Renault was one of the big players as you may know, also when it came to BIG. The 1925 Renault type 45 features a 9 litre 6 cylinder and is one of the largest and most powerful cars of that time in Europe. You probably know that the car currently resides in the US with Hyman Ltd. But we should say resided, as it's on its way to Europe again. Planning to make its entry at Techno Classica Essen mid April. Let's hope the car will find a European buyer, no better a French buyer. With a car like this the French countryside is always near. Looking at this magnus opus of Billancourt we can only dream to take it for a long sunny, summer, Sunday drive only to get out in a Van Gogh landscape for a beautiful picnic.

(photo courtesy Hyman Ltd.   Hall 6,  Techno Classica Essen, 15-19 April)



A Nash Quad in Holland

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A Nash Quad in Holland

Tony de Vries: "In 1997 I bought three boxes of glass black and white negatives in an antique shop. Mainly because it had a lot of old motorcycle pictures just went through the pictures and found some old cars as well.  The picture of the big car is in front of a garage called Devletter en Groenendyk probably in Rotterdam.  Hope you can identify this cars for me."

editor: Well, that for sure must be a Nash Quad, a succesful 4-wheel drive, 4-wheel brakes and 4-wheel steering (!) truck that was developped for among other things ammunition transport in WWI. It looks like this one had a military purpose as well and maybe the experience with driving and or maintaining this versatile beast formed the basis of the succes of the D & V garage. We will show you a few other cars they had a bit later this week. In the meantime have some fun with starting up this Quad


Desirables at Duxford

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Desirables at Duxford.

H&H are holding their next collector’s car auction on 15 April in The Imperial War Museum at Duxford and as we perused the catalogue our eyes opened at lot 18, a 1929 MG 14/40 Mark IV Tourer. One of only eleven Super Sports 4-seaters known to have survived, it boasts a tuned 1802cc four-cylinder engine, Marles Weller steering box, improved four-wheel drum brakes and uprated suspension complete with Andre Hartford shock absorbers. The fitting of an SU carburetter, coil conversion and indicators tells me this car has enjoyed regular sporting road use and previous owner, the late Robin Barraclough, would want it no other way. From the same stable comes a 1931 MG M-Type with half the estimate and half the engine capacity of the 14/40, but this popular little car enjoyed much sporting success winning gold medals in the 1929 Land’s End Trial as well as Team Prize and class wins in the 1930 24hr "Double Twelve" race at Brooklands. It is described as …”an amazing car to drive.”

There are no less than three Sunbeams on offer, the earliest being a 1920 Sunbeam 16HP Tourer with 3 litre 4 cylinder side-valve engine and handsome royal blue coachwork. The 1925 Sunbeam 20/60 Tourer boasts a 3.2 litre 6 cylinder engine with overhead valves and black coachwork and maroon upholstery. “A decidedly handsome and imposing Vintage Tourer, this `Supreme Sunbeam' is worthy of close inspection.” The third Sunbeam is a 25hp Saloon from 1934 painted in maroon and black with a robust 3.4 litre ohv engine and estimated at half that of the 1929 Lagonda High Chassis 2 litre CCS Saloon. One of only two close-coupled Weymann Saloons to have survived, it has been maintained to a high standard by its engineer owner and used extensively around the UK including trips as far afield as the Orkneys and Shetlands – “A wonderful, extremely rare Vintage Lagonda offering comfortable and capable touring with vital protection from the British weather!”

Vinot-Deguingand started building cars in 1901 and ceased production in 1926. This make was invariably known as plain Vinot once firmly established and were sold in England under the name La Silencieuse. The 1914 AM4 Tourer offered is a 12/14hp powered by a four-cylinder 1692cc monobloc engine allied to four-speed manual transmission. The former featured pressure lubrication; while the latter employed a vertical change mechanism (3rd and 4th being sited under 1st and 2nd within its cylindrical casing). It was bought by Douglas Dixon in 1954 “in complete and original condition, only in need of a repaint” and he has “done many thousands of miles both on rallies and long runs for my own pleasure”. It entered the current family ownership upon the death of Mr. Dixon. Another car from 1914 is the Ford Model T Surrey described as “extremely rare, possibly unique”. It is a 6-seater with Surrey top and is said to have been traded by the original owner in the late 1920s for a Model A, remaining with the same dealer until 2000 when it was shipped to UK vendor who undertook a painstaking restoration and improved its performance by adding high compression alloy head and pistons. If nothing above takes your fancy, then will you be tempted by an Austin? Either a 1934 Austin 7 Opel 2-seater tourer or its big brother, a 1928 Austin 12/4 Heavy saloon.

(Text Robin Batchelor, picture courtesy H&H)

Changing the route: Bergsma is history

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2015 04_01_bergsma_out_470_bandw

After almost 15 years the end has come for editor-in-chief Joris Bergsma. Yesterday evening, at just after 23.00 GMT, the Pre-war Post-war Publishing team came to an agreement to end their relationship in good order.

Within the last few months an untenable situation developed as the opinions expressed by Bergsma increasingly emphasized on the profile and image of PreWarCar and PostWarClassic. This saw the PWC head offices in Amsterdam divided into two camps. Bergsma's increasing interest for unrestored cars, saloons and 'bread and butter' vehicles were considered as counteractions to the business opportunities for PreWarCar and PostWarClassic.

The appointment of a new chief-editor is expected later this week. One thing is sure, though: the future will be bright. The emphasis will slowly but surely be directed towards the top end of the classic car scene, with more concours reports from throughout the world and an increase in high-end restoration work.

It's been a very tough decision and the team, which from now on will be running both PreWar Car as PostWarClassics websites without Bergsma, want to thank Joris for the fantastic work he did for both websites. Joris has made an invaluable contribution to the pre-war car scene and due to his efforts thousands of cars have come into the hands of new owners, a large number of who have been made enthusiastic through his webpages. We wish him all the best for the future.

For all editorial issues you can contact office@prewarcar.com. Or contact UK correspondent Robin Batchelor. USA correspondent Kit Foster. Spain correspondent Francisco Carrión. Or Amsterdam editor Jeroen Booij.

Blue traffic jam between Barcelona & Sitges...

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57th ralley_barcelona_sitges_blue_traffic_jam_600

At the first days of spring Barcelona hosts an interesting gathering of early prewar cars (roughly pre-1925). The past 21-22th March saw the 57 edition of this mytical rallye... this year without foreign participation except one car from France; it's the Peugeot racing special shown above.  Despite the lack of non spnaich participants, the level is getting better and better and many rarities were to be seen the mostly unknown Hispano Suiza 30HP  which carries the first number plate of Barcelona " B-1".

The first owner of this Hisso already had another old car -the original "B-1"- and when he bought the Hispano he decided to transfer the same number plate to his new car, although this last was bought new in 1910-1912. The oldest entry this year was the 1900 Darraq, in contrast of age and size with the Ford AA Bus, one of the newest vehicles present. Another interesting point of this year´s edition was the high number of "french blue sporting cars" like a mid 1920s Amilcar CGS, causing blue traffic jams as seen on the main picture. Foreign motorist should consider to put the Barcelona Sitges on their calendar. It is oen of the nicest ways to enjoy the spring beauty of the Mediterranean while driving your Wolseley or Hispano!

(text Francisco Carrión , photos courtesy  Visit-Sitges)

1919 Indian mc Power Plus SOLD (Apr 02, 2015)

Mud, cake and Matilda

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Matilda and the mud.Last weekend saw the annual gathering of members of the Light Car and Edwardian Section of The VSCC when they congregate in Wales for a tour of the beautiful countryside on Saturday and attempt to drive up steep muddy hills on Sunday. Such is its popularity, the event was oversubscribed 48 hours after entries opened.

The weather was cold, wet and windy but everybody wrapped up warm and drove their cars around the empty roads and soaked up the view of the glorious surrounding countryside. The fields (and some roads) were filled with sheep and lambing was well under way.

According to my Mother, the first word I could say was cake, so I always linger at the coffee stop to enjoy the home-made produce being sold to raise money for the local air ambulance. Seymour Price has been a key organiser of the event as long as I can remember and it’s his ever-increasing family and their friends who man the stall, the strongest ones holding on to the tent in gale force winds! All of them laughing despite the cold and rain.

Today’s photograph shows Matilda in her father’s Austin 7 Chummy. They attempted the adjacent hill test but the muddy ground got the better of them (video) and Matilda had to get out and help the marshals push the little Austin off the course. ( But it was going better than last year!) There were 38 different makes amongst the 144 cars entered, of which 49 were Austin 7s. Matilda’s smile demonstrates just how much fun can be had with these cars.

(Text/pictures Robin Batchelor)


About quiz #391: Bentley Airflow Saloon by Arnold of Manchester

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About quiz #391: Bentley by Arnold of Manchester
You knew about last week’s quiz car, or you did not. And in case of the latter it proved a hard nut to crack. Guesses included Rolls-Royces, Alvises, a Duesenberg and a Railton. But most of you had it right: this is a 3.5-Litre ‘Derby’ Bentley. R. Mawer wrote: “The item you removed from the photo being the ‘winged B’ emblem mounted on the radiator filler cap?’ Quite right so. And like several more readers Mawer also believed the body to be by Vanden Plas: “This Vanden Plas body style was also fitted, as a catalogued option, to the Alvis Speed 20 car about 1933-36 period.”

Bruce Earlin thought so, too, and described that car in more detail: “The car appears to be an Alvis Speed 20SB or SC with VandenPlas coachwork, possibly commissioned for Charles Follett, the London Alvis distributor. The car is nearly identical to the Ed Hermann Alvis just sold at the Amelia Island RM auction. Year of construction would be mid 1933-1935. This car must have a side-mount spare. Most had rear mount spares. There is a sunshine roof on this car, and body is probably aluminum.” That’s how we like them, Bruce, well done. He was completely wrong never the less. Vanden Plas is not the coachbuilder we are looking at here. Neither is it a Thrupp & Maberly Streamline (as Peter Stapleton thought); or a French body (Alan Spencer).

The only one who knew the coachbuilder was Herman van Oldeneel, who wrote: “Bentley 3.5 litre, bodied by William Arnold, Upper Brook Street Manchester, 13. Telegram address: 'Luxurious' Manchester. They also built 4-door saloons called ‘Slip Stream’.” He was right, although this particular one became known as ‘Airflow Saloon’ after being shown at Arnold’s display on the 1934 London Motor Show. The car spent much of its life in the US, hence the white walls and chromed wheels, but came to The Netherlands in 1999. Well done Herman!

(Words and pictures Jeroen Booij)
 

Roaring Easter Egg

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Roaring Easter Egg
Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a treat in store for you. We all love motoring with all the sights and sounds and smells and today we offer you the chance to taste sights and sounds of a unique car. (We are still working on the smells).

Our clever editor thought the radiator was almost egg-shaped so what better subject for Easter? But the photographer Stefan Marjoram went round the back, found the perfect egg shape and gave it some colourful wrapping. The car is a FIAT S76, one of only two ever built, and designed in 1910 to beat the record held by the Blitzen Benz. The design included overhead cams and 16 valves.

The man behind the recreation of this car is Duncan Pittaway and here’s how he describes this car…” Since the dawn of motoring, there’s been a ‘peeing-up-the-wall’ competition in the school yard between Benz and Fiat and all the big manufacturers. If you want to go fast, you put a big engine in. If you want to go faster, you put a bigger engine in...” Watch and listen to Pittaway’s interview at Goodwood last year HERE.

In the meantime, back in his workshop, he has got the engine running, and of course that was an occasion to be remembered! Stefan was there with his camera. ( See video and be ready for chills down your spine! ) This was the result of 12 years of hard work and he describes it thus…

"After restoring a Bugatti T35, I was looking for a new challenge and the S76, which is one of the more maligned cars of its generation, fitted the bill nicely. All of the original S76 components that have survived have been restored, from the chassis and engine down to the suspension, axles, pedals, steering box, with the gearbox, radiator and bodywork being created using the original Fiat drawings.

Only two S76s were produced by the Italian manufacturer, with the aim of snatching the records for the flying kilometre and flying mile from the 'Blitzen' Benzes. The S76 achieved the mile record with Pietro Bordino driving at Saltburn Sands in 1911 and was officially recorded at more than 135mph.”

And now for the chocolate. As mentioned at the end of the interview ( above) the day did indeed come when Pittaway took the S76 to Goodwood and, with Lord March hanging on for grim death, drove the 'Beast of Turin' for the first time in 100 years and thanks to Marjoram’s camera we can share with you the drama of that memorable occasion. See video.

When Arthur Duray drove this car in 1911, he remembers it like this…“My feelings? To engage first, second or third gear is relatively easy, but when it comes to engage fourth whilst travelling at 190 km/h, that is a different story. One has to hold the steering wheel firmly, push the gear lever forward and pay attention so as not to jump on the side-walk, because the moment the air enters the carburetter the bounce causes you to feel the seat hurting your back”.
and later said… “First and second gear were okay, third gear called upon all of his experience as a racing driver, and fourth gear needed the courage of a hundred men!”

  This writer found a post card of the S76 many years ago and sent it to Graham Rankin (who was rebuilding a 1906 FIAT at the time) and we reproduce it here, showing Pietro Bordino outside the Zetland Hotel at Saltburn on the occasion of Bordino’s drives on the sands in 1911 ( having driven it from Brooklands, the intrepid passenger - Grand Prix driver Jack Scales- reporting that on the journey the speedo sometimes read over 120 mph. !)
FIAT S76 card

 History also records the driver of an Arrol-Johnston being asked by his passenger to put on a little more speed because a car was following them and she did not want their dust. Speed was increased but soon this huge Fiat “flashed past with a big Renault in procession”

  We could go on and on about the history of this extraordinary fire-breathing monster but our thoughts turn to gentle bunny rabbits and the need to leave time for a traditional Easter Egg hunt, so we wish you all a Happy Easter.

 

Text Robin Batchelor, pictures Graham Rankin & Stefan Marjoram.

A Monday Mansion Mystery (UPDATE: 1903/04 Panhard et Levassor)

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Help a Miss with a Mystery

Miss Purdy sent a beautiful photo and a cry for help: "We have recently acquired a photograph of a car which once belonged to the family that used to own our house (circa 1910). The car is seen in the photo being driven by the families chauffeur named as Charles Lee. We would love to know the make and model of the car but we don't know where to start!!" after asking she added " it is taken at Hatton Court, Hanslope, Buckinghamshire. We believe the car belonged to the Borrett family and is seen driven here by their chauffeur.

The radiator of course is the give away here, but when and where did we see this one recently...? Interesting of course is the BH-11 (?) registration, who can find back the details?  The car looks slightly older than the 1910 mentioned, more like 1904, or ? It is French in appearance - Darracq-ish we would say - and the atmosphere of the photo makes one think of the fine Renault as appearing in the Netflix series Dowton Abbey

No Mumbai Mystery (UPDATE: 1928 Erskine 'the Little Aristocrat')

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Mumbai mystery

Harit Trivedi sends this stylish picture: "I am sending herewith a photo. Don't know what it is, Studebaker? Wheel nut looks like there is an "S". The registration is from Mumbai, around 1933. The gent appears to be Indian. What is your opinion?"
Well in our view is doubtlessly a 1928 Studebaker (you may fill in the details). If the photo was really taken in 1933 the car has had a tough life since 1928. Yet maybe these registrations stayed with the car for ever, so possibly the photos was taken many years later. Maybe we can learn more from the sticker appearing on the right in the windshield? And now that we have you looking properly for details, can you give us the background of the 'seagull' mascot with wings spread widely?

A Brisbane Find: 1924 Crossley 20-70

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Crossely Barnfind

Frazer Sloan sends a pride report about a rare Crossley he found in Australia: "This Crossley came from Brisbane and I think can be considered 'barn find'. It was the property of the widow of a well known Crossley enthusiast in Australia. I bought it because I couldn't afford a 30-98 Vauxhall! Contemporary road test reports listed it as one of the best sporting touring cars, amongst greats such as aforementioned Vauxhall 30-98, Bentley, twin-cam Sunbeam or Lagonda. The chassis appears to be original 20/70 and not just a 4 wheel braked 19.6 (the standard model which the 20/70 is derived from) with stampings on components such as the steering box and other parts (3.33 to 1 back axle ratio, larger steering wheel, rev-counter drive) clearly indicating it's history and model as a 20/70. I thought it very similar to the photo of the chassis photo you posted previously of the Mercedes-Crossley before installation of the Mercedes engine. The 20/70 (front viewside view ) was guaranteed from the factory for 75mph in touring trim and a stripped down 20/70 lapped Brooklands at more than 103mph. The decision now rests with me whether I should start the restoration and a long period of rebuilding, or move on to something more manageable, and perhaps running. Decisions decisions."

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