If there is a space in your garage that needs filling, then now is the perfect time to choose. Fling open those doors, breathe deep the joys of Spring and head down to London’s Royal Horticultural Society where COYS are holding their Spring Classics sale on 10 March.
It is the Almond tree that always blossoms first in our garden and as we await its first delicate colour we see a similar shade of blue that identifies the 1934 Singer Le Mans. “ A delightful prewar sports car for the discerning collector.” There’s plenty of room for it in your garage and it’s not too expensive. Equally small even more sporty is the green 1934 MG PA Tourer with a recently rebuilt engine and in “fantastic running condition.” Go on, you know you want to, and it won’t break the bank.
Amongst the ‘big’ cars we spy Rolls Royce and Isotta Fraschini beneath the same roof and our minds drifts back to Calshot on the South coast where both makers’ engines powered winning Schneider Trophy planes in the heady days of motor sport where they did battle in the Brooklands of the sky.
Back to Earth – the 1925 Isotta-Fraschini 8A Torpedo Double Phaeton has a 7.3 litre straight-eight beneath the bonnet, and Isotta boasted that every car could do 150 km per hour (93 mph) and we believe them since this motor was described as “the most powerful mass-produced straight-8 engine in the world at that time.” Resplendent in a striking two tone green with a matching green hide interior and green hood – what better colour to enjoy spring-time motoring. However, the 1913 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost has a lighter more delicate appearance with its wire wheels, a ‘spring in her step’ and matching spring-time colour scheme. we enjoy reading how the loudest sound in a Rolls Royce is the ticking of the clock and you can balance a threepenny piece on the engine whilst it is running. We are told it enjoys “tremendous torque and unrivalled smoothness” and the description continues to tempt us with “qualities of refinement, reliability and performance that established Rolls-Royce as the pre-eminent British motor manufacturer as long ago as the Edwardian era.”
Does it get any better? Well, yes, it does. Read the description of the 1935 Rolls-Royce 20/25 with its 3-Position Drophead Coupe Mulliner body and tell us you are not smitten. We drive our cars in all weathers, all conditions to all occasions. This car will never let you down. “Over the past eight decades the 20/25HP Rolls-Royce has earned an enviable reputation of being among the most dependable, satisfying and highest-quality pre-war models of all.” Add ‘supreme elegance’ to the words used to describe this car and start to make space in your garage. If you fancy 12 cylinders, then see if you have room for the 1937 Packard V12 15th Series Touring Sedan in grass-green and retaining its original interior trim in Bedford cord with all wood cappings in Burr Walnut. It also boasts the original Packard heater and radio, but the warm spring air and surrounding bird-song will render both redundant.
The first product of the 1931 Rolls-Royce take-over of Bentley, the 3½ Litre was introduced in 1933 and was in essence designed to be a much sporting version of the successful Rolls-Royce 20/25. This 1934 Bentley 3 ½ litre with coachwork by Oxborrow & Fuller is painted in an unusual shade of green for a Bentley. Can we say it’s eau-de-nil? The car itself, whatever colour it is painted, will reward its new owner handsomely, but promise to spring-clean your garage before reversing this beauty into that empty space.
(Text Robin Batchelor, pictures courtesy COYS)