Another mystery car
Discussion
I'm still surprised that even though all these cars from way back when are pretty well documented on the 'net now - this is the ONLY picture anyone has seen of this car. On all the websites in the world and all the books on the shelves, all the great minds on here with their knowledge of all these 'specials', one-ofs etc ... not ONE photo has come to light - even if it was ANOTHER pic of the same car or another example of it (I can't believe there are two) and un-named ... just in an old period shot.
We don't know it wasn't some guy in his garage whose dad was an old coachbuilder and knocked this up in his spare time and it was written off in a crash on the A3 in 1963 ... in which case we'll never know!
That rear screen intrigues me - mainly because it's just not as 'professional' as the front one - albeit the front one is another cars rear screen ... it's just a flat piece of glass with a huge rubber seal sitting up - so a bit Fredcarno. On a car like this where the proportions are pretty much spot on - apart from the somewhat ugly gullwing doors - it doesn't have the curves at the back that that racing Arnott has ... with its curved rear screen ...
We don't know it wasn't some guy in his garage whose dad was an old coachbuilder and knocked this up in his spare time and it was written off in a crash on the A3 in 1963 ... in which case we'll never know!
That rear screen intrigues me - mainly because it's just not as 'professional' as the front one - albeit the front one is another cars rear screen ... it's just a flat piece of glass with a huge rubber seal sitting up - so a bit Fredcarno. On a car like this where the proportions are pretty much spot on - apart from the somewhat ugly gullwing doors - it doesn't have the curves at the back that that racing Arnott has ... with its curved rear screen ...
galro said:
Riley Blue said:
However, there's something that I don't think has been mentioned before; looking at the enlarged image, there appears to be a banner stuck diagonally across the inside of the windscreen from centre top to bottom right. It's immediately above the bespectacled woman's head - perhaps others could confirm I'm not imagining it? If so, is this a brand new model, on its launch perhaps? Just a thought.
I believe it is just the dog leg a-pillar on the other side that you see through the glass.
Maybe a strut for the mirror? This sort of thing...
uk66fastback said:
I'm still surprised that even though all these cars from way back when are pretty well documented on the 'net now - this is the ONLY picture anyone has seen of this car. On all the websites in the world and all the books on the shelves, all the great minds on here with their knowledge of all these 'specials', one-ofs etc ... not ONE photo has come to light - even if it was ANOTHER pic of the same car or another example of it (I can't believe there are two) and un-named ... just in an old period shot.
I don't think it is that weird. There is actually a number of one-offs that I have just been able to find one picture or two obviously taken from the same set. We do not anything about this car for sure yet. I'm sure there are more pictures out there to be found if we ever manage to locate the identity of the car. uk66fastback said:
That rear screen intrigues me - mainly because it's just not as 'professional' as the front one - albeit the front one is another cars rear screen ... it's just a flat piece of glass with a huge rubber seal sitting up - so a bit Fredcarno. On a car like this where the proportions are pretty much spot on - apart from the somewhat ugly gullwing doors - it doesn't have the curves at the back that that racing Arnott has ... with its curved rear screen ...
The rear screen is definitely a odd fit as it looks to have been fitted a slightly the wrong angle for the car. Another thing that is weird is that the rubber trim appears to have a curve to it, but the glass does not seem to follow it. Edited by galro on Thursday 10th March 12:09
Are there any photos in existence of the prototype aluminium bodied Lenham GT. There are similarities between the fibreglass Lehams and the mystery car, but it differs in several area, but I wonder if the prototype was simplified for production in fibreglass:
"Julian Booty and Peter Rix founded their business restoring vintage cars in Lenham Square during 1962. After a year a customer asked the company to create a new body for his Mk 1 Sprite. They designed and built a sleek aluminium Grand Touring roof. Other customers admired it in the workshop and soon Julian received enquiries from people who wanted one for their cars. It was not viable to hand build each one in aluminium so Julian created a fibreglass mould in order that future body kits could be made in that material. To complete the transformation, Julian later designed the Lenham Superfast glass fibre bonnet which, aerodynamically was a great improvement on the Frogeye original."
[url]
|http://thumbsnap.com/nQwvNK9T[/url]
You can see that even the production cars had variations of the rear arches
"Julian Booty and Peter Rix founded their business restoring vintage cars in Lenham Square during 1962. After a year a customer asked the company to create a new body for his Mk 1 Sprite. They designed and built a sleek aluminium Grand Touring roof. Other customers admired it in the workshop and soon Julian received enquiries from people who wanted one for their cars. It was not viable to hand build each one in aluminium so Julian created a fibreglass mould in order that future body kits could be made in that material. To complete the transformation, Julian later designed the Lenham Superfast glass fibre bonnet which, aerodynamically was a great improvement on the Frogeye original."
[url]|http://thumbsnap.com/nQwvNK9T[/url]You can see that even the production cars had variations of the rear arches
TooMany2cvs said:
It's really not a looker, is it?
I think it is pretty nice looking other than that weird rear window personally. I think it's better looking than most one-offs of the period that did not originate in Italy. But more importantly for me is that it both appears to be very well built (except for that aforementioned rear window) and there appears to have been put some effort into producing a coherent and distinctive design, so I think its history deserves to be documented. Sadly that part have proved to be a lot harder than anticipated. Riley Blue said:
I think (hope) the front and side windows as depicted are a 'best guess' and the reality is better looking. There were some spectacularly ugly designs around in the '50s-'60s but also some that were very attractive, the Falcon Caribbean for example.
It is just a guess as we do not have any concrete knowledge about the car. I still do not find it bad looking though. RichardM5 said:
Just a thought, but with that side window design, how would you open it?
I don't think the windows can be opened up properly on most gullwing designs. Some have small vent windows (300 SL) or sliding plexiglas/glas panels that are openable instead, but it don't look like the mystery car have either of those and that likely means that you can not open up the windows in any way. Edited by galro on Friday 11th March 12:59
Could this be anything to do with it?
http://www.fordspecials.co.uk/dolphin.html
According to the Autos
te forum, the Dolphin was a Ford 103E-based kit car which never went into production. The company which was going to make it was based in London - and the address on that link is apparently only a few miles from where the pic of the mystery car was taken.
http://www.fordspecials.co.uk/dolphin.html
According to the Autos
te forum, the Dolphin was a Ford 103E-based kit car which never went into production. The company which was going to make it was based in London - and the address on that link is apparently only a few miles from where the pic of the mystery car was taken.DaveGoddard said:
Could this be anything to do with it?
http://www.fordspecials.co.uk/dolphin.html
According to the Autoste forum, the Dolphin was a Ford 103E-based kit car which never went into production. The company which was going to make it was based in London - and the address on that link is apparently only a few miles from where the pic of the mystery car was taken.
Based on that site the two that come closest for me are the Cheetah and La Dawri, mainly based on the windscreen. There are some elements within the Tornado that have similarities too, but none of them match fully.http://www.fordspecials.co.uk/dolphin.html
According to the Autos
te forum, the Dolphin was a Ford 103E-based kit car which never went into production. The company which was going to make it was based in London - and the address on that link is apparently only a few miles from where the pic of the mystery car was taken.One thing: I'm fairly certain that the car does not have more than four letters/digits long number plates. Does this tell us anything about the age of the car? I don't think I have seen anything newer than the late '50s with such short number plates from the UK but I don't know what the rules where (if there where any).
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