Another mystery car

[threespires]

Could be!

[DaveGoddard]

I was thinking about this today...every time I look at this photo and the other threads about it, I am starting more and more to think of it as a poster for a horror film about a ghostly, spectral car which haunts the streets of London, and doesn't actually exist!

(Yes, I am strange.)

[threespires]

DaveGoddard said:

I was thinking about this today...every time I look at this photo and the other threads about it, I am starting more and more to think of it as a poster for a horror film about a ghostly, spectral car which haunts the streets of London, and doesn't actually exist!

(Yes, I am strange.)

☺☺☺

[uk66fastback]

Dr G said:

Could this 1962 Ford concept car have been some inspiration to our mystery builder?



http://jalopnik.com/ford-built-a-gullwing-sports-c...

In what way? The gull-wing doors? Unlikely. This car was conceived in Ford's drawing office so the chances in the early 1960s of anyone in some unit somewhere in North London who was making these things, or a specialist somewhere in the Home Counties, having access to any pics or info from Dearborn or wherever, would be pretty rare, if not impossible. The world is a much smaller place now. I think we forget how simple life really was 50 years ago.

[Dr G]

I agree but thought it worthy of a mention simply as it's interesting, not beyond comparison, and of the same period.

The first photo I found of it showed the headlamp covers down:



...giving it more of the look of the forward swept cowlings in our mystery car. A very distinctive/unusual detail.

[piper]

The more I look at the picture and the design the more bizarre it looks, if you look at the lower rear edge of the side window the door gap goes down vertically for a short distance and then goes at 45 degree angle towards the front of the car. I can think of no other Gull-wing door car that does this, the rear edge of every other car with this door arrangement has a vertical drop all the way to the bottom of the door, this makes the whole door quite a complex moulding especially with the latch if indeed it is fibreglass. To me this suggests the car has front hinged doors that are cut away into the roof for better access. Looking at the tips of the rear wings also suggests the rear bodywork extends beyond the rear wings.

Also the little flares on the wheel arches are quite intricate for a fibreglass body of this era. My opinion is the car is Austin Healey Sprite based, the dimensions seem to fit and the A post seems Austin Healey Sprite to me. I believe the body is aluminium and was constructed as a one off by a coach builder for an individual. Is just difficult to believe that no other photographic evidence seems to exist.

Edited by piper on Friday 4th November 11:41

Edited by piper on Friday 4th November 14:18

[nicanary]

piper said:

The more I look at the picture and the design the more bizarre it looks, if you look at the lower rear edge of the side window the door gap goes down vertically for a short distance and then goes at 45 degree angle towards the front of the car. I can think of no other Gull-wing door car that does this, the rear edge of every other car with this door arrangement has a vertical drop all the way to the bottom of the door, this makes the whole door quite a complex moulding especially with the latch if indeed it is fibreglass. To me this suggests the car has front hinged doors that are cut away into the roof for better access. Looking at the tips of the rear wings also suggests the rear bodywork extends beyond the rear wings.

Also the little flares on the wheel arches are quite intricate for a fibreglass body of this era. My opinion is the car Austin Healey Sprite based, the dimensions seem to fit and the A post seems Austin Healey Sprite to me. I believe the body is aluminium and was constructed as a one off by a coach builder for an individual. Is just difficult to believe that no other photographic evidence seems to exist.

Edited by piper on Friday 4th November 11:41

Plus no-one remembers it. It's all over the internet, seen all over the world by people who would have been around at the time. It's such a distinctive car that surely at the time it would have been the subject of some sort of media cover, even just a local paper. Quite astonishing, really.

You may have a point about the doors. I reckon everyone's concentrated on the gullwing aspect, but what if that suggestion is indeed a red herring? It's a very small car, the occupant seems almost hunched-up inside, but most cars at that time were tiny by today's standards, as any owner of a 60s sports car will testify.

I've been staring at photos of Speedex Sirocco cars, trying to justify that choice, but I know I'm wrong.

[Longnose]

This has got Spridget written all over it. I've owned a couple and it was my first thought when I saw the photo. The size, the shape of the bulkhead, the construction of the front like a one piece flip-up bonnet common to Sprites and Midgets. Nicely done though, and frustratingly elusive.

[DaveGoddard]

Has the original pic in the first post disappeared for anyone else?

[TonyRPH]

DaveGoddard said:

Has the original pic in the first post disappeared for anyone else?

It's hosted on Photofkit and they are currently down for maintenance ( 17:44 04/11/16 )

[threespires]

TonyRPH said:

It's hosted on Photofkit and they are currently down for maintenance ( 17:44 04/11/16 )

Thanks for info...

[LarJammer]

In this months copy of c&sc there is an article on Turner -

It could be nothing but the mention of a gullwing car from the early sixties that never made production piqued my interest

[Dr G]

Might it be worth a forward to the author of the article asking if he could perhaps relay photo/link?

[Dr G]

This link's been up before I think but there are fins and overriders aplenty:

http://www.turnersportscars.co.uk/t_nos_ken_robbin...

[838HNK]

and also in the fine print .. "Also Jacks 'Gull Wing Turner concept ' which was half finished at factory closure" .....

[thegreenhell]

This is an artist's impression of the Turner Gullwing concept, from the link above

[LotusOmega375D]

Mrs Cholmondely-Warner cursed her husband's choice of new car when her grand arrival for dinner at the Jones' was ruined by a lap full of snow.

[LarJammer]

I have facebooked the owner and club chair. The postcard is the only picture i could find of the gullwing and agree it looks nothing like it but hey, its worth a shot.

[piper]

LarJammer said:

I have facebooked the owner and club chair. The postcard is the only picture i could find of the gullwing and agree it looks nothing like it but hey, its worth a shot.

Definitely worth a shot, I hope he has some photos of that unfinished gullwing Turner, my theory about the sprite underpinnings would definitely fit with the the Turner and a canted over Climax Engine would also be a likely fit underneath the mystery cars bonnet.

[Dr G]

piper said:

LarJammer said:

I have facebooked the owner and club chair. The postcard is the only picture i could find of the gullwing and agree it looks nothing like it but hey, its worth a shot.

Definitely worth a shot, I hope he has some photos of that unfinished gullwing Turner, my theory about the sprite underpinnings would definitely fit with the the Turner and a canted over Climax Engine would also be a likely fit underneath the mystery cars bonnet.

A little part of my brain hopes for the reply "oh that was the first sketch we did in the pub; it ended up looking like..."