How about a 'period' classics pictures thread

How about a 'period' classics pictures thread

TOPIC CLOSED
TOPIC CLOSED
Author
Discussion

W124Bob

1,744 posts

174 months

Sunday 19th August 2012
quotequote all
I can't imagine a modern bread and butter dealer having the same mix of cars today,There is coincidently a Woodseats motors in exsistance less than a mile away but I don't think theres a connection as their website states established in 1996!This photo appears to be the Woodseats work force doing their Sapranos impression!

DickyC

49,549 posts

197 months

Sunday 19th August 2012
quotequote all
OFF TOPIC POST OF THE WEEK

ATTAK Z said:
HQB said:
ATTAK Z said:
W124Bob said:
....... as for the others particularly the 2 little sports cars I'm sure someone can help.
Standard Vanguard in there between the 2 sports cars I think
... but the two "specials" are not the home built Austin Seven/ Ford 8 based creations but are rather more professional..the left hand car is I'm sure a 1949 Healey Silverstone Sports and the right hand one looks closely like a Swallow Doretti but the grille is just too narrow so I'm working on that. I do recall the car clearly but not quite the name!rolleyesscratchchin
Yep Swallow was the first thing that came into my mind
After setting off on the wrong foot - How do they know they're 2-litre sportscars? - I tried searching on pre-war manufacturers who tried unsuccessfully to restart car making after the war with cars of more modern appearance. It wasn't a complete waste though, I did find out that Frazer-Nash survives as an engineering consultancy.

smile

daveenty

2,357 posts

209 months

Sunday 19th August 2012
quotequote all
DickyC said:
After setting off on the wrong foot - How do they know they're 2-litre sportscars? - I tried searching on pre-war manufacturers who tried unsuccessfully to restart car making after the war with cars of more modern appearance. It wasn't a complete waste though, I did find out that Frazer-Nash survives as an engineering consultancy.

smile
Er, doesn't it say two LITTLE sports cars, not 2 Litre? (or am I missing the obvious here)

DickyC

49,549 posts

197 months

Sunday 19th August 2012
quotequote all
EVEN MORE OFF TOPIC

daveenty said:
Er, doesn't it say two LITTLE sports cars, not 2 Litre? (or am I missing the obvious here)
Quite so. Perhaps I should have said, "After setting off on the wrong foot - when I read "2 little sportscars " as "2 litre sportcars" - "

smile

Anyway, I was interested to see that Archie Frazer-Nash's business still survives in one form or another.

nicanary

9,751 posts

145 months

Sunday 19th August 2012
quotequote all
HQB said:
Agreed the Standard Vanguard Phase I from 1949 onwards but the two "specials" are not the home built Austin Seven/ Ford 8 based creations but are rather more professional..the left hand car is I'm sure a 1949 Healey Silverstone Sports and the right hand one looks closely like a Swallow Doretti but the grille is just too narrow so I'm working on that. I do recall the car clearly but not quite the name!rolleyesscratchchin
There's no way that car on the left is a Healey Silverstone - I stand by my guess of a special. I agree that the right-hand car looks a bit like a Swallow Doretti, but it's too small. The Doretti was based on the TR3 chassis, and would be bigger ; in addition the headlights look like they're popping up from the bodywork, like a Sprite. All a bit "backstreet work" for my liking.

http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ-Rtl7Zn0...

http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSJZ0NCzyn...

nicanary

9,751 posts

145 months

Sunday 19th August 2012
quotequote all
I'm going nuts here - what are they? The bigger one could be a Buckler, but I can't find an image to match. The smaller one I thought might be an early Turner, but no. It's really, really small.

HQB

168 posts

149 months

Sunday 19th August 2012
quotequote all
[
There's no way that car on the left is a Healey Silverstone - I stand by my guess of a special. I agree that the right-hand car looks a bit like a Swallow Doretti, but it's too small. The Doretti was based on the TR3 chassis, and would be bigger ; in addition the headlights look like they're popping up from the bodywork, like a Sprite. All a bit "backstreet work" for my liking.

Well....having looked very carefully again, I still think it could be. It is hard to be totally certain with such a small image but it looks right to me. As for being a "Special" well then it could be anything but most Ford/A7 based creations were usually taller or narrower. I went through a lot of Allard Specials before deciding on the Healey but again, the proportions just look wrong. So if it's not a Healey, what do you think it might be?scratchchinsmile

nicanary

9,751 posts

145 months

Monday 20th August 2012
quotequote all
HQB said:
[
There's no way that car on the left is a Healey Silverstone - I stand by my guess of a special. I agree that the right-hand car looks a bit like a Swallow Doretti, but it's too small. The Doretti was based on the TR3 chassis, and would be bigger ; in addition the headlights look like they're popping up from the bodywork, like a Sprite. All a bit "backstreet work" for my liking.

Well....having looked very carefully again, I still think it could be. It is hard to be totally certain with such a small image but it looks right to me. As for being a "Special" well then it could be anything but most Ford/A7 based creations were usually taller or narrower. I went through a lot of Allard Specials before deciding on the Healey but again, the proportions just look wrong. So if it's not a Healey, what do you think it might be?scratchchinsmile
The photo probably dates from around 1955. After the war the manufacturers exported most of their production due to Govt. pressure. Few cars were available for resale. Most of the cars in the photo date from the early post-war years, and my guess is that the garage was fairly up-market for the time, having things like the Jags and the Bentley. I recall people still running pre-war cars well into the 60s.

Left to right...

Jaguar XK120, Jaguar Mk V, Citroen Traction Avant, Austin A40 Somerset, Buick or La Salle, Bentley Mk VI, unknown, Standard Vanguard Ph 1, unknown.

To the right (l to r ) Rover P3, Triumph Renown, hidden possibly Austin 8hp or 10hp.

I have just spent some considerable time looking through every page of Georgano's Encyclopedia - it's a massive work and doesn't have a picture of every car ever made, but it's near enough. The bigger unknown car could be a Dellow, but the bonnet shape is wrong unless someone has restyled it. The smaller car could be an Allard Palm Beach, but they were as rare as hen's teeth even then, so I doubt if that garage had hold of one. Even then, the headlights are all wrong , and the car is too small.

I'm going to have to give up, and continue my assertation that the bigger one is a special based on a Ford 10hp, and the smaller one is on an Austin 7hp chassis. These cars were the 50s equivalent of today's kit-cars - there were loads about, and many garages would have had them for resale. "Sports cars" for the impecunious, at a time when virtually nothing on the road went faster than 50mph anyway.

HQB

168 posts

149 months

Monday 20th August 2012
quotequote all
I'm going to have to give up,
[/quote]

No don't do that! I agree fully with all the other identifications but admit the two sports cars are difficult. Is it alright if I "grab" the picture and put it before our crack Team of VSCC sleuths who are good at tracking down the obscure? It's a Members only forum so will be respected as per copyright etc.typesmile

nicanary

9,751 posts

145 months

Monday 20th August 2012
quotequote all
Absolutely, fire away. I did think about the Lost and Found page of C & SC but have no idea how to transfer the image.

HQB

168 posts

149 months

Tuesday 21st August 2012
quotequote all
nicanary said:
Absolutely, fire away. I did think about the Lost and Found page of C & SC but have no idea how to transfer the image.
Well I posted the picture last night and have had a suggestion for the left hand car but I'll report back later when others have had a chance.

Re C&SC, I'm sure all you need to do is just write an e-mail requesting help/details and attach the picture to the message. You need to make sure that it has a "URL" for them to pick up and if hosted on a 'site like Flickr/Picasa, then it will need to stay on there until C&SC use the image in a published form otherwise your "attachment" will disappear.smile

Rower

1,378 posts

265 months

Tuesday 21st August 2012
quotequote all
Could the one on the left be a Lotus 6 and on the right a Turner ?

Rower

nicanary

9,751 posts

145 months

Tuesday 21st August 2012
quotequote all
Rower said:
Could the one on the left be a Lotus 6 and on the right a Turner ?

Rower
Left hand one is too big to be a Lotus. I also thought about the Turner, but the headlights are in the wrong place, and there's some sort of badge above the grille which the Turner didn't have.

The Don of Croy

5,976 posts

158 months

Tuesday 21st August 2012
quotequote all
DickyC said:
It wasn't a complete waste though, I did find out that Frazer-Nash survives as an engineering consultancy.

smile
I recall visiting an office of Frazer Nash near Gatwick in the 1990's - they were working on automated letter sorting equipment. Total office headcount about five full time.

Nice to have an outlet for these otherwise random memories!

Roy C

4,187 posts

283 months

Tuesday 21st August 2012
quotequote all
The Don of Croy said:
DickyC said:
It wasn't a complete waste though, I did find out that Frazer-Nash survives as an engineering consultancy.

smile
I recall visiting an office of Frazer Nash near Gatwick in the 1990's - they were working on automated letter sorting equipment. Total office headcount about five full time.
There are several Frazer Nash companies still in existence: Frazer-Nash Consultancy (engineering consultancy), Frazer-Nash (Midhurst) Limited (precision manufacturing), Frazer-Nash Research (electric vehicle powertrains).

Archie Frazer-Nash also invented the Vickers-Nash Safe Load Indicator for cranes and the Frazer-Nash Gun Turrets used on WW2 bombers. He left the car business - AFN - in 1929.

Edited by Roy C on Tuesday 21st August 12:34

HQB

168 posts

149 months

Tuesday 21st August 2012
quotequote all
nicanary said:
Rower said:
Could the one on the left be a Lotus 6 and on the right a Turner ?

Rower
Left hand one is too big to be a Lotus. I also thought about the Turner, but the headlights are in the wrong place, and there's some sort of badge above the grille which the Turner didn't have.
We have an answer! The left hand car is a Connaught L3SR and here is a picture to prove!

http://images.conceptcarz.com/imgxra/Connaught/51-...

The right hand car is still under investigation! As before, I'll report asap!scratchchin


Edited by HQB on Tuesday 21st August 13:20

DickyC

49,549 posts

197 months

Tuesday 21st August 2012
quotequote all
Roy C said:
The Don of Croy said:
DickyC said:
It wasn't a complete waste though, I did find out that Frazer-Nash survives as an engineering consultancy.

smile
I recall visiting an office of Frazer Nash near Gatwick in the 1990's - they were working on automated letter sorting equipment. Total office headcount about five full time.
There are several Frazer Nash companies still in existence: Frazer-Nash Consultancy (engineering consultancy), Frazer-Nash (Midhurst) Limited (precision manufacturing), Frazer-Nash Research (electric vehicle powertrains).

Archie Frazer-Nash also invented the Vickers-Nash Safe Load Indicator for cranes and the Frazer-Nash Gun Turrets used on WW2 bombers. He left the car business - AFN - in 1929.
Did you also know that the Aldington brothers, who owned AFN for a while, bailed out their neighbours Aston Martin in the early thirties in one of the zillion times AM were in financial difficulties?

cjb1

2,000 posts

150 months

Tuesday 21st August 2012
quotequote all


For what it's worth here's a photo of a F-N in action, this owner/driver lives near Aberdeen.

nicanary

9,751 posts

145 months

Tuesday 21st August 2012
quotequote all
HQB said:
We have an answer! The left hand car is a Connaught L3SR and here is a picture to prove!

http://images.conceptcarz.com/imgxra/Connaught/51-...

The right hand car is still under investigation! As before, I'll report asap!scratchchin


Edited by HQB on Tuesday 21st August 13:20
I think you could be right. They made 3 with cycle wings for road/race use. How the hell one finished up at that garage we can only guess.

nicanary

9,751 posts

145 months

Tuesday 21st August 2012
quotequote all
Further info : 14 L3 cars made, 3 with cycle-wing bodies by Abbotts of Farnham. Last car made in 1953, so it was still fairly new when it was on that forecourt.
TOPIC CLOSED
TOPIC CLOSED