Another mystery car
Discussion
MrDallas said:
I'm sure its been mentioned so ill apologise now
just thinking out loud but IMO the closest looking car and possibly from the same stable is the stuff from Tunex's /Heron Plastics
they were about from 1961 to 1967, and the easy incarnations based on austin 7 specials, so next question is.... is the wheel base the same as a 7 ?
Edit, so the early Hero stuff was based on a 7, but that has a wheel base of 190.5, so a good 200mm shorter than the render, the later stuff however was their own chassis
See page 45 of the thread - I made contact with a guy who worked at Heron as a laminator, he says it isn’t one of theirs. The compact size of the car is a lot like a Heron though.just thinking out loud but IMO the closest looking car and possibly from the same stable is the stuff from Tunex's /Heron Plastics
they were about from 1961 to 1967, and the easy incarnations based on austin 7 specials, so next question is.... is the wheel base the same as a 7 ?
Edit, so the early Hero stuff was based on a 7, but that has a wheel base of 190.5, so a good 200mm shorter than the render, the later stuff however was their own chassis
Edited by MrDallas on Tuesday 14th August 18:56
MrDallas said:
I'm sure its been mentioned so ill apologise now
just thinking out loud but IMO the closest looking car and possibly from the same stable is the stuff from Tunex's /Heron Plastics
they were about from 1961 to 1967, and the easy incarnations based on austin 7 specials, so next question is.... is the wheel base the same as a 7 ?
Edit, so the early Hero stuff was based on a 7, but that has a wheel base of 190.5, so a good 200mm shorter than the render, the later stuff however was their own chassis
The Austin 7 originally had a wheelbase of 6' 3" (190.5cm) but then grew in later models to 6' 9" (205.7cm) both had 3’ 4" front track and 3’ 7" rear track.just thinking out loud but IMO the closest looking car and possibly from the same stable is the stuff from Tunex's /Heron Plastics
they were about from 1961 to 1967, and the easy incarnations based on austin 7 specials, so next question is.... is the wheel base the same as a 7 ?
Edit, so the early Hero stuff was based on a 7, but that has a wheel base of 190.5, so a good 200mm shorter than the render, the later stuff however was their own chassis
Edited by MrDallas on Tuesday 14th August 18:56
Yertis said:
I think it's both, like on a Spit or GT6.
I'm wondering if the lower part of the door could open conventionally with the hinges located at the bonnet shut line, and the window and roof section opens upward like half a gull wing? This could explain the very thin/weak looking pillars around the window as they wouldn't need to be very strong. It would also be much easier to get in and out.Sorry been away ... the Ashley shell goes on a standard Ford Pop chassis of different lengths (hence the variable wheel base of the shell) and has a Ford sidevalve 1172cc engine as standard. I was curious to see if the "rendering" fitted a Ford chassis to tie it to the fibreglass shell community of the time ... still no cigar though.
Oh mine has a TR4 engine so should be a bit quicker if I ever get to finish her !
The identity of the 'mystery car' is as frustrating and intriguing to me as it probably is to most other 'petrolheads'. I can't admit to spending hours searching for the answer but I've done some research and think I have at least part of the registration number.
It probably doesn't help much but it cold trigger the memory of someone. Maybe they have a registration number on their car that ends the same way. If so, they could give us the other letters/numbers which could be traced back to 1960 something. Like a lot other people, I suspect the car in question is a 'one off' based on someone slightly more mundane so suspect that, even with the full registration number, the car would come back as a Ford or Austin or something similar. Anyway. This is what I've got:
I'm reasonably confident that the last 2 numbers of the registration are: 13
I've know idea what comes before those numbers (there is something but I can't see it) but I'm quite confident that there's nothing after the numbers.
Hope this helps to shed a little more light of the mystery that is...
It probably doesn't help much but it cold trigger the memory of someone. Maybe they have a registration number on their car that ends the same way. If so, they could give us the other letters/numbers which could be traced back to 1960 something. Like a lot other people, I suspect the car in question is a 'one off' based on someone slightly more mundane so suspect that, even with the full registration number, the car would come back as a Ford or Austin or something similar. Anyway. This is what I've got:
I'm reasonably confident that the last 2 numbers of the registration are: 13
I've know idea what comes before those numbers (there is something but I can't see it) but I'm quite confident that there's nothing after the numbers.
Hope this helps to shed a little more light of the mystery that is...
The Crack Fox said:
Aw b
ks. I stumbled across this pic and thought, honestly, I had solved it. I then spent ages to find this thread, log in, and .... it's not even close. The Ashley connection looks strong, though.
Yep, its an Ashley Sportiva, as it says at the bottom right!ks. I stumbled across this pic and thought, honestly, I had solved it. I then spent ages to find this thread, log in, and .... it's not even close. The Ashley connection looks strong, though.Its not exactly gorgeous, but I have a soft spot for Ashleys
The Crack Fox said:
threespires said:
The Crack Fox said:
Aw bks. I stumbled across this pic and thought, honestly, I had solved it. I then spent ages to find this thread, log in, and .... it's not even close. The Ashley connection looks strong, though.
Well thanks for trying!ks. I stumbled across this pic and thought, honestly, I had solved it. I then spent ages to find this thread, log in, and .... it's not even close. The Ashley connection looks strong, though.
For those who don't know, the original Sabra prototype had used a modified Ashley body and was the brainchild of Itzhak Shubinsky of Autocars Ltd, Haifa, Israel, - he had seen the open version of the Ashley 1172 while at the 1960 Racing Car Show and was so taken by it that he bought the design rights to the car (Ashley did go on to build a similar looking car, the Sportiva pictured above).
So it was an Ashley body on a LMB (Les Ballamy) chassis which resulted in the Sabra prototype car being displayed at the New York Motor Show nearly a year later. The aim of the car was solely for export (ie $$$!). Part of the reason for those strange front over-riders.
The first series of Sabras - one hundred of them - were not built in Israel, but in fact built here by Reliant in Tamworth, mostly aiming for US export.
An interesting part of the Sabra story is that from Sabra No 2 onwards, its Rover tail lights had been replaced by Alfa Romeo Giulietta Sprint combined units which followed the curvature of the car' lines better. The story goes that Lucas were incensed by the use of 'foreign' lights, so much so that they made tooling/copies of them at their own cost, simply so the word 'Lucas' could be incorporated into the lenses!
The Sabra, of course, changed into the Sabre (shown at the 61 Motor Show) - Reliant had retained two Sabras and converted them to right-hand drive, and made a plethora of other changes, including trim and carpeting and a new steering wheel (Les Leston) but still had the 'Cactus' (Sabra meaning) badge on the steering wheel and retained the 'horns' - the odd looking front over-riders meant for the US market.
This was Reliant's entry into the sports car market. The name change from Sabra to Sabre was and easy and a simple one, but very effective for the UK market.
838HNK said:
I was reading up on some other stuff and came upon this in my rather large book on the history of Elva. Still no cigar :-)
I have not 1, but 2 copies of that book, by Janos Wimpffen. I got a good discount that way!Large has to be an understatement!
3 kilos ...on a single marque, mad! It would certainly break the coffee table if dropped, and probably break a weak bookcase.
I remember when Roger Dunbar began writing the 'work' back in the 80s (he's Elva mad) but it went on and on for so long, years in fact, until it then landed with Janos doing it. Not what I expected (the size I mean). You can still easily obtain a copy 7 years on since publication and the retail price is still 65 quid! Well worth it. No idea how many were printed but I would not want to post out loads of these at that sort of weight. Nice Xmas pressie if you haven't got it. And no, I have no connection at all - anyway, it was published in the USA.
I will be perusing the book again, especially the Trojan connection - goodness, there was so much happening here in the early 60s.
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