I-Spy Classic Cars/Bikes-What have you spotted?

[CitroJim]

I'd go for a Somerset too Neil...

[Gibbo2286]

Definitely an Austin A40 Somerset but I don't think the middle one is a Ford or a Morris, it looks more like a Singer Bantam 9 to me.

[NewcastleFalcon]

Definitely an Austin A40 Somerset but I don't think the middle one is a Ford or a Morris, it looks more like a Singer Bantam 9 to me.

The distinctive bit is the air vent/grille on the side.

Here's a Morris Eight to compare



....and a Singer Bantam 9



Similar shape but I would still plump for a Morris Eight.

Regards Neil

[Gibbo2286]

I think we're both wrong Neil, note the flattish roof on the specimen and the rounded roof on the others also the shape of the windscreens is different.
Must get my head scratching going as to what else it could be, Standard maybe.......................

[Gibbo2286]

Enlarged the image and I think it's a Ford Y model, at first I was thinking all Ford 8s of that time had a dip in the front bumper to permit use of the starting handle but then I recalled they made one with a shorter radiator and straight bumper, the starting handle hole was below the bumper.
I think it's one of those from around 1931ish

[CitroJim]

Trouble is, all those pre-war cars looks very, very similar to me.. Can't tell them apart at all..

Just like how today the wheel has come full-circle as it were and again the run-of-the-mill euroboxes look so similar they're hard to tell apart...

[NewcastleFalcon]

Pity the view is side on in the picture, but with the subtle differences you have spotted it could very well be one of these...minus the curvy bumper of course



Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

Richard did mention in his post that the cars had been at Linlithgow, and there was indeed a classic event there on 28th August. Interesting that one of the club members vehicles is a Singer Bantam.....only image I can find of it was from September 2009.....not inconceivble that it may have been repainted in Blue. It is shown as SORN, and still green on the DVLA vehicle check so unlikely to be our vehicle in question.



Regards Neil

[Gibbo2286]

Try this Neil:

[Gibbo2286]

You said you like a challenge Neil, see if you can find my Rolls in America, I've been trying for years without any luck.

[NewcastleFalcon]

.....yes, that may turn out to be mission impossible

Still there's bound to be a bit of interest along the way doing a bit of detective work!

I think the one assumption which has to be made, is that whoever bought it, and through to whoever is its latest custodian, it has escaped being scrapped. Probably far too much value in it for that whatever condition it was in.

So all there is at the moment is this



Its a start!
YV is a london Registration and was used between March 1928 and May 1928

Presumably it went from YV1 in March to YV9999 in May 1928, and the model is a Phantom of some designation bit like this?





Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

...and other things you have told us about it

.....I ignored him and painted it in a majestic maroon. When I sold it to a guy in San Francisco he immediately repainted it midnight blue.

However I did wish I'd been able to keep this one but at the time money was more important so I sold it to a guy in San Francisco back in 1961.

I've often wondered if it still survives and on a couple of trips to SF I've looked for it, without any joy, Asking the US DMV is worse than trying to get info from our DVLA, they want a fee and you have to have a good legitimate reason for asking which unless it's to check on an accident or a defaulting payer seems to be not acceptable.
It's a 1928 Rolls Royce 20HP which I saved from going for scrap back then.

So bit off the mark with a Phantom, but 1928...spot on with the reg.

Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

...oh and just below your post about the Rolls, was White-Exec's (Chris) post about his first car a Rover 10....

.....yet another one which looks strangely similar to the South Queensferry car...



Regards Neil

[NewcastleFalcon]

....$14,900 buys this one Gibbo!

Says its a 1926 one so unlikely to be yours!



Now this one is a 1928 model, bit pricier at $125,000 restored in the 1970's



A couple of 20 HP's I have come across, have come back into the UK after spending many years in the USA.
http://www.handh.co.uk/buy/1926-rolls-r ... urer/10273

.....In 1960 it was exported to the USA having been purchased by an American gentleman who had come to England to source a 20hp. He kept it for the next 38 years before deciding he was sadly getting too old for open-air motoring. In the 1990s it benefitted from an engine rebuild by Maryott Engineering of San Marino, California, before being re-imported to the UK by Orchid Cars of Amesbury around 1998.

Maybe the same American gentleman who bought yours

Regards Neil

[Gibbo2286]

I find it very sad that anyone would let a vintage car get into that state, I suspect that mine would have gone the same way had I not rescued it from where it was rotting away on an army car park in Sutton Coldfield.
It's possible that the guy I sold it to expired and it's sitting in a barn somewhere or maybe it got crushed in the 1989 earthquake who knows.