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Your next one from the family albums:

 

My Grandfather was apparently a truly abysmal driver. He had an accident within 5 minutes of getting his first car, a Ford Model T in 1915, when he managed to drive into a lamp post in Inverurie, the salesman having driven him the 12 miles from Aberdeen as a driving lesson. He carried on having regular but luckily, low speed accidents for the next 15+ years. This carried on until my father and my great uncle persuaded him that he should give up driving for the sake of his long suffering wife (and every other road user within a 50 mile radius) and get either his gardener or one of his factory employees to drive him.

 

My father had envisaged he would get something sensible but with lots of room in the back, like a Lanchester 21 or maybe a 20 HP Austin. Instead, the salesman saw him coming and sold him the car below. It was, according to my father, an appalling heap of junk and given the year he bought it new, must have been sitting around unsold for at least two years.

 

Wilson

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Crossley 14

 

dunk

 

Dunk,

 

Good guess but not a Crossley. Worse than that and quite a lot more expensive. My father said that for about the same money as my grandfather paid for this thing, He could have had a nearly new small Rolls Royce 20/25, which if not the fastest car, is at least reliable and pleasant to drive. However I think my grandfather, who was a very modest and sensitive man, would have felt that buying an RR during the depression, sent out all the wrong signals.

 

Wilson

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I was wrong about pricing. The bare chassis price was actually slightly cheaper than the 15.9 HP Crossley. However my history book also says that they were being sold by the company concerned at a huge loss each vehicle, so the listed pricing was unrealistic. The company effectively went bust soon after this model came out, probably as a result of its introduction. A 20/25 Rolls Royce would have been considerably more expensive at over £1100 for the rolling chassis with tool kit.

 

FYI at this time, the most expensive chassis you could purchase in the UK, was the 45/280 8 cylinder Mercedes Benz at £2185. The V12 DS8 Maybach or Supercharged SJ Duesenberg might have been even more expensive but are not listed in Autocar of the period.

 

Wilson

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Bean Short 14

 

dunk

 

Closer to their 18/50 than the short 14 but this car more of a Has-Bean than a Bean.

 

BTW, did you know that after Bean stopped making cars and became a component supplier to the motor industry, George Eyston's magnificent Thunderbolt World LSR car (sadly destroyed in a warehouse fire in New Zealand in 1946), was made in Bean's midlands factory. I well remember having the Dinky Toy of it. It had 8 wheels, 4 in dual pairs at the back and a "chinese" four at the front. It weighed over 7 tons and had twin 36.5 litre Rolls Royce engines producing a total of 4,700BHP.

 

Wilson

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Dunk,

 

It was a 20HP (2.6 litres) Hillman Straight Eight. The new cost was £425 in 1931, although I don't think they were made after 1930. It was designed by Maurice Wilks, later of Rover/Land Rover fame. My father used to describe it as the most miserable apology of a car he had ever driven. Wilks must have been having a really off day when he penned this one. With a straight eight, it is essential that the crankshaft is stiff both torsionally and in beam, well supported by lots of bearings. The Hillman crankshaft has all the structural integrity of a wet noodle and is supported only in 4 bearings. It used to need its bearings re-metalled every 10,000 miles or less (presumably due to the crank flexing), had no torque at low speed, vibrated like mad if you revved it, handled like a drunk pig and had little in the way of brakes. My grandfather kept it until 1934 and then exchanged it for the first of series of Humber Pullmans that he owned, which were far superior cars.

 

The financial consequences of the awful Hillman Straight Eight, drove the company into the arms of Billy Rootes, who also owned Humber, Singer, Commer, Karrier and later, Sunbeam and Talbot.

 

You have already seen a full picture of the car, so no more to show. Over to you Dunk.

 

Wilson

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Thanks for the interesting technical details Wilson - sounds as if it was a real pain of a car.

 

The clue for my contribution is, "Ho ... Ho ... Ho ;) "

 

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Best wishes

 

dunk

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Engine is probably a 2.6 litre 4 cylinder OHV, 3 valves per cylinder, bore and stroke 80x130mm; top speed is circa 60 mph but the owner told me the steering becomes very wobbly at speed. When I asked the owner if I could see the engine, he was reluctant to show me so I could not take any photos. The car was purchased from a scrapyard by the current owner's father in 1950 and has been used as the family runabout car for the last 62 years. The owner told me that his father never had an owner's handbook and that all maintenance over the years has been done intuitively. When the body was removed from the chassis many years ago, no coachbuilder's name was discovered - but the style and design of the body is typical of Weyman - who also built Rolls Royce bodies.

 

Best wishes

 

dunk

Edited by dkpeterborough
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[ATTACH]368157[/ATTACH]

 

Maybe this will help

 

Best wishes

 

dunk

 

Not really Dunk. Upmarket cars from the early 1920's all looked like this. I was going to say a Sizaire Berwick 25/50 but I cannot think of any Ho Ho Ho connection and I think the radiator is slightly too curved. I have been trying to read the language on the knock off cap to see if it says Undo or Aus.

 

Wilson

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Not a Sizaire Berwick ... but maybe this close up of the fuel tank might give you a clue. And a further clue is that the car has a certain 'star' quality.

 

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Best wishes

 

dunk

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The engine size points me towards a Delahaye 12CV but ho ho ho? That would point me towards Hotchkiss but at that time they only made the large 6 cylinder AK model followed in 1923 by the rather dreary AM with a 2.4L side valve engine.

 

Wilson

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Not a Delahaye but you are on the right track. Here's the whole side view but the star quality is not visible from this angle ... and, " Ho ... Ho ... Ho ... " ... uttered slowly, is a little bit facetious.

 

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Here's a little more ...

 

 

Best wishes

 

dunk

Edited by dkpeterborough
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And another clue about a clue ...

 

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dunk

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Yes, you are correct Ronald :) ... bit more info ... http://cottindesgouttes.free.fr/en/RestoredCars.htm

 

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... and the 'Ho ... Ho ... Ho ... ' is an impression of a Frenchman taking the Mickey out of an Englishman saying, "Haw, Haw. Haw" ... ;)

 

I saw the car at two classic car shows last summer - once in Stamford Meadows and once at Maxey - both near Peterborough.

 

Your turn now Ronald.

 

Best wishes

 

dunk

Edited by dkpeterborough
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