Name this car....

[hektor]

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Yes Wilson, a beam front axle and solid rear.  Not a Lagonda of any type.  Further clue: six cylinder with carburettors, four speed gearbox.  The headlights are not original.

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[wlaidlaw]

It must be a quite upmarket car, given the size of the brakes for the period, the quality of the grille and the proper and expensive Rudge Whitworth spline type centre lock wheels. The only other car meeting these criteria I can think of, with a similar vertical slatted radiator is a Duesenberg type J or from the same stable and I suspect using the same radiator as the Duesenberg, an Auburn Speedster 6 of around 1929, before they switched to sloped back radiators. 

Wilson

PS I should have read Hektor's post more carefully: a 6 cylinder so not a Duesenberg, which all straight 8's. Another guess therefore a 3½ litre Bentley special made from early 1930's car. 

Edited May 14, 2020 by wlaidlaw

[hektor]

Well done Wilson (as usual). A 3½ litre Bentley with special mudguards, but its original Abbott body.  I am possibly bending the Rules with this photo as it was taken by my father with an M3 which I now have.

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[wlaidlaw]

I wonder if the time might have arrived to let this thread drive honourably off into the sunset. There seem to be fewer and fewer active participants and I suspect like me, they may have run out of photos to post, taken with Leica equipment. After all with 649 pages and nearly 13,000 posts, it has had a very good run. What do others think? The thread will remain on the forum and if at some time in the future someone has something interesting to post, they would always be able to do so. 

Wilson

[stuny]

Personally, I enjoy it, partly for the challenges, partly for the photos, and partly for Wilson's stories.  But interest has seemed to drop off to just a handful of us.

[masjah]

I thoroughly enjoy reading this thread, being permanently astonished at the knowledge of the regular contributors. But I do take Wilson's point. No thread can go on forever.

[a.j.z]

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I would miss this thread but it indeed got quite quiet. The same happens in comparable threads ("Do you know the world ..." etc). 

[Michael Hiles]

I very much enjoy this thread, but my limited knowledge/experience and picture archive of challenging cars means I do not participate in any meaningful way. I suspect that I am like many others.

If the main contributors want to take their foot off the gas (I know...), I won't cause a row. Understandable.

Edited May 15, 2020 by Michael Hiles

[stuny]

Hmmm.  Perhaps we should keep going a bit longer.  If so, it's Wilson's turn.

[wlaidlaw]

Stuart, 

Sorry totally out of photos of cars - anyone else? I only answered Hektor's one as nobody else seemed to want to. 

Wilson

[hektor]

Good morning Gentlemen.  I appreciate Wilson's comments and have noticed the decline in participants.  Sometimes I have put it down to our American friends not having grown up with European cars and likewise in reverse.  My suggestion is to keep the thread running with what we have, and see what happens.

Edited May 15, 2020 by hektor

[hektor]

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[lykaman]

Yes, we have a few Motor Heads out there, overall I think it would be better put together with Motor Mania~ some of our younger members have never experienced the smell of Castrol R or heard a racing engine powering up the Hill @ Brands Hatch.. So therefore we cannot expect them to even recognize any of the older classics..  I have said this before, whilst at college in Cricklewood  N. London,  I would get off the bus just before Staples Corner and walk up to see Bentleys being built, a memory I will always treasure..  The workers always treated me respectfully, even as I was running my hands along the curves or touching the chassis.. I'm sure they knew they were building Icons.. When I see an older Bentley, I always wonder if I touched the chassis as it was being built.. I will never know       L

Edited May 15, 2020 by lykaman

[John Z. Goriup]

I too have enjoyed this thread and don't want to see it terminated, but Wilson & Hektor hit the nail on the head - so here's my solution: Let me post the 'mystery car' below for the sake of keeping the thread going, and if you wish to participate, take your best guess and tell us the year, make and model you think it is. If, on the other hand you're familiar with the car and you know immediately what it is, please refrain from just blurting it out right away and let it play out a while. It may be too easy for some, but it may be a real puzzle to others. It's only a game after all, not a competition, and if it turns into a learning experience for just one member who takes the time to log on ...............I submit it's worth keeping the thread alive.

Maker, year of manufacture and model please - nota bene, I have cloned out the hood badge.

JZG

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[lykaman]

I'm not that bright" but Aston Martin Bertone Bodied - circa 1970   ..........    L

[John Z. Goriup]

Not an Aston-Martin, although the grille outline does appear to resemble the outline of an A-M  opening, in fact, no British content, as the car originated in its entirety from 'south of the Alps'. To the best of my knowledge no coachbuilder was ever named, with a couple of prominent designers of the period credited with the styling of this surprisingly modern and advanced car so soon after WW II - and it's from the early / mid fifties. One of the characteristics of this car was its high price, which limited this model to a run of a mere nine units.

Thanks for the response, lykaman,m

JZG

[stuny]

The grill shape and hidden headlights makes me wonder if the designers of John's post admired Harley Earl's 1938 concept car, the Y-Job.

[John Z. Goriup]

Astutely noted, Stuart. Looking at the front of the 'Y - Job' in the attached image, there certainly appear to be a similarities to the outline of the grille and the hidden, 'flip-up' headlights, but then Harley Earl's seminal 1938 concept car contained many elements that a multitude of designers incorporated in their early postwar output.

To clarify my post #12976, no individual stylist / designer was named for being responsible for the coupes design, with either of two quite prominent 'freelancers'  ( Giovanni Michelotti and Franco Scaglione ) being credited with probably sketching the body design, but there were definitely two coachbuilders involved in the building of this very limited series of cars, with the first of the coachbuilders of choice folding after only six of these were finished, the remaining cars being finished by another carrozzeria. It's important to remember that we're talking Italy a scant few years after the war and record-keeping, extremely spotty at the best of times  was virtually non-existent in those days, consequently very little is known to be certain, with lots of speculation and extrapolation by looking at the whole body of work of folks active at the time.

______________________________________________

Since this is a photo forum first and anything else is secondary, I think it's worth noting the image quality of the attached image, one of the few I took in the short time I owned my M8, my first digital camera. I only kept it for a couple of months before switching brands and buying the first 35mm 'full-size' sensor equipped digital, which incidentally had even more horrific IQ problems, but returned to LEICA once the M-9 series became available.

JZG

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Hallo,

Look here: Interesting Leica gear

[wlaidlaw]

There are also some echoes of the earlier Vignale bodied Cunningham C3 in the quite heavy slab sides. Michelotti did a very similar body on a 1954 Maserati A6G - 2000 but without the pop-up headlights. 

Wilson

[John Z. Goriup]

Wilson, I agree that both cars you mention share some styling elements with the subject car, even more so when viwed from the rear - as shown in the attached view. This is actually another specimen of the same model of the  current 'mystery car', but it's neither a Cunningham nor a Maserati.

Another clue: The manufacturer was established in Turin in 1926 and spent its time up until the end of the 2nd WW exclusively producing 'hot-rod' & aftermarket parts for another italian car manufacturer, but didn't begin building cars bearing their own name until after WW II. They lasted until about '70. 

JZG

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Edited May 16, 2020 by John Z. Goriup