RootsChat.Com

General => The Common Room => Topic started by: Yellowbird on Friday 04 September 15 06:53 BST (UK)

Title: Help please identifying this car from 1920s
Post by: Yellowbird on Friday 04 September 15 06:53 BST (UK)
Hoping some car enthusiasts might be able to tell me what type of car this is.  All I know is that my grandfather was a chauffeur driving it in the 1920s, early 1930s.   With many thanks.

YB
Title: Re: Help please identifying this car from 1920s
Post by: ScouseBoy on Friday 04 September 15 12:39 BST (UK)
Just a guess, try looking at Humber  models?
Title: Re: Help please identifying this car from 1920s
Post by: Sc00p on Friday 04 September 15 14:34 BST (UK)
Morris Cowley?
Title: Re: Help please identifying this car from 1920s
Post by: arthurk on Friday 04 September 15 19:31 BST (UK)
Features that I think may help to identify this are the lights on stalks next to the windscreen, and the number of air vents in the engine housing. So far in a few random searches I haven't seen anything quite like either, and I don't know enough to be able to pin those features down to a particular make. The shape of the radiator and its cap are often also quite distinctive - I'm not sure this one is rounded enough for a Morris Cowley ("Bullnose"), but that area of the photo is a bit indistinct.

I did wonder about a Wolseley, and there are a few similarities, but nothing conclusive. A lot of the Wolseleys I found had a much larger/wider bulkhead (?) between the bonnet and the windscreen/dashboard, whereas the lines of this one are a lot smoother. Some Alvis models show similarities too, but I haven't found any with lights next to the windscreen.

Arthur
Title: Re: Help please identifying this car from 1920s
Post by: vintman on Monday 07 September 15 10:17 BST (UK)
Hi,

Just came across your photo and can advise it is neither a Humber not a Morris but it is British. Counting louvres, being four, and having a distinct hump on the top of the radiator, and having a continuous bodyline side suggests cca 1922 Standard SLO 14HP Two-seater/dickey. I hope you don’t mind me using your photo on our car identification Help Pages http://www.svvs.org/help88.shtml .

Kind Regards

Vintman
www.svvs.org
Title: Re: Help please identifying this car from 1920s
Post by: arthurk on Monday 07 September 15 14:26 BST (UK)
Vintman - your ID looks good to me, and it's certainly better than anything I came up with. I came across the SVVS site during my random searches, and it's nice to know that the experts/enthusiasts there are happy to help out here if needed.
Title: Re: Help please identifying this car from 1920s
Post by: baz54 on Monday 07 September 15 16:53 BST (UK)
Does the 10 spoked wheel point to a bullnosed morris cowley perhaps?
Title: Re: Help please identifying this car from 1920s
Post by: arthurk on Monday 07 September 15 17:26 BST (UK)
A lot of the ones I found had 10-spoked wheels, so it doesn't seem to have been a feature unique to any particular make or model.

And I know I said before that the radiator area was a bit indistinct, but if you find a picture of the radiator of a Morris Cowley, I think there's enough detail here to see that it's different.