Quote:
Originally Posted by landyfromanuthaland
who made the Swift u mention John?
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Was made by Swift Motors in Coventry, started mid 19th century making sewing machines, branched into bikes in the 1880s and started car production in the very early 1900s. They made the first Austin 7s for Herbert Austin, and were reasonably successful in the Edwardian period, and after the war, but like many small manufacturers, came to grief in the Depression, and ceased production in 1931. See
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swift_Motor_Company
for example.
My father had a 1931 model, I started to learn to drive on it when I was about 12. It was a fairly roomy five seat saloon with a fabric covered wooden framed body, right hand gearshift, wire wheels, etc. Not high performance, but very reliable.
I remember one trip we made from Sydney to Glen Innes (would have been just after the end of petrol rationing, probably 1949 or 1950), accompanied from Newcastle by an uncle and his family in their Rover Nine. The Swift outperformed the Rover, mainly by virtue of having a four speed gearbox instead of a three speed. One of my enduring memories is our waiting for them at the top of Moonbi, and their coming into sight round the last bend, with my uncle leaning out the side to see, the windscreen of the Rover being obscured by condensation from the boiling radiator.
John