Thread: Veteran Roadster ID help!

Kinda looks like an alvis badge, but cars of that age are defenitely not my forte !

You might find the story is not so much the car,
I wonder who the 'Captain' and his first mate are?

A red hot race car of the day, judging by the slick tyres!
Wouldn't stop in a hurry, tho'.....

Cheers, GQ

Ah, I know a bit of the story...

The naval officer is Commander Duncan Grant, RN. He was the 2IC of the newly established Royal Australian Naval College in Jervis Bay. He was quite deaf, so was sent out to the 'colonies' to command the college. He quickly became Captain of the college by 1919.

The dog is named Bill. Bill lead the graduating classes onto parade (a specially selected midshipman's duty was to pick Bill up, after the march pass). There are a few surviving photographs of Bill proudly leading the march. Some of Australia's most famous naval officers would have marched behind Bill and known Commander Grant (and his car); including Vice Admiral Collins and Rear Admiral Farncombe.

Obviously, he had one of the first cars in the area...the college also bought an 8 seater Cadillac to ferry cadets in from Nowra.

I have this original photo on my wall at home - it's the only copy. The original still hangs in the Wardroom of HMAS CRESWELL. Since the car is rather unique, there's a tiny chance it's either been restored or it's in a shed somewhere. Of course, the likely scenario is he either:
(a) crashed it, on those slicks!
(b) took it back to England with him
(c) it's already rusted away...

No wonder he had such a big horn!

If you look very closely at the pic, there's the big rubber thing you squeeze to make a horn work, (bellows?) and unless my eyes are less than perfect, the horn tube runs all the way to the front end of the right side front guard...where I see the head of a serpent, might be a clue to the vehicles origin.... or its an early LR given all the rivets

I'm going English and maybe a Morris, but I'm no expert, whatever it is, is pretty flash for the time, lots of lights, a 2 seater with a roof, plenty of suspension, I'd go maybe early 1920s max as it only appears to have rear brakes...

given the ranking of the driver, he wouldn't be seen in anything less than his ranking, then there's his 'co-pilot'....

GQ

The general appearance of the car, particularly the acetylene lamps and the door handles point to it being Edwardian. The wooden spoked wheels, while not definitive, were much more common in the US than elsewhere. The bodywork is not indicative of the type of car as almost all cars in that period had bodywork made by a car body specialist - and the style reflects the body builder more than the chassis manufacturer. The radiator cap mascot is likely to be an aftermarket additon and not indicative of the type of car.

The nearest match I can find for the radiator shape and the shape of the badge is the Stutz, but there are certainly others I have missed, including quite a few that I have never even heard of - there were a lot of short lived manufacturers in that period.

John

It's a bit too tall for a Stutz, JD. (as in a 'runabout'). But you're right on about the thousands of coachbuilders who plonked on their custom bodies on available chassis.

Remember their famous (Stutz) Bearcat? Long(ish) and low...like the Mercer Raceabout.

Those woody wheels (spokes) and the hub design made me think of Chev, early 20s, (no front brakes) but the body is more English, or even a bit French..... Louis Chevrolet was a froggie... The small radiator and the frontal design leads us back to what phoenix mentioned earlier.... so a small radiator would mean a small engine, and the production line yanks were already into bigger mills... still thinking pommie...

I'll send the pic to dad, he's good at this stuff.

GQ

Originally Posted by Phoenix

Kinda looks like an alvis badge, but cars of that age are defenitely not my forte !

Wouldnt be an Alvis, I think they only started in the 20s. My dad had a 1926 12/50 he restored plus a TA21. I think they had an eagle as an emblem but not sure.

Originally Posted by Quiggers

It's a bit too tall for a Stutz, JD. But you're right on about the thousands of coachbuilders who plonked on their custom bodies on available chassis.

Remember their famous Bearcat? Long(ish) and low...like the Mercer Raceabout.

Those woody wheels and the hubs immediately made me think of Chev, early 20s, (no front brakes) but the body is more English, or even a bit French.....

GQ

The Bearcat was not all that low actually - it just had no bodywork up high!

It definitely is prewar - nobody fitted acetylene lamps after 1918. You will also note that the wheels, which of course are not detachable, do not have detachable rims. This setup (you had to change the tyre on the wheel, on the vehicle - no spare wheel!) was not fitted to cars after about 1914. The radiator shape it typical of the period 1905 - 1912, although many manufacturers had other shapes in this period, it was hardly used outside this period.

Chevrolet, like other American manufacturers, retained wooden wheels long after they stopped using them in Europe, where they were replaced usually with either steel spoked wheels or wire wheels, probably reflecting the lower cost of good quality timber in the US compared to Europe.

John