Toby Ross recently bought a Hispano that was discovered in India about 25 years ago. It’s one of the last J12’s made. Bodied by Gurney Nutting it was supplied to the Maharaja and Marharini of Indore. It has a long chassis, with rear seats upholstered in tiger skins that makes them -according to Toby- just perfect for a back seat hanky panky ;-) The Hispano is half way through restoration, with the body in primer, sitting on its wheels, but otherwise in boxes. The interior has wonderful restored cabinetry in Pallisandre, very art deco. The top of the car was in a lighter color, saffron orange. Red and blue lights are incorporated in the front edge of the roof. Red light lit meant that the car was transporting the Maharaja, blue, the Maharini. Tony is now bolting the Hispano back together but would love to hear from readers who can help with info. If you’re really interested, Toby might be persuaded to sell the Hispano, but do think of the problems you’ll face procuring tiger skins for re-upholstering the seats!

Update by Harit Trivedi from India who knows more about the Hispano’s history: “That car was one of two identically bodied cars, the other was a Rolls Royce PIII which also survives. The Royalty were known as the Holkars of Indore. This Hispano was also one of two J12's which had made their way to India, the other was with Royalty in Gujrat and left the country before the ban on export of vintage cars was introduced in India, sometime early 1970's. Among the famous cars which were smuggled out was the Farman, Swan, Bharatpur 20HP Rolls and quite a few others. By the present owners admission, this car was also smuggled out of India, obvious since it was "discovered" 25 years ago. But it has been common knowledge in the Indian collector car circle all along.”  Read more

‘Hei’ is Finnish for ‘Hi’. The greetings come from Juha Kaitanen, who reacts to a story about a 1911 NSU that we published at the end of last year. Juha sends us this photo of another NSU. Before WW I it served as a taxi in the town of Turku, south-west Finland. Did you notice the bald tires? The photo was taken in a park called Kupittaa which is in the center of the city. However, today the park can look much different ;-) Anyway, Juha would like to know what model this NSU is. Can we help? 

Bas van Genderen tells us of a rather special vehicle that he recently bought. “Sometime after WW II a French farmer used his cycle car to make it into a tractor. He kept the chassis but shortened the rear. He also kept the 1200 cc CIME engine and gearbox. He reversed the rear axle and coupled that through a chain to a second gearbox. The original front axle was shortened and mounted under the chassis instead of the front. Unfortunately this ’racing’ tractor wasn’t too stable. When the farmer used it for towing a trailer, the vehicle jumped up and the farmer didn’t survive the accident. After that catastrophe the tractor hasn’t been used again. But what makes this monster rather special is that it has been a real E.H.P.!” (Editor: compare it with the photos of this one (click). We do urge Bas to be very careful with it! 

No need to panic if you own a Rippon bodied motorcar. No failing doors, brakes or gas pedals. Some time ago we wrote about a booklet by Jonathan Wood about coachbuilding companies in the UK. One of them was Rippon from Huddersfield who have been in the business since 1555! They started building car bodies in 1905 and continued to do so until 1958, mostly on luxurious automobiles like Rolls Royce and Daimler. Now Jonathan wants to expand his knowledge about Rippon into a book that deals solely with the history of this interesting company. It is Jonathan’s intention to list every surviving Rippon-bodied car in the book and also he would like to hear their owner’s stories. He therefore asks our help. If you have a Rippon-bodied car do tell us! Also, any other information on Rippon will be most welcome. We’ll be glad to pass on the information. Mail us!

Update II: Hugh Nutting tells us that the Rippons built a Railton Limo for their own use. It is one of the best looking closed Railtons ever built and has survived.
Update I: Terry Cook owns a 1935 Rippon sports saloon with twin sun roof 

Judging by the number of unidentified chassis, we can expect lots of newly restored cars in the future. But only if we can identify them properly! Therefore we ask you, Chassis Detectives, to help Stig Larsson with this one. He bought it in Sweden a year ago and believes it’s from a French cyclecar. It is small indeed, its wheelbase is 200 cm and the track 105 cm (6’7” and 3’5”). Stig first thought it was a Salmson from 1922-23 because the rear axle is Salmson. However, the rest is not. And even more confusing, the gearbox is an Eclipse, made in the USA. Probably there has been a motorcycle engine in front of the gearbox? Maybe the gearbox is not original? Maybe both engine and gearbox have been put in later? Stig is rather sure the chassis is factory built, because everything is so well done, he thinks it cann't have been done in a backyard shed. Over to you, Chassis Detectives! Mail us your suggestions! 

Whatever, don’t follow Bobby Sheldons footsteps! When he was 18 years old way back in 1905, he constructed this car to impress one of the local girls. Although he had never seen a real automobile before and had to rely on magazine drawings and started to work. For a body he used tin and oil cloth and he constructed the seats from two bar room chairs. The tiller was made from sections of gas piping and for an engine he used a 3.5 hp Gray Marine that he salvaged from a sunken boat. The car really did work and was reported to have a top speed of 15 miles per hour. Unfortunately for Bobby the girl wasn’t interested. The 1905 Sheldon is now the latest exhibit in the Alaska Fountainhead Auto Museum. They in turn have it on loan from the University of Alaska Museum where it has been on display since 1934. It is supposedly the first automobile in Alaska. (Thanks to Bob Apalsch for the photos and an article on the life of Bobby Sheldon from the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner) 

Today’s quiz car was a very popular make, only… in one particular area! It comes from a very large country, but sales outside the state where it was made, were virtually non-existent. It’s name suggests long vacations. And according to early reports that’s just what this car was capable of. Despite its 20-hp, 2-cylinder engine it did well climbing mountains! The factory also made 4 cylinder engines, but that was a different model. Production rose steadily, from 12 in the first year, to almost 600 in 1909. By the end of that year the manufacturer ran in to problems obtaining parts, as he was not licensed by the Selden-patent. The firm sold out to another company, who continued to produce this make, but in 1910 sales fell off end the make was discontinued. Do you know what we are talking about? If so tell us the make, the year and model of this roadster. There’s normally a big name on the radiator block but we got rid of that and also of the small identifying plate on top of the radiator. Please check Read More for the rules! And do use our Contact Form before Monday, March 1st. Have a nice weekend! (Photo source to be disclosed next week).  Read more

We’ve written about Aloha Wanderwell’s adventures twice before, and still photos keep pouring in. At least, that’s what we thought when we saw the picture of this group posing in front of one of Captain Walter Wanderwell’s automobiles. But after a little research we found that the woman second from left isn’t Aloha, but Walter’s first wife Nell. And certainly you did recognize the man in the middle, didn’t you? Charlie Chaplin, of course. The photo was taken in front of Chaplin's office on the United Artists studio in Hollywood and probably dates from October 1923, when Nell was in Los Angeles and Aloha and Walter were still in Belgium and Poland. However, we do know that a photo exists that shows Chaplin and Aloha driving together in Los Angeles, but haven’t been able to find it. Do you know the photo we are talking about and can help? (UPDATE by Mark Dawber:"...it looks custom built - the top looks as though it came from a Flintstones car! I notice several accessory items; the Disteel wheels, the Westinghouse front shock absorbers and what might be Bauch and Lomb drum headlights which would be very new in 1923."   Read more

After another successful event in 2009 which saw entry numbers increase for the sixth year running, Motion Works, the organisers of the 2010 London to Brighton Veteran Car Run (LBVCR), will start accepting entries for the world’s longest running motoring event on Monday, March 1. See the latest press release (click) 

Perhaps you have a link to the wonderful website of Thierry Auffret. In that case please do an update it, my personal page about Automobiles Voisin moved to www.automobiles-voisin.fr.