West Cumbria Vintage Rally 2011 

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Vintage Vehicles

Two of the finest old cars were found in the car park outside - the first being this beautiful Cadillac. As this wasn't in the catalogue I'll have to guess that this is from c.1928 as apart from it's wooden wheel spokes it looks similar to the one that belonged to Al Capone, which was bullet proofed and later used by President Roosevelt. This had a V8 engine and was a 31A Town Sedan identical to those issued to the Chicago police at the time.

Next to the Cadillac was this fine old Buick also in immaculate condition. It appears to be a Buick 90 series Club Sedan from about 1934-1935. This has a a straight 8 cyclinder engine with a capacity in cubic inches of 344.8.

Back in the showground, and beating both of these cars for age, was this wonderful yellow Morris Cowley 4 seated tourer from 1925. These cars had originally been made with American engines and parts but supplies dried up in the first World War and so in 1920 the car was updated with an engine from Hotchkiss, a French company which Morris bought in to produce their own engines. The distinctive bull-nose radiator was replaced with a standard flat version the year after this car was built.

This 2 seat touring car built in 1934 was a Morris Minor which according to the catalogue was bought by its current owner in 1964, when it was already 30 years old, for the paltry sum of £3-10s. The year 1934 was the last of production for this model, which was replaced by the Morris 8. The engine by this time was a side-valved design of 850cc. When introduced in 1928 it had been a more expensive OHC version, 100cc more than the competition - the Austin 7. This later, cheaper and more reliable engine gave an output of 19 bhp with a top speed a little over 50 mph.

Archibald Frazer Nash started building his cars in 1922. This wonderful Frazer Nash Fast Tourer was built just 4 years later in 1926 and there was only 165 built until 1930.

They had various engines but this had the 4 cylinder 1500cc British Anzani engine which developed 38 bhp at 4000 rpm. This was unusual by today's standards in that it used a chain drive.

On the aircraft style dashboard, in addition to the original dials and buttons, are a couple of little engraved brass plaques. These say that in 1973 this car did 1000 miles in 22 hrs and 45mins and 10 years later it did the same mileage 12 mins quicker.

The 3 seater body painted in green to match the green leather seats finished this off perfectly.

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