A low-slung special which has us stumped...

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There's nothing wrong with all the familiar faces in our classic car community - everyone loves an E-type after all - but it’s the unusual and unknown that sometimes gives the greatest pleasure, and here we have a great example of something very unknown indeed.

This historic picture came to us from Neil Barber. Neil doesn’t know much about it himself other than that the photograph was taken in Britain. The whos, whats, whens and wheres are all unknown, but the buildings in the background may well be recognizable to someone. Also, it looks to have been taken in the early 1950s, with Austins and Morrises of the era parked nose-first in the parking bays on the right, plus a few pre-war cars, too.

It's the car in the centre of the picture, though, which has aroused our interest. What is it? We can see it's a large four-seat convertible with rather long wheelbase, and one that looks to have been based on a pre-war car - note the big drums behind those spokes. Is it left-hand driven? It could well be, which would increase the chances of it being based on a French chassis. Or is it British after all? A Bentley, Riley, Lanchester, AC or Alvis, perhaps? Let us know if you see any clues that we missed.

Lastly, there’s the body, which doesn’t quite look like anything else we have ever seen. It has a short overhang at the front, squarish nose and little tail fins. Do you recognize it as the work of a particular coachbuilder, or is it an ambitious home-made effort? We can’t quite come to any conclusions there, either…

Words: Jeroen Booij; picture: Neil Barber
 

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