Out of the past, March 1994
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
From time to time readers send us most interesting letters and sometimes photographs of cars for identification; I regret there is not space to publish many of them. But they liven up the task of writing the V-to-C pages of Motor Sport.
For instance, I have had some pictures from a family album of a reader of some 40 years, depicting interesting cars owned by his late father, who was keen on motoring. and springer spaniels which he took to shoots and field-trials. He was a Mercedes enthusiast and the first picture is of a very early car of this make, I would think of 1902/04 vintage, as it has the very narrow radiator shell and raised header-tank which was also a feature of some veteran Peugeots. The next photograph is of a bigger pre-war Mercedes, of about 1910/12, with an obviously enthusiastic spaniel as front-seat passenger. Then a most interesting pair of cars, presumably both Mercedes, one almost certainly a Gordon Watney-bodied four-seater sporting model, probably a Ninety, with the expected disc wheels and outside drop exhaust pipes. I thought the other car was another Gordon Watney conversion but a rather unusual radiator and the fact that the four outside exhaust pipes emerged at two different heights, whereas on all such Mercedes and Benz I have seen they are level, and because a big vee-cowl had been added to the radiator, caused doubts.
The next photograph was especially interesting, because it was of a rare Morriss-London tourer, thought to have been taken in India when the Colonel was serving in the Royal Horse Artillery — which seemed to add up, because this make, based on the American Crow-Elkhart, was intended for export. Next there was what I think to be a Silver Hawk, the only identification difficulty being that these enticing little sports-cars usually had well-louvred bonnet sides, which this one didn’t, and the exhaust-pipe was on the off-side. The last of these fascinating pictures was of a supercharged 33/180hp Mercedes-Benz saloon, photographed in Bournemouth in the early to mid-1930s. Soon afterwards the Colonel cut the roof off, the better to accommodate a large number of his beloved springer spaniels! His son would like to know if the car has survived and this completely open big Mercedes may be recalled by some one? W B