Opal Two-seater

[Tony Griffiths]

With nothing better to do, I remembered that last year Mike Costigan was trawling through Austin Brochures and discovered, to everyone's amazement that in 1934, concurrent with the introduction of the Ruby, Austin started to list what had previously been named the "Two-seater" with chrome radiator as the “Opal" – something they had not done before. Strangely, when this model was revised the following year (distinguished by its pressed-steel Ruby-like cowl), the Opal name was dropped and the car listed in the sales brochures as the plain "Two-seater". So strictly speaking, if your chrome-radiator Two-seater is pre-mid-1934 it’s a “Two-seater” but if mid-1934 to the changeover to the cowled radiator in August 1935 it’s an “Opal". After, when fitted with the Ruby-style cowl, it’s back to being a plain vanilla "Two-seater”.
Just for the record, here's the list of brochures illustrating the changes.
April 1934: http://www.archive.a7ca.org/wp-content/u..._1030B.pdf
Mid to late-1934:  http://www.archive.a7ca.org/wp-content/u...R_1212.pdf
and http://www.archive.a7ca.org/wp-content/u...R_1206.pdf 
and  http://www.archive.a7ca.org/wp-content/u...R_1171.pdf
1935 http://www.archive.a7ca.org/wp-content/u...R_1171.pdf (small illustrations near the end)
1935 http://www.archive.a7ca.org/wp-content/u...R_1292.pdf
1935 http://www.archive.a7ca.org/wp-content/u..._1297B.pdf (written descriptions near the end)
August 1935 – New Range and the two-seater with Ruby-style cowl http://www.archive.a7ca.org/wp-content/u..._1297B.pdf

[Steve Jones]

My long time friend, David Cree, has a chrome rad two seater. For more years than I can remember he's insisted that it was an Opal and that the cowled rad versions that followed it were not. This indicates that he's been correct all along.

Are you going to tell him Ian, or should I?

Steve