Popular Mechanics, August 1930

[Mike Costigan]

A recent acquisition for the Archives is a copy of Popular Mechanics, from August 1930. This is an American publication, and this particular issue is of interest because it includes an article on an American view of the small car market with the Austin Seven featuring significantly.

One of the illustrations is captioned Interior of the Four-Passenger Coupe. At a casual glance it looks like a standard RK saloon, but on closer examination, it appears to be a B coupe:


  popular mechanics august 1930004.jpg (Size: 591.31 KB / Downloads: 292)

This is a perfect example of why we should be very wary of period photographs! Every time I look at it, I find yet another feature which is 'wrong' - what can you spot?

[Colin Morgan]

Yes - it is a B-Type Coupe - windscreen directly above the dashboard, unlike the RK.  Perhaps this is the 1928 car sent to the USA, hence the dished steering wheel?  Attached is a picture of the interior of the 1930 Coupe I found in 2002, for comparison.  The space for the rear seats is at least 6" shorter than in the standard saloon (probably more because of the raked steering wheel), the roof line is lower, and the rear passengers would have no rear windows, of course.

[Mike Costigan]

Well done, Colin! I too concluded that it is probably the 1928 car that was shown at the New York Show in January 1929, which could explain the deep-dished steering wheel. At first I thought the gear lever was a later ball-change one, but enlarging the image to pot here I can see it is the correct long gate-change lever that was fitted to coupes. 

But is the base of the dashboard straight? It certainly doesn't appear to have the curved clearance for the gear lever normally found on coupes. This car also has the shorter door change fitted to early RF fabric saloons, together with the early-type door latches. As far as I know, the pleats on the door trims were not a usual feature on the coupes, either.

[Howard Wright]

Hi All

Difficult to see but I don’t think there is a switch box on the dash?

I think some RK’s omitted the panel below the window?

Cheers

Howard

[Colin Morgan]

Yes, the cut-out, as seen in the photo of the 1930 car, seems to be missing from the bottom edge of the dash.