RN or RP

[Tiger]

Hugh
As far as I know no smokers hatch.

[David Stepney]

Standard Model. RP

Has Black painted Head Lamps.

On the doors
Pocket different. No trim on bottom of doors, Top steel not fitted.

Seats leather cloth.

Wheels, centres black made from steel.

Windscreen, made of steel painted black.

Smokers Hatch, painted black.

Cost £118 for Stanard Sallon.  £128 Deluxe.

I am not sure that this list is quite correct. My car is a standard saloon and has the black enameled headlamps and no sunshine roof. The original trim would have been either rexine or wool rep, although my car was retrimmed about 50 years ago in brown vinyl leathercloth.. The door trims are very similar to the deluxe saloon, with door pockets. I think that the originals were probably like that and were simply copied during the retrim. The windscreen surround  is chrome and it has stainless wheel centres. I am sure these last items are correct, judging by the sales brochures of the time. I cannot comment on the smokers hatch as my car no longer has it.

Again, judging from contemporary sales brochures, I believe that the colour scheme was also different to the deluxe saloon. Originally, I believe that the standard saloon body was a single colour with only the wings black.

[Hugh Barnes]

I had never really thought about the painting of Standard saloons versus De Luxe cars but the Austin 'Stock colours' brochure here

http://www.archive.a7ca.org/wp-content/u...R_924D.pdf

Seems to support the view that Standard cars had one body colour and black wings..

[Bill Dixon]

David S.

As far as I know the difference between the standard & deluxe saloons are correct. It may well be that Austin used some deluxe trim if they ran out of standard trim to complete cars for orders, who knows?

To check a car without either a hatch or sunshine roof,it is easy to feel the rectangle hole for a smokers hatch through the
roof lining its about 7"by 4".
I await some more coments. We are always learning about our cars.

[Robert Leigh]

In the early 1960s I had a standard RP saloon (AMK407) with smokers hatch and rexine upholstery, also black headlamps and screen frame. As far as I remember it had what I regard as standard door pockets. Last time I saw it many of the original features were gone. It then resided at Yardley Gobion, Northants.
The other difference between RN and RP cars which I think has not been mentioned, is that the doors were thicker at the bottom on the RN, the frame at the bottom corners being about 1" thick. The late RN I had was fitted with an RP drivers door which looked fine on the outside, but the carpet trim did not abut the sill.

[David Stepney]

David S.

As far as I know the difference between the standard & deluxe saloons are correct. It may well be that Austin used some deluxe trim if they ran out of standard trim to complete cars for orders, who knows?

To check a car without either a hatch or sunshine roof,it is easy to feel the rectangle hole for a smokers hatch through the
roof lining its about 7"by 4".
I await some more coments. We are always learning about our cars.

Bill.

As with many mass produced cars, it is sometimes very difficult to decide what was original and what has been fitted subsequently during the cars life. During the 50's and 60's, when our cars were just 'old bangers', it was a simple matter to go to the nearest car breakers and find parts that fitted, whether they were strictly correct or not.

I bought my car from the gentleman who had restored it in the late sixties, so I am aware that it was never fitted with a sunroof and still wears its original black enameled headlamps. It is also a 'matching numbers' car. However, I have noticed that one or two parts appear to have been replaced over the years: the dynamo, for instance is a later type C35M and the fuel gauge is marked 1/4. 1/2. 3/4 and Full rather than the expected markings in gallons. There are almost undoubted replacements fitted that are not so obvious.  Further, given that my roof panel has been replaced by a piece of vinyl covered plywood, any evidence of a smokers hatch has long since disappeared.

Unless a completely original car that has been stored for many years untouched turns up (like a couple of Top Hat saloons featured in these pages), we cannot be completely sure of the exact specification, especially at a distance of over 85 years. In the meantime, I am happy to accept that my own car is more or less as it came out of the factory almost 87 years ago and that any deviations from it original spec are part of its history.

I suspect that more research is required, but in the meantime I am enjoying my car for what it is.

[Mike Costigan]

... and don't discount the possibility of a bespoke specification from new.