Another mystery car

[Archivist]

Sorry to inflict you all with these images but I am getting very close to completion of the cataloguing now..

Todays car is a mystery tourer. Such information I have been provided (thank you Mike) suggests that the registration dates from September 1932. It’s definitely a coachbuilt version, the wings are pure Arrow 4-seater, but there’s no arrow on the radiator, and the top of the door is in line with the bonnet waist moulding which doesn’t match the Arrow Foursome. Nor is the windscreen Arrow… So where does that leave us?

As ever, team, your thoughts are encouraged and welcome...

   

[Nick Salmon]

Long shot... There are two white dots on the diagonal, in the centre of the rad. A missing Arrow script?

[Archivist]

Good spot, Nick. 

It might come down to how accurate we think the Source Book might be. According to it (page 240 et seq) there was a 1929 model of Arrow with doors that aligned with the bonnet moulding. But that seems to have petered out of production by 1931 with only 1 metal bodied car having been produced in February of that year. I suppose it is just possible that this is that one car - or that the Source Book is off in its supposition of production figures?

But upon reflection, and looking at the images in the Source Book again, the scuttle and rear edge of the bonnet of those cars don't seem to match up with this image? They are sloping whereas this image seems to show them as vertical?

[Steve Jones]

The striping to the doors and to the scuttle match exactly. However, that to the bonnet looks like it could be entirely different. Is the bonnet original to the car? If you look at the rear of the bonnet where it meets the scuttle, it could be that they don't meet as they should with the the rear bonnet corner standing up slightly. That might just be the photo angle though.

Steve

[Mike Costigan]

There's a photo of the 1929 Arrow on Austin Harris' website:

https://austinharris.co.uk/photo/austin-7-arrow/630/

That body wouldn't fit the taller radiator, but maybe Arrow did a revised version and that's what we see here? Certainly the scuttle/door detail is similar...

Edit: Another detail I hadn't previously noticed: The radiator with the separated screw-on wings logo pre-dates the September 1932 registration date by a year. Perhaps it was a slow seller from 1931?

[Peter Naulls]

That's an Austin bonnet (9 louvres then a gap). As far as I can see Arrow seem to use their own bonnets with a sloping rear edge.