When is an Opal not an Opal?

[Mike Costigan]

This is really silly ... for well over fifty years I have always referred to the Ruby-fronted 2-seater as an Opal. I had a 1936 example as my first car, and back in the 1940s my father ran a 1937 version; both were known in the family as Opals.

But I have just been looking through some of my brochures on another matter, and realised that Austins did not, in fact, call this model the Opal! The only reference to the 2-seater being referred to as an Opal is in the 1934 brochure 1212, at which time the model still retained the earlier chrome radiator; all subsequent brochures - 1290, 1292, 1472 & 1539 - give the model name as, simply, the 2-seater.

   

So, are they Opals, or are they 2-seaters? And does it matter, anyway 

[Peter Naulls]

... and the Ruby Tourer is not a Ruby Tourer either! I've always wondered why. 
The "Opal" was supplied bumper-less of course but I hadn't realised the Tourer was too.

Peter.

["Slack Alice" Simon]

Do the brochures still have "Ruby" and "Pearl", Mike?

[Mike Costigan]

Yes, Simon, the Ruby and Pearl are always referred to by name; the 4-seater tourer is always the Open Road (sometimes with the suffix Tourer, sometimes with Four Seater).

   

[Roland Alcock]

Ironically, when I took ownership of my Chrome Rad Opal, it was suggested (by owners of the later 2 Seater) that it couldn’t be an Opal because of the chrome radiator. The archive publications cleared that suggestion up. I shall have fun this week when I meet them and say "you know your car, it’s not really an Opal'"!

["Slack Alice" Simon]

That seems odd, not keeping the "jewellery" sequence.

Maybe the Nazis had an "O P A L"  organisation - something like that,  happening in the political world of the time?

Simon

[Ritchie Wilson]

In my 1936 Austin Diary the 7 h.p. models are listed as: Pearl Cabriolet; Ruby; Open Road; Two-seater and Nippy.

[Tony Press]

That seems odd, not keeping the "jewellery" sequence.

Maybe the Nazis had an "O P A L"  organisation - something like that,  happening in the political world of the time?

Simon

Possibly because GM owned Opel in Germany they advised Longbridge that the Opal name was too close.

Austin had a chrome radiator Two Seater in 1933 - an Opal two seater briefly in 1934 reverting to Two Seater in 1935 for the new painted radiator model.

Tony.