Opals and two-seaters

[Mike Costigan]

Interesting question,Charles. I believe so, and looking at the period photos in the Gallery seems to confirm it, but I await others contributions to the contrary!

[e-richard]

My apologies.  I am actually away from home and suffering poor memory !
However, I have retrieved some scanned log books and I get a sense that Timothy may be right.  
It seems that DVLC (or whatever it was) accept whatever you write....





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[JonE]

Thanks - I'm sure you are right about DVLA. Although that continuation seems to be right on hypothesis!
I guess APEs are all technically "post-Opals"?

[Bill Sheehan]

Thanks - I'm sure you are right about DVLA. Although that continuation seems to be right on hypothesis!
I guess APEs are all technically "post-Opals"?

A slight deviation from the theme - but did you know that apart from Pearls, Opals, Rubys - there was a Diamond?  Not really, but at the International Motor Show in Melbourne Oz in May 1938 was a Magazine-described item :- "The central point of Austin Cars' (Distributors) exhibit was a 7 hp car housed in black velvet, the car being covered with "glitter", which made it sparkle like silver and diamonds".  Today's useless trivia.   Cheers,  Bill in Oz

[Charles Levien]

We always called Jen’s 36 model the Opal  but the evidence now produced convinces me we were wrong and I shall always refer to the later cars as two seaters from now on.

What I can’t get my head around is why the Pearl and Ruby appellations carry on and the Opal gets dropped. Seems a tad inconsistent.
No doubt there is chronological explanation but I did rather like telling enquirers that my car was an Opal.

Charles

[Martin Prior]

We always called Jen’s 36 model the Opal  but the evidence now produced convinces me we were wrong and I shall always refer to the later cars as two seaters from now on.

What I can’t get my head around is why the Pearl and Ruby appellations carry on and the Opal gets dropped. Seems a tad inconsistent.
No doubt there is chronological explanation but I did rather like telling enquirers that my car was an Opal.

Charles

If we're getting into this territory, why was the four-seat tourer, an "Open Road", rather than a gemstone?

[John Mason]

I have no evidence but I did hear that Austin were getting grieve from General Motors about the name Opal as it was too near to there own Opel name. Is that why the name Opal was dropped from the Jewel named cars.

John Mason

[JonE]

Bill's gem is real evidence of the run-out model!! Would be great to find a picture of that.
The Opel hypothesis is a good one that must still have an archivist somewhere to question - its essentially a continuing company, isn't it?

I've been wondering about the highly differential use of 'Gordon' in the GE advertising. Much of it was promoting the "England Cup" or "England Saloon".. and that may be because of the existence of the Gordon Coachbuilding company, who overlapped with their interests in the larger (10 and upwards) cars. No evidence of a 7 yet.. unless anyone knows of one?

Opel in Germany definitely worth someone contacting.

[Tony Press]

I have no evidence but I did hear that Austin were getting grieve from General Motors about the name Opal as it was too near to there own Opel name. Is that why the name Opal was dropped from the Jewel named cars.

John Mason

I believe I mentioned this possibility some time back in the seemingly never - ending discussion.

[Nick Salmon]

I am about to go out to the garage for the first time this week (the weather has been vile) and am trying to think how I am going to break the news to her that she is not an 'Opal' and probably never has been.The last time I dealt with something as distressing as this was when I had to tell the kids that the milkman was their dad.