Reconditioned Swallow Advertisement

[Tony Griffiths]

Cleaned for enlargement

[Dave Mann]

Looks lovely but have you tried getting in one, I'd have to remove the steering wheel.

[Tony Griffiths]

Looks lovely but have you tried getting in one, I'd have to remove the steering wheel.

If it's hard for you, Dave, it would be impossible for me. Perhaps it really was aimed at the present-for-the-favourite-daughter/slim-lover/girl-about-town/miniature-lothario market!

[Erich]

Tony, perhaps it was a way for a concerned father to prevent any lothario from having a tryst with his daughter!

Erich in Mukilteo

[Tony Griffiths]

Tony, perhaps it was a way for a concerned father to prevent any lothario from having a tryst with his daughter!

Erich in Mukilteo

That's what the girl in the picture is doing; waving him away and saying. "What! In that! No, chance, buddy. I want a 5-star hotel room with dinner and champers first."

---

Is there a photograph of the model described as 'two-seater with interchangeable Coupe head and Cape Hood'?

[Mike Costigan]

  1929 swallow coupe.JPG (Size: 84.22 KB / Downloads: 233)

[Tony Griffiths]

Thanks, Mike, I bet the house on you coming up trumps. Was this the present-day equivalent of a "winter hardtop" - and might Swallow have been the first with this idea?

[Ray White]

I did once see an example of the detachable hard top Swallow at Fleet Carnival many years ago but there can't be many around. The original design was intended to hinge from the back but the idea was shelved when a prototype flew off on Blackpool promenade.!

One or two observations of the advert.

The windscreen is odd in that the opening section is on the passenger side and the fixed pane is in the driver's side.

This Henly's ad is dated 1928 which was the year when Swallow moved from Blackpool to Coventry. It was an order for 500 cars from this dealer which instigated the move.

The radiator shell has the small opening which was later slightly enlarged. It would eventually be revised once more with the addition of a dividing bar .

The doors have a moulding to the edge which was a feature soon to disappear.

Incidentally, one may see Austin Swallows described as mark 1 or mark 2. There was never such a designation by the factory; it was thought up by the late Donald Doughty as a convenient way to determine early or late models.

[Tony Press]

'The windscreen is odd in that the opening section is on the passenger side and the fixed pane is in the driver's side.'

Well spotted. I didn't think the first version had the scuttle vents ?

The later version had bumpers front and back as well

[Mike Costigan]

... Was this the present-day equivalent of a "winter hardtop" - and might Swallow have been the first with this idea?

There's a Swallow brochure in the Archive which illustrates the 'Saloon Head' version:

http://www.archive.a7ca.org/wp-content/u...P_0016.pdf

The description includes: ... supplied with Saloon Head rigidly fixed, but quickly detachable, so that it may be readily interchangeable with the Cape Hood... and an artistically-designed electric light with tumbler switch.

I wonder what sort of electrical connection was provided to enable the roof to be removed?

Good to know there's at least one survivor out there, I've never seen one.