1904 Renault VB

This is a photograph that I took on Quay Street in Manchester at the Lancashire  Automobile Club’s Manchester to Blackpool Veteran and Vintage Car Run on a very rainy day in June 1967.

It’s the AA’s 1904 Renault VB with Park Phaeton coachwork, and the programme of the event had this note about the car:

 

14.      Automobile Association, London.

             (Driver – Mr. W. G. Thompson).

             1904 Renault 4398c.c.

The AA are entering, for the first time, their 1904 Renault which they acquired just over a year ago. Its previous owner, Mr. Paul Waring, was a well-known collector of Veteran Cars and the car is being preserved in his memory and as a representative of the Motoring Age in which the AA was founded. The brass plaque on the car tells, in brief, the history :- The Paul Waring Renault. This 1904 Park Phaeton 20/0 h.p. Renault was owned by Mr. Paul Waring, who painstakingly restored it in every detail prior to his tragic death in 1964. In his memory it is being preserved for posterity, and the delight of the motoring public of every age, by the Automobile Association. The Renault, which has now been given the registration number AA1, is a magnificent vehicle, being both impressive and graceful. It seats seven comfortably, and is powered by a four-cylinder 4½ litre engine (100 x 140 mm.) rated at 24.8 h.p. It has a three-speed quadrant-change gearbox behind the cone clutch, and the final drive is by a central propellor shaft to a “live” back axle. Its maximum speed is about 50 m.p.h. and it does 20 miles to the gallon. Known as a “Park Phaeton” model the coachwork was specially built by Rothschild et Cie of Paris and won a gold medal at the Paris Salon in December 1904. It was originally bought by Elizabeth, Lady Cheylesmore, who used it as a town carriage. She was at one time Lady-in-Waiting to the late Queen Mary who is said to have ridden in the car on numerous occasions. On the occasion of the fiftieth Paris Motor Show, the Renault led the procession with General de Gaulle as a passenger down the Champs Elysées. It also featured prominently in the film, “Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines” and has successfully completed the London to Brighton run on at least sixteen occasions.

 

Behind the Renault is a 1904 Siddeley, about which the programme says:

 

16.      Mr. G. A. Estler, Whiteleaf, Bucks,

             1904 Siddeley two-seater.

Car delivered to King & sons of Bournemouth in November 1904. Then the colour was Navy blue, lined yellow. Purchased by my uncle from R. G. J. Nash in 1934 and in use by the family ever since. Has competed in many Brighton Runs and finished thirteen times. The engine is horizontal and  the drive by a largr single chain. The car was manufactured by the Wolseley Company and is identical to a contemporary Wolseley apart from the bonnet and radiator. Three similar cars are known to the Veteran Car Car Club.