1956 Ford Zephyr Zodiac

This car was displayed on the stand of the 'Five Stars - Ford Mk1 Consul Zephyr Zodiac Owners Club' at the Northern Classic Car Show at the G-Mex Exhibition Centre in Manchester in August 1990.

It's a 1956 Ford Zephyr Zodiac with a 6-cylinder inline 2,262cc engine, and was also referred to as a Ford Zodiac MkI after the Zodiac MkII was introduced later in 1956. The brochure of the event said this about the car:

 

'The stand this year celebrates the 1953 win of the Marque in that year's Monte Carlo Rally. Our car is owned by Andy Davies of Chorley, and won Best Car on our annual Manchester to Southport run.'

 

This is obviously not the actual car that won the 1953 Monte Carlo Rally - that was registration number VHK 194, and was driven by Maurice Gatsonides with Peter Worledge as his navigator (the rally number was 365 though). The DVLA say that KRJ 735 still exists and has only recently been re-taxed for another year.

 

Maurice Gatsonides, by the way, is much better known as the inventor of the 'Gatso' speed camera.

1959 Ford Anglia 100E

This is a photograph that I took at the Northern Classic Car Show at G-Mex, Manchester in August 1987.

It's a 1959 Ford Anglia 100E which has a 4-cylinder inline 1,172cc sidevalve engine. The Ford Anglia was produced from 1939 to 1968 with four different models, the 100E being the third of these, 345,841 of which were built between 1953 and 1959.

1929 Fiat 509A Torpedo

This is a photograph that I took at the Northern Classic Car Show at G-Mex, Manchester in August 1987.

It's a 1929 Fiat 509A which has a 4-cylinder inline 909cc engine. The Fiat 509 was produced from 1924 to 1929 and about 90,000 were sold in that period. The DVLA record says that this car as not been taxed since February 1990.

1952 Jowett Bradford

This vehicle was on the stand of the Jowett Car Club at the Northern Classic Car Show at G-Mex, Manchester in August 1987.

It's a 1952 Jowett Bradford which has a 1,005cc flat twin side-valve engine, and nearly 40,000 of these were produced between 1946 and 1953.

1923 Buick 23/35 Tourer

I took this photograph at the Northern Classic Car Show at G-Mex, Manchester in August 1990.

It's a 1923 Buick 23/35, and the number 49 in the windscreen indicates that it was one of the cars due to be sold in the auction on the last day of the show. The car has a 2.8 litre 4-cylinder inline engine and records show that 36,998 vehicles were made, only 63 of which were made for export.

1913 Theophile Schneider

I took this photograph at the Northern Classic Car Show in the G-Mex Centre, Manchester in August 1990.

It's a 1913 Theophile Schneider and there's no mention of it in the brochure of the event, but it appears to be on the stand of the Manchester Vintage Car Club. I have a photograph I took of the car at Oulton Park in 1992 where it was entered by Roger Firth and the programme for that meeting shows it to have a 4-cylinder inline 5,504cc engine and also says: 'The 5.5 litre Theophile Schneider of Roger Firth was built up by John Rowley and is of the type which ran in the 1913 French Grand Prix at Amiens with an L-head side-valve engine.'

Austin Healey 100

I photographed this car at the Northern Classic Car Show at the G-Mex Centre in Manchester in August 1990.

It's an Austin Healey 100, possibly on the stand of the Austin Healey Club, and the rally plate on the front of the car seems to indicate that it took part in the Norwich Union Classic Car Rally in 1990. The Austin Healey 100 was designed by Donald Healey using using the 4 cylinder inline 2,330cc engine from an Austin A90 Atlantic. The single car Healey made was spotted at the 1952 London Motor Show by Leonard Lord, managing director of Austin, who reached an agreement with Donald Healey for the cars to be made by Austin with the bodies provided by Jenson Motors. The cars were produced from 1953 to 1956.

1933 Rover 10 Special

This car was one of the exhibits on the stand of the Rover Sports Register at the Northern Classic Car Show at the G-Mex Exhibition Centre in Manchester in August 1994.

It's a 1933 Rover 10 Special with a 4-cylinder inline 1,185cc ohv engine, and a note in the brochure of the event by the owner of the car reads as follows:

'ALK 292 is a Rover 10 Special which was registered August 21st 1933. The body was built by Carbodies, Coventry and in their sales brochure was described as a Sports Two Seater with a single Dicky Seat. The rear of the body is boat shaped.

It was purchased by my father in July 1963 in Elstead, Surrey. My father was only the second owner of the car which was used regularly until 1968 when it was taken off the road and subsequently stored for 21 years. The car was professionally restored from 1990-92.

According to the Vintage Rover Register, no other survivor of this special bodied Rover is known, and the car is more probably unique.'

The DVLA record shows that the car has not been taxed since January 2000.

1935 Railton 8

This was one of the exhibits at the Northern Classic Car Show at the G-Mex Centre, Manchester in August 1993.

It's a 1935 Railton 8, and was on the stand of the Railton Owners Club. It's not mentioned in the brochure of the event which says this about the Club:

'We are celebrating the 60th birthday of the Railton which first appeared in 1933 and with its effortless top-gear performance and superb acceleration was hailed as being '10 Years Ahead Of Its Time'. Reid Railton, who gave his name to the car, was best known for designing the Napier Railton, which holds the Brooklands track record, and the Railton Mobile Special, which broke the world Land Speed Record in 1938 and again in 1947 being the first car to actually exceed 400 mph.'

The Railton 8 was produced between 1933 and 1940 and has an 8-cylinder 4,168cc engine, and when AWX 118 was shown at the 1986 Northern Classic Car Show the following note appeared in the Show's brochure:

'The Railton was a successful combination of American power and English coachwork, It was based on the 8 cylinder Hudson chassis and the example shown is fitted with the popular Fairmile drophead coupe body.'

1966 Ginetta G4

This car was displayed on the stand of the Ginetta Owners Club at the Northern Classic Car Show at the G-Mex Centre, Manchester in August 1990.

The Ginetta G4 was introduced in 1961 with a 4-cylinder inline Ford 105E engine and a fibre glass body and the DVLA record says that this car has a 1,498cc engine. The Ginetta Owners Club caters for owners of these cars and enthusiasts.

1952 Jowett Jupiter

This was one of the exhibits on the stand of the Jowett Car Club at the Northern Classic Car Show at the G-Mex Centre, Manchester in August 1990.

It's a 1952 Jowett Jupiter, one of around 900 that were produced between 1950 and 1953. The car had a more highly tuned version of the Jowett Javelin's 1,496cc flat-4 engine that produced 60 bhp and was capable of a maximum speed of around 85 mph. The DVLA record says that the car was last re-taxed earlier this year and its colour is now shown as red.

1935 SS 2

I photographed this car at the Northern Classic Car Show at the G-Mex exhibition centre in Manchester in August 1990 and the only note I made about it at the time was that it was an SS 2.

William Lyons' Swallow Coachbuilding Company first started making the SS 1 and SS 2 cars in 1932, the name of the company being changed to SS Cars Ltd in 1934, and again to SS Jaguar in late 1935 -  the 'SS' being dropped in 1945 for obvious reasons. The SS 2 was produced until 1940, first with a  4-cylinder inline 1,006cc engine, changed after 1934 to 1,343cc or 1,608cc. The DVLA record shows that AAR 451 was last taxed in 1990 and has a 1,479cc engine.

1951 Marauder

This was one of the exhibits at the Northern Classic Car Show at the G-Mex Centre in Manchester in August 1990.

It's a 1951 Marauder, one of only 15 cars built, 12 of which are thought to still exist. The car was created by two ex-Rover engineers who based it on a shortened version of the Rover P4 75 chassis. The engine is a modified version of the 6-cylinder inline 2,103cc Rover engine and the first few bodies were made by Richard Mead of Dorridge, Solihull, later ones by Abbey Panels of Coventry. The cars were expensive, and when Purchase Tax was doubled for cars priced at over £1,000 the cost became prohibitive and production ceased in 1952.

On 29 May 2016 I showed a photograph of another of these cars that I had taken at Silverstone in 1995.

1956 Ford Zephyr Zodiac

This car was displayed on the stand of the Five Stars - Ford MkI Consul Zephyr Zodiac Owners Club at the Northern Classic Car Show at the G-Mex Exhibition Centre in Manchester in August 1990.

It's a 1956 Ford Zephyr Zodiac with a 2,262cc Straight-6 engine, and was also referred to as a Ford Zodiac MkI after the Zodiac MkII was introduced later in 1956. The brochure of the event said this about the car:

'The stand this year celebrates the 1953 win of the Marque in that year's Monte Carlo Rally. Our car is owned by Andy Davies of Chorley, and won Best Car on our annual Manchester to Southport run.'

This is obviously not the actual car that won the 1953 Monte Carlo Rally - that was registration number VHK 194, and was driven by Maurice Gatsonides with Peter Worledge as his navigator (the rally number was 365 though). The DVLA say that KRJ 735 still exists and has only recently been re-taxed for another year.

Maurice Gatsonides, by the way, is much better known as the inventor of the 'Gatso' speed camera.

1977 Triumph TR7 V8

This was one of the exhibits at the Northern Classic Car Show in the G-Mex Exhibition Centre in Manchester in August 1993, and was probably on the stand of one of the five Triumph car clubs that took part.

It's a 1977 Triumph TR7 V8 in the colours of the British Leyland rally cars from that period. The Triumph TR7 was introduced in 1975 with a 4-cylinder inline engine of 1,998cc that was based on the Triumph Dolomite 1850 engine. British Leyland used this as a rally car in 1976 with a 16-valve engine from a Triumph Dolomite Sprint, and later switched to the 3,528cc Rover V8 engine that was derived from the Buick/Oldsmobile General Motors unit. The road-going version of the rally car was brought into production in 1978 as the Triumph TR8.

1952 Jaguar XK120

This is one of the cars that was displayed at the Northern Classic Car Show at the G-Mex Centre, Manchester, in August 1990.

It's a Jaguar XK120 and the only note about it I made at the time is that it was a 1952 model. It will have the 6-cylinder inline 3,442cc engine. The DVLA record says that the XK 1 registration still exists on a black Jaguar, though it doesn't say which model, just that it was manufactured in 1950. Strangely for such an eye-catching number I can't find any reference to it on the Internet.

1961 Rochdale Olympic

This was on the stand of the Rochdale Owners Club at the Northern Classic Car Show in the G-Mex Centre, Manchester in August 1990.

It's a 1961 Rochdale Olympic Phase 1 which has a glass fibre monocoque body and was sold in kit form with a choice of various engines, this car having a 1,380cc BMC A Series engine.

On 28 January 2019 I showed a photograph of this car, and other Rochdale models, that I had taken at the Footman James Classic Car Show Manchester in 2018.

1979 De Tomaso Longchamp

This was one of the exhibits on the De Tomaso Drivers Club's stand at the Northern Classic Car Show on the G-Mex Exhibition Centre in Manchester in August 1991.

It's a 1979 De Tomaso Longchamp, one of about 410 produced between 1972 and 1986. The Longchamp was powered by the same 351 cu in (5.8 litres) American-built Ford Cleveland V8 engine that was used in the De Tomaso Pantera.

BMW 327

I photographed this car at the Northern Classic Car Show in the G-Mex Centre, Manchester in August 1989.

It's a 1952 BMW 327, and was in the area set aside for the auction that was held on the second day of the 2 day show. The BMW 327 has a 1,971cc straight-6 engine, and production started in the BMW factory at Eisenach in 1937 but was suspended in 1941. After the war Eisenach fell within the Soviet occupation zone and the factory was taken over by the Soviet Awtowelo Company which resumed production of the BMW 327 in 1946. The BMW company, based in Munich in the American occupation zone, objected to the vehicles being badged as BMW cars and after protracted negotiations it was agreed in 1952 that Eisenach produced versions of former BMWs would be marketed as EMWs - Eisenacher Motoren Werke as opposed to Bayerische Motoren Werke. These models bore a badge that was essentially a red and white version of BMW's blue and white one. Production of the EMW 327 finally ended in 1955. There's nothing about the auction cars in the brochure of the event but I noted at the time that it was a 1952 model, and as it has a blue and white badge it must be one of the last ones made before the name changed to EMW.

Wolseley 1500

I photographed this car on the Wolseley Register stand at the Northern Classic Car Show at the G-Mex Centre, Manchester in August 1994.

It's a 1965 Wolseley 1500 Series III and has the straight-4 BMC B-Series 1,489cc engine that it shares with the almost identical Riley One-Point-Five. The Riley was the slightly better equipped of the two cars having leather seats and a superior Girling braking system instead of the Lockheed system of the Wolseley. It also had twin 1½ inch SU carburettors instead of the single 1¼ inch SU carburettor of the Wolseley.