This picture below features a very different setting, but yet another Weymann style bodied car. Perhaps we should not be too surprised as this type of body construction was introduced by Weymann, a French coachbulider based in Paris, in 1921. The fabric covered, timber framed, light weight body, gave rattle and squeak free running allied to increased speed and economy of running costs. It gained favour with many manufacturers and the public in the UK during the later years of the 1920s. As we know from previous jottings, it was mainly the Hoyal Body Corp who were entrusted to produced the fabric bodies for Armstrong Siddeley Motors. Weymann claimed to have 123 licensees and had received payment for some 70,000 cars by 1931 when the fashion had largely passed and more substantial materials were demanded.
This is one of the many interesting pictures in the Bryan Goodman collection which does not carry any detail of the occasion or the vehicle. It is obviously a four light saloon. The wheel fastenings and the slim V radiator suggest a 15hp saloon from 1928/9. The double bumper bars and the centre hub caps suggest the work of an outside coachbuilder or later additions perhaps. The exact location is not recorded but it might be reasonable to suggest a photo was taken to record achieving the summit of a mountain pass. Judging by the warm clothing and the coat flapping in the breeze this was not a picnic stop, however the lady to the right of the picture has taken time to light up a cigarette.
Our second picture this week was chosen because of the unusual attachment to the front offside dumb iron. A 30hp open drive landaulette from the early 1920s, it sports what we take to be an interesting direction indicator.
