Elaine Pickett
1926 Carbodies of Coventry Landaulette GUK19
Current owner Ms E Pickett
Engine Spec:
Six cylinder in-line water cooled, overhead valves, capacity 3103 cc (RAC rating 21.6 hp). Four speed gearbox. Single plate clutch, spiral bevel rear axle, semi-elliptic leaf springs front and rear. Front and rear drum brakes. The early cars had 3-speed manual gearboxes with the change lever in the centre of the car, but this changed in 1925 to a four-speed unit with traditional right-hand change.
First introduced in 1922 the Twenty or ‘baby’ Rolls-Royce was sold alongside the well-established but ageing design 40/50 hp Silver Ghost. It was an instant success and 2940 were sold until 1929 when the model was superseded by the 20/25 hp. The chassis was suitable for a wide variety of coachwork designs from limousines to sporty open tourers. Many of the formal saloons did not stand the test of time and have been replaced by replica touring bodies, original bodied cars are comparatively rare, none more so than the Landaulette.
This car was originally ordered by Watsons of Liverpool for their customer Mrs Crapper of Oxford Road, Southport. The chassis records show that it was to be delivered to the coachbuilder on 9th July 1926, the specification was for a saloon Landaulette for “use in England specifically and South of France occasionally”. The extra spare wheel, providing the car with a nice balance of twin side mounts, was probably specified for the continental tour in mind.
The car was checked out of the Rolls-Royce factory on 19th September 1926. The chassis price was £1,100 with a discount of 15% to Watsons, no record exists of the coachwork cost but it is likely the total cost of chassis and body would exceed £2000.
Records show services and work at Rolls-Royce through the 20’s and 30’s. The car passed through 2 subsequent owners and was traded in at Rolls-Royce in 1937, it was then sold to Messrs Alpe & Saunder Ltd for £100.
The next records show the car in the late 60’s. An old style green log book shows the owner as Gillard Motors Ltd until 1979.
The present owners family acquired the car in 1997 and have toured extensively in Europe including Berlin and Switzerland.
Elaine inherited the car from her Aunt and Uncle who were big 20hp supporters.
History of the oil painting
We all get some emails that start
'Dear Friend, I am Mrs Elizabeth Netanya the head of file department of Bank of Africa (B.O.A) here in Burkina Faso / Ouagadougou. In my department we discover an abandoned sum of (US$20.5 million US Dollars) in an account that belongs to one of our foreign customer who died along with his family in plane crash. It is therefore upon this discovery that I now decided to make this business proposal to you and release the money to you as the next of kin or relation to the deceased for the safety and subsequent disbursement since nobody is coming for it. I agree that 40% of this money will be for you, while 60% would be for me.'
And so on…
So, when I received and email offering me a painting should I have been worried?
Actually, the email came via the RREC system from Nick Clark on 3rd June which said “I have owned an oil painting of your car for many years. It was painted in the 1960s on a board when the car was owned by 'The Breckon Hill Motor, Museum' Middlesbrough.
If you are attending the Annual Rally this year I will gladly give you the painting.”
We sent various emails and agreed to meet at some point over the Annual Rally.
On the Saturday Nick called and we duly met up and he kindly passed me the painting, which had been hanging in his garage for many years. The car had a different livery to the current one, red body and aluminium bonnet and I do have a photo with a similar livery but no dates, so this added to the story of GUK19, FY9649.
The painting is now awaiting framing and hanging – as Nick says it is part of the history of the car and he was more than happy to reunite the image and car.
Thanks Nick!
