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Mystery axle competition


Sam Glover

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...more of a question than a competition, actually.

 
I’m bothering a Volga M21K. It was one of the first Thomson and Taylor UK imports, registered new in the UK in 1962. It’s suffered a quantity of British reengineering. ‘You can’t get the parts, you know.’
 
The live rear axle, brakes and wheels are most definitely not Volga – or indeed Russian. The threads are UNF, so I’m guessing they're from a large British saloon. Does anyone recognise any of the following?
 
Mysteryaxle1.jpg
 
Mysteryaxle2.jpg
 
Mysteryaxle3.jpg
 
Mysteryaxle4.jpg
 
Mysteryaxle5.jpg
 
Mysteryaxle6.jpg
 
Mysteryaxle7.jpg
 
Of course, the axle, brakes and wheels don’t necessarily come from the same car.
 
The standard of lashing together is low. The way the brake backplates have been mounted upside-down – thus presumably rendering the cylinders unbleedable – demonstrates high-quality thinking.
 
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Ford Consul/Zephyr

Austin Westminster

Vauxhall Velox/Cresta

Humber Hawk/Super Snipe

 

Those are my best guesses for you Sam, sorry I'm not familiar enough with each car's underpinnings to narrow it down any further..  The Ford or Vauxhall will probably be the top contenders as there would be many 50s versions breaking at the time.

 

Good luck!

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Excellent! The brakes and wheels are most definitely Hawk. 

 
I can’t find a photo of a Hawk axle, but its stats line up. The track looks right – and Carfolio suggests that the Humber’s is only 12mm narrower than the Volga’s, so that figures. The ratios are 4.22 (Humber) vs 3.78 (Volga), which may explain why the Volga feels nippy despite being utterly borked.
 
I really like the unventilated Humber wheels. They’d cut a dash in shit red paint.
 
M21K1.jpg
 
M21K3.jpg
 
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The Humber-axled M21K is rough as arseholes, actually. It requires Stakhanovite mechanical fettling and the body’s pretty scabby beneath the knacker-lacquer.

 
I agree. The M21’s styling has grown on me. I think the Series 3’s Soviet kitsch jewellery is rather more elegant, though. This is my everyday M21S…
 
VolgaM21S.jpg
 
Forgive the fake whitewall trims – a scar of its Moscow origin. It’s now wearing correct non-whitewall crossplies.
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