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forddeliveryboy

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Car styling moved so fast in the 50's. The Hunter is about 1954. But the new Ford Anglia arrived four years later. Manufacturers needed deep pockets to keep modish - or as in the case of Singer go bust - the banks foreclosed and Rootes came calling. They kept the twin-cam engine in the Audax cars for a short time.

Shame - Singer made some ok sports cars which Rootes dropped. 

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On 10/13/2020 at 10:07 PM, lesapandre said:

Car styling moved so fast in the 50's. The Hunter is about 1954. But the new Ford Anglia arrived four years later. Manufacturers needed deep pockets to keep modish - or as in the case of Singer go bust - the banks foreclosed and Rootes came calling. They kept the twin-cam engine in the Audax cars for a short time.

Shame - Singer made some ok sports cars which Rootes dropped. 

Makes you wonder why Rootes bought into Singer at all. They didn't appear to have much interest in utilising the OHC engine beyond a brief period and surely had enough brands already . The production facilities can't have been much of a draw.

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11 hours ago, Skut said:

Makes you wonder why Rootes bought into Singer at all. They didn't appear to have much interest in utilising the OHC engine beyond a brief period and surely had enough brands already . The production facilities can't have been much of a draw.

Some of it was sentimental I think and some perhaps getting rid of the competition in these company take-overs in the 50's.  Rootes had sold Singers through their dealer network (they came into car manufacture in a funny way as dealers first then taking on brands to sell) and Lord Rootes had also  served his apprenticeship at Singer -   perhaps it was another marketing opportunity they saw too?  Or maybe they just wanted the factory premises and skilled workforce. 

Customers were much more brand loyal than today - they would have inherited the Singer customer base (for what it was) and sentiment. 

The Singer twin-cam engine was pretty good and the sports cars in some demand but were axed. 

Of course all this fiddling about did them no good in the end. Singer cars in the 60's always seemed a bit sad in their modest aspirations - and the brand soon was gone for ever.

But in their heyday they were rather fab...

20201018_105322.jpg

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10 hours ago, Skut said:

FB_IMG_1602938505404.jpg.b2d8f36692dca193f77b8aef6156e9ba.jpg

Peckham Park Road no less...just off the Old Kent Road...here is the nearest lamp post these days if you want to re-enact it in your Focus...(looks like  one of those rare snow days in London).

 The cabin of the Ford held up pretty well...but if you want to see why safety got more important in the 60's - see this:

20201018_102214.jpg

 

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1 hour ago, lesapandre said:

Some of it was sentimental I think and some perhaps getting rid of the competition in these company take-overs in the 50's.  Rootes had sold Singers through their dealer network (they came into car manufacture in a funny way as dealers first then taking on brands to sell) and Lord Rootes had also  served his apprenticeship at Singer -   perhaps it was another marketing opportunity they saw too?  Or maybe they just wanted the factory premises and skilled workforce. 

Customers were much more brand loyal than today - they would have inherited the Singer customer base (for what it was) and sentiment. 

The Singer twin-cam engine was pretty good and the sports cars in some demand but were axed. 

Of course all this fiddling about did them no good in the end. Singer cars in the 60's always seemed a bit sad in their modest aspirations - and the brand soon was gone for ever.

But in their heyday they were rather fab...

20201018_105322.jpg

I guess Rootes also wanted a brand to bridge the gap between Hillman and Humber.

Chrysler dropped Singer in 1970 but the Vogues were briefly sold as Sunbeams.

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On 10/25/2020 at 12:59 AM, Austat said:

067fe3980377edd8270f19112a867b28.thumb.jpg.43738a14549f300e2ffcd9cf6ec44e13.jpg

 

On 10/25/2020 at 5:31 AM, Skut said:

That's brilliant!  What is it?

It's a Sandal Auto 360 kei car from the mid to late 50's. Details are difficult to find, in fact there seems to be variations of the name - Japan Auto Sandal 360 seems to be it's 'Sunday' name.

JAPAN+AUTO+SANDAL+-+1952+-+1954.jpg

JAPAN+AUTO+SANDAL+-+AUTO+360cc+-+1954.jpg

Auto Sandal. But there's also this -

6791496179_0273f0a552_o.jpg.7efbb97701402e990fd526cdaae58320.jpg

This is the same photo, in original B&W, but labelled 'Jama NJ' details of which are even harder to find.

'Sandal' here - https://jacques-leretrait.blogspot.com/2013/01/voitures-du-japon-aichi-machine.html

'Jama' here - http://theamazoeffect.blogspot.com/2012/01/kei-nation-introduction-history.html

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