HMC wolseley gets its GROWL back

[Tubbo]

‘Shirley’ is that the girl in the picture or the car? 😆

 

[Schaefft]

Having very little exposure to British car of that vintage I have to say thats a pretty badass looking car right there! Great purchase.

[Sigmund Fraud]

Those Palmer Wolseleys certainly are lovely looking cars !

Are they as stodgy to drive as I imagine them to be ?

[Shite Ron]

The Wolseley is lovely, I do not have much knowledge of cars from this era but it is a very good looking car. Is it the same era as the Riley Pathfinder?  It looks similar to me from the side profile but I see the handbrake is in a different place. I am fairly sure the Riley has the handbrake to the right of the driver seat on the floor whereas the Wolseley appears to have it on the bulkhead left of the steering column? Another great car from HMC 

[wuvvum]

Similar era to the Pathfinder - in fact the Pathfinder's replacement, the 2.6, was basically a rebadged 6/90.  (The Pathfinder had the twin cam from the RM rather than the C series.  And dodgy rear suspension.)

[junkyarddog]

Needs a Winkworth bell bolted on the front!

[IronStar]

I salute you. This is amazing. 🫡

Also dibs, if it doesn’t get swapped for a Lancia in two weeks 😄

[dave j]

2 hours ago, grogee said:

Another Tavi shiter? 

I'm coming down weekend of 20/21 BTW, staying in Bere Ferrers

I'm in Plymouth so not far away at all!

[barrett]

Ah, I've been watching that one's progress for years now and have come close to buying it a couple of times. Please, please do let me know when you want to move it on.

Really needs the crossplies putting back on, not sure what the last owner was thinking there, but it cant be doing the ride & handling any favours. Regardless, it's a lovely lovely lovely thing. The British Aurelia! (perhaps)

[vtec-e]

Nice car.

Was the MG Magnette also part of this family ?

[High Jetter]

20 minutes ago, vtec-e said:

Nice car.

Was the MG Magnette also part of this family ?

I think they were still separate firms, Wolseley was a touch above MG, and I think a bit more modern? Less sporty, moar Lux

[Sigmund Fraud]

28 minutes ago, vtec-e said:

Nice car.

Was the MG Magnette also part of this family ?

You're probably thinking of the Wolseley 4/44, which was the base for the MG Magnette ZA. 

Gerald Palmer was responsible for both cars, which explains the visual similarities. But the 4/44 was smaller and cheaper than the 6/90.

[wuvvum]

And slower.  Much, much slower.  Improved significantly when it got a B-series and became the 15/50.

[vulgalour]

On 05/09/2025 at 08:53, HMC said:

out for an early morning walk…

I've only ever seen one Swift in person and that was an entirely random aerodrome car park encounter back in 2014.  Looks like yours is the sporty model.

 

[wuvvum]

There was a 1924 Swift at ACA last week - I think that was the first one I'd seen in the metal.

[bunglebus]

That's a good looking car, if you'd told me it'd been roof chopped I'd have believed you.

Is it ex-police or just had some accessories fitted?

[HMC]

3 hours ago, bunglebus said:

That's a good looking car, if you'd told me it'd been roof chopped I'd have believed you.

Is it ex-police or just had some accessories fitted?

I think its just been accessorised. Thanks to @LightBulbFun we now know its original number was 597GFM - ive had a quick google but not seen any period photos

[HMC]

IIRC wolseley and riley names of the time often related to cylinders / bhp- or displacement and bhp roughly

hence

4/44

6/80

15/50 (not 15 cylinders but 1.5L)

6/90

4/72

etc

[dave j]

3 hours ago, bunglebus said:

That's a good looking car, if you'd told me it'd been roof chopped I'd have believed you.

I thought that too, it's a great shape!

[adw1977]

The Wolseley system of model numbers changed over the years.  In all cases the second number is the actual horsepower of the engine. 

The first number was originally taxable horsepower. When that taxation system ended the first number became the number of cylinders.  Later it became displacement, expressed for some reason in tenths of a litre, like the 15/50 that HMC mentioned with its 1.5 litres and (approx) 50hp.

Eventually they gave up on all that, so the 18/85 (1800 Landcrab) was replaced by the "Six" (2200 Landcrab) and finally the "Wolseley saloon" (Wedge/Princess) in recognition that there was now only one model.

[artdjones]

On 09/09/2025 at 23:46, Sigmund Fraud said:

Gerald Palmer was responsible for both cars, which explains the visual similarities. But the 4/44 was smaller and cheaper than the 6/90.

Palmer was one of the great British designers, but unfortunately fell foul of the foul mouthed idiot Leonard Lord, a typical "old school" boss. Issigonis replaced him, sowing the seeds for the downfall of BMC.

[Sigmund Fraud]

14 minutes ago, artdjones said:

Palmer was one of the great British designers, but unfortunately fell foul of the foul mouthed idiot Leonard Lord, a typical "old school" boss. Issigonis replaced him, sowing the seeds for the downfall of BMC.

There's never been a shortage of brilliant engineers in this country. The problem has always been with how much freedom they were given by management - it tended to either be too little, or too much. In the case of Issigonis, it was definitely far too much.

[LightBulbFun]

On 10/09/2025 at 10:31, HMC said:

I think its just been accessorised. Thanks to @LightBulbFun we now know its original number was 597GFM - ive had a quick google but not seen any period photos

thats a Chester reg, and their vehicle register records are thankfully fully complete, so if you want to find out more, i'd recommend getting in contact with them or paying them a visit and see whats stated on the entry for your registration mark  

should at least get you the first keeper details at least  

[bigstraight6]

On 09/09/2025 at 17:49, HMC said:

What do we have here?

Watch out local crims its a wolseley 6/90

Awesome, I had the pleasure of driving a tatty bottle green coloured one of these about 15 years ago, fantastic sounding engine and exhaust note….

[HMC]

21 hours ago, LightBulbFun said:

thats a Chester reg, and their vehicle register records are thankfully fully complete, so if you want to find out more, i'd recommend getting in contact with them or paying them a visit and see whats stated on the entry for your registration mark  

should at least get you the first keeper details at least  

Thanks for all your knowledge and guidance sorted!

 

[HMC]

I also thought- local authority archives- will it take a month or more?

Placed the request late yesterday evening and the following morning it was all sorted, pleasantly suprised.

[HMC]

Fleet news-

Wolseley made quite a first impression. Its quite vocal as it has less silencers that it had originally and makes its straight 6/ healey 100/6 vibe felt.

It soon started running on 3 or 4 and after much head scratching a plug change (quite an odd mix of old plugs) helped, and whilst i was at it a powerspark electronic ignition new leads/ coil and a timing check mean its back to full health. 

In all this dreadful rain we have had lately its shown itself to leak like a sieve. It really wants a new rear screen rubber (do they even exist (?) but some sikaflex has, for now reduced the flow. The front scuttle also has had some repairs of a pragmatic nature in the past which has got rid of some small drains in the bulkhead corners.  As its like a crumbling stately home with its separate chassis and wood / leather club interior I like the analogy of the impoverished country squire trying what he can on the roof to stop water getting into the structure. At some stage (if i keep it (ha ha) ) id like my tame welder man to sort that out. 

Also it has a freewheel and overdrive but the mechanical actuation (a cable) has broken- so you have to get under the car to engage and disengage the freewheel. I think a generic cable can be adapted to fit.

Also Chester/ cheshire council  @LightBulbFun came up trumps- the only snag being i cant read their writing!

[Knotty Ash Towers]

10 minutes ago, HMC said:

Fleet news-

Wolseley made quite a first impression. Its quite vocal as it has less silencers that it had originally and makes its straight 6/ healey 100/6 vibe felt.

It soon started running on 3 or 4 and after much head scratching a plug change (quite an odd mix of old plugs) helped, and whilst i was at it a powerspark electronic ignition new leads/ coil and a timing check mean its back to full health. 

In all this dreadful rain we have had lately its shown itself to leak like a sieve. It really wants a new rear screen rubber (do they even exist (?) but some sikaflex has, for now reduced the flow. The front scuttle also has had some repairs of a pragmatic nature in the past which has got rid of some small drains in the bulkhead corners.  As its like a crumbling stately home with its separate chassis and wood / leather club interior I like the analogy of the impoverished country squire trying what he can on the roof to stop water getting into the structure. At some stage (if i keep it (ha ha) ) id like my tame welder man to sort that out. 

Also it has a freewheel and overdrive but the mechanical actuation (a cable) has broken- so you have to get under the car to engage and disengage the freewheel. I think a generic cable can be adapted to fit.

Also Chester/ cheshire council  @LightBulbFun came up trumps- the only snag being i cant read their writing!

J Blake & co. who would have been the supplying dealer. I can't decipher any of the other entries though...

[Peter C]

@HMC 

Any chance of some interior shots, I would love to smell the wood and leather.

[Largactil]

1 hour ago, Knotty Ash Towers said:

J Blake & co. who would have been the supplying dealer. I can't decipher any of the other entries though...

Is it 'PLG' for the tax class, then 'Wolseley' followed by the cc (2663) then the colour? ('Black')