Singer owner's club dash plaque

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DGreen
Posts: 60
Joined: Sun May 08, 2016 3:05 am
First Name: D'Arcy

Singer owner's club dash plaque

Post by DGreen »

I noticed a curious singer collectable on eBay. I'm not interested in buying it, and I'm not the seller, but I figured someone on here who was interested in vintage club stuff or vintage racing stuff might be able to shed some light on the cryptic name or might be interested in it. It's a vintage dash plaque that simply says "Singer Owners Club Cha-Shi-Lom October 24, 1959". What was "Cha-Shi-Lom"? It must be short for something.
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Peter McKercher
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Re: Singer owner's club dash plaque

Post by Peter McKercher »

Darcy,

Back in the day, the Singer Owners Club was a tight knit social club that was renowned for putting on highly competitive events. The Willow Springs and Agoura Annual Singer Owners Club hill climbs were a couple of examples where all marques competed and spectators numbered in the hundreds. The Cha-Shi-Lom was also one such event. It was a high speed slalom designed for those who had tired of the relatively tame Gymkhanas that were popular with the non-racing Four Cylinder Club of America. (FYI, Phil Avis' Le Mans participated in a few of these low speed, non competitive events).

The name Cha-Shi-Lom is of course made up and is a combination of "Slalom" plus the "Cha Cha" dancing that was common at SOC social events. So the tag is of interest to collectors of SOC of America memorabilia, of which very little remains. I do happen to have one of these in my collection.
Peter McKercher
Vice President - NASOC
Pre war Singer Specialist and Collector
Automotive Historian
Author of "Racing Roadsters"

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DGreen
Posts: 60
Joined: Sun May 08, 2016 3:05 am
First Name: D'Arcy

Re: Singer owner's club dash plaque

Post by DGreen »

That's great information. Thank you Peter. The posting says they only ship to the continental United States, so that leaves me out, but curiously there is an eBay international shipping cost that pops up too. It's a neat piece and it's pretty cheap for someone stateside.
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Peter McKercher
Posts: 1072
Joined: Sun Nov 27, 2005 4:26 am
First Name: Peter
Location: Ontario, Canada
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Re: Singer owner's club dash plaque

Post by Peter McKercher »

Contact the seller if you want it. It has been posted for sale several times in the past year. I am sure he will have no trouble putting it into an envelope and sending it off to Canada. My experience with ebay is that most sellers are unaware that there is a border between the two countries.
Peter McKercher
Vice President - NASOC
Pre war Singer Specialist and Collector
Automotive Historian
Author of "Racing Roadsters"

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