Introduction Nine Sports and clutch question

[fongers]

You mean something like this?

s-l400 (1).jpg (35.73 KiB) Viewed 5380 times

s-l400.jpg (27.64 KiB) Viewed 5380 times

This is one for a SS100

[Phillip]

Hey Fongers!

Yes! Very much like that!

[mikeC]

... It looks like the spare wheel cover has the same color as the wings and wheels (could have been red also)

I don't believe that shows a car with red wings and wheels; red would be rendered a much darker tone in period black and white photos. I would suggest they are far more likely to be either green or a mid blue (or,of course, grey!).

[fongers]

Do we think this also isn't a white with signal red car?

advertentie Singer nederlands vergroot.jpg (75.16 KiB) Viewed 5368 times

[Phillip]

Another fantastic period photo Fongers!

This one again shows the starting handle hole cover and the second chrome starting handle rim mounted in a fake honeycombe radiator inset behind the stone guard - the only year this arrangement was used. There were many changes to the cars between 1933 and 1934, even though they look very similar.

In my business I know that there are softwares that do colourisation for B&W film by calculating the grey values against some sort of algorithm, but I don't know of anyone to contact directly. I could do some asking around with the production companies I deal with. Anyone out there know more?

My '33 Sports was light blue with ivory wheels originally.

[Peter McKercher]

It's pretty difficult to tell, given possible bright light levels, over exposure and fading over time. Here's mine in black and white for reference. It is a cream and red Nine Sports. I would say the hues look similar.

[mikeC]

The problem is modern film renders colours rather differently from those of the 1930s. Kodak introduced panchromatic film in the early 1930s; prior to that the film only reacted to the blue part of the spectrum - say turquoise through blue to purple. Practically any other colour will be rendered as a dark tone; for example, this well documented car was canary yellow with royal purple lettering:



Today we would expect that to be rendered as a light colour body with dark lettering - the complete opposite of what we actually see. Once the Kodak film became commonplace we start to get colours rendered in tones that we would now expect to see, but the question is whether these photos from 1933 were taken on traditional or new Kodak film ...

That second picture looks to have darker wings than the overhead view, so could be a bright red - certainly not a dark red - although the tone of the front valance in bright light looks paler than I would expect a red to be.

[DarcyG]

Hi thanks for the above, does any one have original advertising material from the 30s shwing the cars and the aftermarket options. May be we could start a seperate thread arther than scatter such valuable information through out the various threads. I have been looking for some time on ebay etc without luck, especially 33/34. I have had no knowledge of these after market “options” and find the subject very interesting.

[Phillip]

Here's a photo of the spare wheel cover fitted to the ex-Tony Raynor 1937 Coupe for reference:

1937 Coupe Spare Wheel Cover.jpg (260.08 KiB) Viewed 5337 times

In one of the factory workshop photos, the Le Mans entry 1933 4 seater Sports is wearing a canvas cover:

1934singerfactory.jpg (47.62 KiB) Viewed 5337 times

(Gallery archive photo courtesy SOC)

[fongers]

So here an update. Put the steering in today.

[ColinB]

Coming along well!

[fongers]

Thanks Colin. You are doing well also.

[ColinB]

I like the wrapped steering wheel!

[fongers]

Thanks, wrapped steering wheel makes it more period and sporty, I think. I hope that it will not be too grippy. We will see...