Help identifying coupe

[ColinB]

Thanks Phillip - I won't reveal my bidding plan as this is a public forum but I (and critically my wife) would like to bring ELA to a Singer-friendly home.

[ColinB]

Meet my new girlfriend ELA 634. Mine for £7,600.

[Phillip]

Wow! Congratulations Colin! Well done!!!

[Peter McKercher]

Congrats Colin. She's beautiful.

[jeans_old_man]

Well done Colin - low end of the estimate. The engine alone is worth that! Will we see it at SND?

[ColinB]

Thanks everyone - yes I am very pleased. I have sold my Series One Land Rover to make space and a nice budget to get ELA sorted out. Once she is running I will be very keen to show her off.

[telco.2]

Looks great Colin...well done and certainly good value imho

[telco.2]

Hi Colin (2)
Series One Land Rovers are certainly a useful source of funds; mine has gone to a much younger home! If you think Singer bits are heavy...

[Phillip]

The Big Red Shed_WEB.jpg (122.53 KiB) Viewed 33975 times

Later Land Rovers like mine, AKA "The Big Red Shed," tend to eat up Singer funds..lol...just in fuel alone...but they sure are handy for towing Singers!

Glad to see early Series trucks getting the love they deserve!

And now back to our regularly scheduled Singer programming...

[mikeC]

Splendid news! Let's hope you don't find too much seized up ...

[ColinB]

She is being delivered today.

[telco.2]

Hope the new baby arrives safely!!
Bill

[ColinB]

No midwife required - here she is!

[Phillip]

Congratulations again Colin.

She has a lovely profile...somehow looking a bit more rakish than the Le Mans Coupe it borrows from!

Look forward to hearing more as you make your assessment.

[ColinB]

When ELA arrived the first person to leap into her was my wife, and I have promised her that the first trip when the car is mobile will be to one of our favourite pubs for lunch.

To that end I have sprayed a load of WD40 into the bores through the plug holes and I'm giving it plenty of time to work. I'll add a bit of diesel in a couple of days. In the meantime I haven't got a starting handle so I wonder if someone could post a picture of what the end of a Bantam handle looks like?

It would appear that I have a very scarce car here with a low mileage reading that might be correct. The MOT from May 1976 shows 24,289 miles, the last one from May 1993 shows 29,675 miles and the current reading is 30,028. Of course that doesn't mean a lot if the engine is a write off!

The papers with the car also include the Singer Owner from 1972 with an article on the Nine Coupes and a contemporary review from September 1936. The model was only produced between mid '36 and mid '37 and the author of the article states that 'the last known one to exist is in New Zealand'. The Bantam Register shows 5 on its owners page including ELA and that may well be more correct. I am in touch with David Garn who runs the register and is also the Bantam Registrar for both SOC and ASCO so I may be able to find out from him how many of those 5 are in the UK.

The contemporary article confirms that she is a two seater and that the rear space is for luggage, hence no seat base being provided. That is a relief as I had thought the base was missing! There have been six previous owners from the start of the replacement buff log book in 1948 including Cyril Gibson, and Robin Throp who bought her in 1988 before she was sold in 2015 from his estate.

The Land Rover goes to its new home today. I am still delighted with the swap! I have also been rung by the film company who produce the Bangers and Cash programme on Sky TV which features the Mathewsons auctions. They filmed the auction when I won her and her being loaded. Subject to other subjects being more interesting they may be coming down here to film her in her new home....