Bell's Banter 2021

[bauble]

All I can say to yuse lot is;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNgD78jRZNI

[Colin McKay]

Not racing or historic but an Aussie friend in NSW is trying to identify the make of his father's taxi. Any ideas?

[GORDON STREETER]

Originally Posted by Colin McKay

Not racing or historic but an Aussie friend in NSW is trying to identify the make of his father's taxi. Any ideas?

It looks very much like a 1930s Model A Ford to me although the top of the radiator is different ?

[grantp]

An interesting photo Colin.

Back in my younger days I could pretty much identify every car from around the mid 50's to well into the 80's and 90's because, in general and ignoring obvious badge engineering, they all looked relatively unique per model.

At night one could ID them from tail light designs and even front light designs could give strong clues.

These days they all look the same to me. Especially the run-of-the-mill "family" motors.

Comparing that photos with others from the same era - they all looked the same then too, other than radiator badges perhaps.

Just something that had never occurred to me before.

[GORDON STREETER]

Whatever it is, it's got that 1930s "look", as grantp said they all looked similar as most of the manufacturers copied each other with slight differences. It's got to be a Yank of some sort so it could even be a Studebaker with those wheels I suppose, pity you cant see the decal on the rad properly although looking at it in massive blow up and altering the pixels it doesn't look like a blue oval ! more round like a Studebaker that also ran the same type of double spring bumper.

[Colin McKay]

I was thinking more Brit as so many Oz cars were. The badge looks round rather than oval so probably not Ford. If the bodywork is coachbuilt it could be anything but the rad surround might be identifiable. I've asked if they can get a better close up of the badge.

[GORDON STREETER]

Thinking about it did the Yanks make RHD cars for the market back then ? I know that in later years (the 50s) some RHD were made in the UK like the V8 pilot as we had two in the family in the late 50s. However looking at all the British cars of that era I haven't managed to find one the same as the photo yet.
From 1939 to 1945 just about all UK motor car production ground to a halt and were concentrating on the war effort, so no new models were produced in that period for sale to the public. No doubt there was a lot of pressings and parts stored away so some of the older late 30s stuff could have been assembled afterwards and flogged off if it wasn't melted down and used in the war effort. I wasn't born until 1947 so I can't go back that far, but there was a lot of that type of car still on the roads in the early to mid 50s that I can remember.

[bauble]

Not decided yet, but it could be a Hupmobile, actually I am fairly sure.

[bauble]

Originally Posted by Colin McKay

Not racing or historic but an Aussie friend in NSW is trying to identify the make of his father's taxi. Any ideas?

Colin, I reckon your friend can be happy that his Dad's taxi was a Hupmobile, and these cars were used as taxis in Australia during the 1930's, maybe our resident expert EB can find out more.

[E.B]

The badge / logo on the radiator gives some clues..... Orange Top Taxi Co.

Orange is a town and region in NSW. A bit of googling shows there is still an Orange Taxi Co in Orange to this day.

I was going to ring them to try and find out if they have been around for that long, if they have a record of history.... there is also a registration number to help, plus of course the photo.

Im hoping that with Orange being a significant town (about 250 klms West of Sydney Bathurst area) in terms of history, and as a result tourism is a big draw there nowadays means there may be info there. They have a number of community type organisations that I am sure would have historical records.

First gold in Aus was discovered in Orange etc. FWIW Orange in 1900, was considered for the proposed Oz Federal capital but was discarded in favour of Canberra.

A few links I have found that might be able to help
https://www.orange360.com.au/
http://www.orangemuseum.com.au/wp-content/
https://www.orange.nsw.gov.au/wp-con...-of-Orange.pdf (more of interest due to other links within)


Edit: I looked up Orange Taxis to see if they had any historical info and got this....

Orange Taxis have been serving our local community since 1955. It started when six taxi operators banded together to give Orange the latest in customer service technology – telephone booking and radio dispatch. Since then it has grown into a Co-operative of 30 local, small businesses, providing jobs for over 100 local people.

Im hoping someone there might be interested enough or know someone who knows someone etc... the original six operators pre the fifties. Someone must be related to them. They might know at least what the favoured cab of the day was.

I might also try the Orange Museum linked above. A museum of the town should know something. If only how to track info on the taxi registration number.

Im sure we will get there Baub.... not sure what avenues your mate has already tried though.

[E.B]

Not really anything to do with Taxis in Orange, but found a remarkable story of the "Worlds Longest Cab Fare" from Geelong (South of Melbourne) to Darwin return in c 1930... in a 1928 Hudson. Thats about 8000 klms as the crow flies!

video of the story here: https://youtu.be/ZotPKpDkl90

[Gerard C]

Not the longest but may be the highest fare ever: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxis_de_la_Marne

[John Elwin]

Originally Posted by Gerard C

Not the longest but may be the highest fare ever: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxis_de_la_Marne

Also one of the slowest! One of those does/did live up here but the owner virtually never took it on the road as he said it was simply too slow in modern traffic. It may also be that he enjoyed the comfort of his Rolls Royce Silver Spirit rather more!

An interesting character, he had a long motor industry career, but he would be well into his 90's now, even if still around.

[grantp]

There's a Wikipedia page for Aussie taxi history.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxis_in_Australia

A list of popular manufacturers for between the wars times is included.

They link to other Wiki pages. So I looked at them before my earlier post.

There are probably 2 or 3 manufacturers that one might assume the pictured car was NOT, based on tiny amounts of detail. But none with photos that really suggest a very strong match, though they all look much the same.

[E.B]

I have done a bit of searching around and I am of the opinion it is a c1929 Hupmobile, a car I know was widely used for Taxi purposes in the era, in NSW (where Orange is) in particular. I know Baub is of the same opinion having exchanged emails on the subject.

This angle of a Hup (in Aus) shows why.... I have seen many pictures of Aussie Hups with the parallel front bumper as per the original photo Colin posted.

[Colin McKay]

Thanks for all the help chaps. The Hupmobile is certainly similar to the taxi, but hubs are very different and the bumpers are different heights suggesting the chassis may be too. Closest match yet though. Hopefully I'll get sent a clearer close up of the badge.

[Mike Harte]

Chris, I haven't a clue about it, but leaving the front bumper aside, there are other dissimilarities that I can see. For example, the badge on the radiator is not the same, and the roof line over the windows is completely different.

[bauble]

Originally Posted by Colin McKay

Thanks for all the help chaps. The Hupmobile is certainly similar to the taxi, but hubs are very different and the bumpers are different heights suggesting the chassis may be too. Closest match yet though. Hopefully I'll get sent a clearer close up of the badge.

Colin, I still feel that the two pictures I posted side-by-side make a compelling argument for the original being a Hupmobile. Google comes up with a list of 18 different makes used as Taxis in Australia during the 1930's, and being a sad anorak i Goggled everyone and the only one that comes close is the Hup.

The chances of finding a perfect match are slim I would think, as w do not know the exact vintage of the one pictured, no doubt different models/years would see some changes to style. Maybe your friend can supply a little more detail of his grandad's career and help narrow down the search.

Bob SOA.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hupmobile

[terence]

Instructing at Spa yesterday with RSR ,good to see so many classics there also.
Two mk1 escorts,one in Alan Mann livery.Also a mk2.1 Lovely Lotus Cortina,nicely driven also.
A few of the usual 6hr attendees were around .Great to catch up with those I know.Diffenerence in performance in comparison to moder cars,M2,Cayman,etc wasn't too severe.

Wrong Ashtead sorry was meant for the 6hour thread.??

[Lancsbreaker]

An update to my tale of woe about Anglesey.......a thought had been nagging away at me, and apparently had occurred to my mate too.....

He had put about half a tank of fuel in the car after testing on Friday, and I'd taken the empty containers with me when I went to my hotel, and had filled them on Saturday morning at the Tesco nearby. These containers were still full, as was one of the containers my mate had filled before setting off for the weekend.....the trouble was we couldn't tell which I'd filled and which was the original.....however a little experimentation proved that the contents of two of the containers, when sampled, could be set alight with a naked flame, whereas the contents of the third could not......

The conclusion therefore was that he had somehow filled the containers with either contaminated fuel or diesel. We pumped out all the fuel in the tank, replaced it with known good E5 Super, took all the plugs out and cleaned them, then spun the engine over to blow out any remaining contaminants in the intake, then replaced the plugs. When tried, after a little hesitation the car started and sounded healthy, but blew huge clouds of whitish smoke again, for quite some time. We stopped the engine after a bit as we couldn't see or breathe for the drifting smoke, and went for a brew. When we returned and restarted, the exhaust output was relatively clear until it warmed up when it smoked again, but less heavily. After a few iterations of this cycle it finally seems to be running relatively clear......

So, a simple case of mis-fuelling cost us the weekend's racing - making it a £500+ mistake! What I'm still slightly puzzled about is why unplugging the AFM allowed it to start, and why it died when it was reconnected......? This behaviour of course sent us on the wrong diagnostic trail.....


I should also have mentioned in my report on the meeting that Paul Dolan (who frequents here) achieved two second in class pots despite his 30 second winner's penalty, in his E36 BMW.

[GORDON STREETER]

Originally Posted by Lancsbreaker

The conclusion therefore was that he had somehow filled the containers with either contaminated fuel or diesel. We pumped out all the fuel in the tank,






.

I remember dear old Richard Wood (RIP) did exactly the same in his Mini at Oulten Park meeting years ago. However as luck would have it he realised what he had done and hadn't even switched the ignition on. I happened to have a spare electric pump with me and connected it up to the outlet of the tank and pumped it back into the jerry can. All of our cans were marked Petrol or diesel so that there was no mistake.
One of the worst things that happened to me was when I was racing Hot Rods back in the 60/70s, a mate came to help me and filled up the dry sump tank with petrol ! he said to me "it didn't hold much", just as well he said it as I dread to think what would have happened

[Lancsbreaker]

Wonder if it will get busy here tonight, as Facebook is apparently off-air, and the land will be full of people wondering how to have a meal when they can't send a photo of it........

[John Elwin]

Originally Posted by Lancsbreaker

Wonder if it will get busy here tonight, as Facebook is apparently off-air, and the land will be full of people wondering how to have a meal when they can't send a photo of it........

Worst of all, they might actually have to talk to each other without twiddling their thumbs!

[VIVA GT]

With no Facebook to distract us last night my wife and I decided to have a catch up chat instead. I was quite surprised to learn that she no longer works in Woolworths...

[justracing]

With no social media available it's been particularly hard for my wife who has been self isolating in the garden shed due to covid with no tv either.