Posted by John Wilson on October 16, 2005 at 13:47:28 from 202.154.157.203 user hugo.
In Reply to: Re: Ransome's Trojan Car posted by David Hambleton on October 14, 2005 at 15:30:43:
AR’s cars are mentioned in “Nancy Blackett: Under Sail with Arthur Ransome” by Roger Wardale (on one page he says it was a Trojan).
At Low Ludderburn, when AR drove over from Windermere to watch the Altounyan children sailing, or collected Taqui, Susie & Titty from their school at Windermere. Dick Kelsall recalled being pushed into the back of AR’s Trojan (sic) car to pursue a model aeroplane (pages 58, 87).
At Broke Farm on the East Coast, Josephine Russell recalls that when driving he used to hoot once if he were (sic) turning right and twice if turning left, as if his car was a motor cruiser (page 114).
At the Heald during wartime with petrol rationing, he collected essential supplies from Coniston on the other side of the lake on a motor-cycle he called “The Monster” (page 171).
Some features of the original Trojan car (a two-speed epicyclic gearbox, and petroil fuel (petrol with oil added) for the two-stroke engine do not match Rattletrap. Eg the petrol not petroil fuel (which Billy goes to get in PM), and Rattletrap’s a three-speed gearbox (CF’s race to the camp in PP). But Rattletrap may be an amalgam of more than one car, a Trojan or the Crossley Manchester, just as the Lake is an amalgam of Coniston & Windermere. And Nancy combines aspects of Taqui & ..... ??