Posted by Owen Roberts on November 20, 2007 at 01:10:41 from 91.125.208.65 user OwenRoberts.
In Reply to: Re: The motor car in posted by Jock on November 20, 2007 at 23:21:00:
Rattletrap had many generic similarities to a Crossley
Yes, I had considered this. However my view was modified by reading some of the Literary Weekend Summaries for September 2001.
One paper mentions Desmond Kelsall who was a model for some of AR's photographs from which he drew his pictures.
Desmond remembers AR owning a Trojan which was used as a prototype for Rattletrap. The link provides the nearest picture of the remaining Trojans, I can find. Obviously items such as the wheels sre different, but they could vary according to specification.
This of course, does not overcome the gearbox problem.
AR also owned a Bullnose Morris in the same period. Recalling the last time I drove one of these cars in the 1970's, the gearbox took a little getting used to before I could change silently.
AR did use different parts of existing items to weld into a new whole that fitted his story. See Wild Cat Island. Perhaps he used the Trojan body with the Bullnose gearbox