Whaddyacallit #148 - Solved! 1951 Russon

[Ray B.]

Ever seen this ?

Please, respond below and let us know the make and model designation of the car posted here.
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[hugo90]

The front looks like the British Russon, but the fenders are not as stylish as the pictures of them that I have seen.  Perhaps this is the prototype Russon?

[Ray B.]

It is a Russon, 1951-52. I have no other picture or inormation about that car, and I don't know if it's a prototype or a production car. Can you share some?
I'm going to have to grant you that point anyhow.

[hugo90]

I have the book "Kleinwagen International" by Walter Zeichner (1999) and it shows a very similar car that continues the front fender line through the door to the rear fender, much like a miniature XK-120.  The front of the car is pretty much like this one.  The book is in German, but I can pick out that it had a 197cc Villier engine in car one and car two had a 250cc Excelsior engine.  They were built by Douglas Arthur Russell in Stanbridge, Bedforshire.  I have very minimal German skills, so I could easily be wrong.

[DynaMike]

Nice and interesting book, indeed  They say (and sorry for my English): "Douglas Arthur Russell, who earned his money before the War in trading model aeroplanes, started after the War a magazine about planes, and they were then based in an ex-military airport (Easton Bray). Then, in 1949, he started the automobile business, first with plans to build plastic bodies for other carmakers, but without any success. Then, together with his eldest son Michael, hence the name Russon (= Russell and Son) they made their first complete aluminium prototype, that looked like an upside-down bathtube with nodoors and no roof. It had a 197 cc Villiers 1-cylinder 2-stroke engine in the rear. The speedometer was placed outside, at the place of the rear view mirror.
Then one of the modell builders made a new design (the one shown here...) and another model builder made the body structure in ash-wood. This was placed on a steel ladder chassis with independent wheel suspension and a 10 bhp 250 cc Excelsiot 2-cylinder 2-stroke engine and a 3-speed Albion gearshift., transmission by chains to the rear wheels.. This second prototype was presented in Spring 1951, but wasn't achieved with much enthousiasm, because of the frameless windscreen, the small doors and the primitive construction, even though there was the luxury of adaptable position of the pedals... The car could just reach 40 mph with an incredible lot of noise...
Summer 1951 showed a new prototype (the one shown in the book) with which they made a test tour of 1525 miles throughout England. It had a nicer body design, no fake front grille, a framed windscreen, a softtop and a nicer, shorter rear. There was some luggage space behind the seats, and side windows were available as an option. It was slightly faster. Now the gear shift was mounted on the dashboard (instead of on the steering wheel column).
Halfway 1952 the 'producion' stopped, less then ten were built...

[Allan L]

That same photo is in Georgano's encyclopedia, and it's captioned as the 197cc Villiers-engined one.
Eaton Bray was the home of the model aeroplane in the 1950s, with the magazine "The Aeromodeller" based there. Model aeroplanes and 197cc Villiers engines sounded much the same, too.