What's this car? Full details of what it is will be rewarded with a point
Is it by a major manufacturer ?
No, far from well known
Experts?
Glas?
No
From Russia?
Is this the Anadol from Turkey?
Not from Russia or Turkey, and much more obscure than an Anadol
from Israel?
Not from Israel either
Greece?
Not Greek
Hungary ?
Not from there either
Wartburg prototype?
Sorry, didn't see that. This isn't a Wartburg.
Let's see if the Pros know?
British?
Not British
The man with nerd glasses and Lincoln beard is the designer? He looks so familiar....
Quote from: Allemano on November 12, 2011, 11:54:32 AM
The man with nerd glasses and Lincoln beard is the designer? He looks so familiar....
I agree that I'm sure he's appeared somewhere on AP before..... :-\
Quote from: woodinsight on November 12, 2011, 12:09:24 PM
Quote from: Allemano on November 12, 2011, 11:54:32 AM
The man with nerd glasses and Lincoln beard is the designer? He looks so familiar....
I agree that I'm sure he's appeared somewhere on AP before..... :-\
I'm not sure exactly who the two gentlemen pictured are. The man with the glasses may well be the stylist of this car, who has had several of his other designs featured here in the past.
Now I know what is is. It looks so familiair to me but I forgot the story.
It is a Rotarymotive and developed in New Zealand by Hamilton Walker.
It was a prototype and had a plastic body and a rotary engine.
The prototype was built in 1969 and series production was envisaged for 1970 but never started.
Te car was to be sold at a very competitive (750 pound) price, because it was 90 per cent produced in New Zealand and at the time a Australian firm was prepared to import 5000 cars a year.
The rotary engine weighed just 40 lb, and was said to give anything between 60- and 100 bhp. The prototypes were tested with both water and air cooling and the car was to use DAF-type transmission made in New Zealand.
Sligthly bigger than a BMC 1100, the rotarymotive used all-independent suspension, and special attention was paid in the design so that parts could be made locally and cheaply - the side windows were uncurved and the front and rearbumpers were interchangeable.
An excellent answer, well done.
Hamilton Walker was an engineer who designed several Rotary engines in his lifetime (it seems he was quite obsessed with the idea), the body was styled by Ferris De Joux and all in all it looked like a very neat little package. I would LOVE to see some more images of the car but I fear that it has never been reported on outside the original story in New Zealand in period, and the later source where I took it from.
Cool story!
Think the man must have had several doppelgangers as I've never heard of Hamilton Walker and never saw a pic of Ferris De Joux.
It's not Hamilton Walker in this picture, he was already in his 60s at the time of this project. I have a picture somewhere, I'll post it up later.
I've sent out some requests to NZ-based people for more information about De Joux and his cars. Definitely a talented designer and one that's completely forgotten outside is homeland.
Well, it turns out Mr. de Joux is the gentleman on the left of this picture. The man with the glasses is a Dennis Smith who apparently was heavily involved with this project
Hi,
Some years later .....
I have begun researching for a book in which this vehicle is a key part. Early days .... but I think the Rotarymotive name has bled across from another project. The car is the prototype built by Auckland motoring entrepreneur Roly Crowther. It never got a marketable name but was simply the Crowther sedan. Yes it was to have been powered by a rotary engine designed by the late Hamilton Walker, and did run for a period in the prototype. Yes, the chap with the glasses is Dennis Smith, the main engineer on the Crowther sedan, and a very clever engineer who made a lot of progress turning Walker's design into a functionning engine. Ferris de Joux designed the body and was responsible for it's manufacture I believe. Rotarymotive was the name of a company part owned by Crowther, to develop the engine for production. The car was one of two highish profile New Zealand vehicles which were unsuccessfully proposed for production. The other was the Anziel Nova. Roly Crowther died last year. The Anziel Nova is still in showroom condition and makes the odd outing. The Crowther sedan, with a conventional engine also exists. I think the DAF transmission mention earlier in the chain may have related to a later vehicle which Roly Crowther built prototypes of, the Crowther Toiler, a fibreglass utility vehicle with gull wing doors and a DAF transmission. Ferris De Joux I think was also involved in that. If "Facel" is still around I'd be interested to hear from him/her.
The punchline .... the only New Zealand-designed motor vehicle to make it into production was the Trekka....aah but that's another story. www.trekka.co.nz with links to the book (he pointed out modestly)
PS : I was wrong about the DAF Variomatic, this was part of the saloon car specification.
A fairly recent picture of the Crowther Sedan, found on a New Zealand forum.