Solved - NEH 3083: Gazelle Roadster by James F. Craig - 1953

[Carnut]

I'll swear this one has appeared before, but I can't find it so here it is (maybe again!)
Identify it correctly, who built it, what it's based on and what powers it, for 1 point:

ANYONE FOUND GIVING ANSWERS OBTAINED BY USING GOOGLE SEARCH BY IMAGE MAY BE BANNED FOR AN INDETERMINATE PERIOD!

[Carnut]

Experts?

[Hiawatha]

1953 James Craig's  Gazelle/Navajo. Fibreglass body on Ford chassis, 170 hp Mercury engine..

[Carnut]

1953 James Craig's  Gazelle/Navajo. Fibreglass body on Ford chassis, 170 hp Mercury engine..

Indeed. Very good.

[nicanary]

I wonder what Sir William Lyons would have made of it - seems we've seen a similar-looking car somewhere before. They do say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

[Carnut]

I wonder what Sir William Lyons would have made of it - seems we've seen a similar-looking car somewhere before. They do say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

I think he would have thought it a copy, but I think he would be a bit out of order because his own design was something of a copy already...!  I can't remember exactly what of otherwise I would have posted it, but I found it last week and wondered why more hasn't been made of the fact that it resembled the later XK120 so much.  I'll have to try to find it again.

[Tom_I]

Wasn't the XK120 design supposed to have been influenced by the BMW 328 Mille Miglia?

[Otto Puzzell]

1953 James Craig's  Gazelle/Navajo. Fibreglass body on Ford chassis, 170 hp Mercury engine..

Indeed. Very good.

In 1953 there was the Gazelle; in 1954 there was the Navajo. The Navajo, with its reworked grill, was a puzzle before:

http://www.autopuzzles.com/forum/index.php?topic=6062.msg41737#msg41737

[Carnut]

Wasn't the XK120 design supposed to have been influenced by the BMW 328 Mille Miglia?

May well have been, but I found something else that at first glance could have been an XK120 but pre-dated it by some years..
I'll have to have a look for it if I get the time!

[nicanary]

Maybe this is what you were thinking of. In addition, the shape of the XK120 Coupe was heavily influenced by Paul Pycroft's specially built SS100, in respect of the hardtop.