Solved NIC#295 - Buckingham cyclecar

[nicanary]

What marque is this?

[nicanary]

Experts?

[exekiel]

British?

[nicanary]

British?

Yes.

[D-type]

MG "Old no 1"

[nicanary]

MG "Old no 1"

It looks remarkably like that car, but I'm afraid it isn't the correct answer. The artist's impression is typically grandiose.

[shamrock]

 ac

[nicanary]

ac

Not AC, alternating current or air-conditioning. 

[richard cuyler]

Is it a Morris Bullnose in racing guise?

[nicanary]

Is it a Morris Bullnose in racing guise?

No. It is an altogether different marque.

[D-type]

Could it be an AC?

[nicanary]

Could it be an AC?

No. Shamrock had already tried that in lower-case letters.

[D-type]

Could it be an AC?

No. Shamrock had already tried that in lower-case letters.

Whoops!  sorry, missed that.

[D-type]

Let's try again - a Hillman Speed Model?

[nicanary]

Let's try again - a Hillman Speed Model?

Not a Hillman. Not as big.

(I can never decide whether to start giving clues or not - I know the editors leave it up to the puzzle setter. I think I will say this much - at the time this car was built the Morris and AC would have been considered "light cars", and this car is a class below that. The puzzle picture appears to be from advertising matter, and the artist has made it look bigger than it really was, rather like the comically exaggerated ads from the 1950s, with families of 6 midgets supposedly crammed into a Ford Popular.)

[D-type]

Surely they weren't trying to show a GN cyclecar?

[nicanary]

Surely they weren't trying to show a GN cyclecar?

Not a GN, but it is a cyclecar. Not a well-known marque.

[nicanary]

Pros?

[4popoid]

It's a Buckingham racer built by Buckingham Engine Works, in Coventry, from about 1914.  The only image of this car I could find is this characture of engineer/designer/driver James Buckingham.

[nicanary]

Yes. A Buckingham cyclecar built post-WW1 which was extensively used for sprints and hillclimbs as a means of advertising. "Mr. Buckingham" was the inventor of the incendiary bullet. I think this model was introduced in 1920.

This image  shows how small the car really was compared to the artists work.