SOLVED: Djetset 675 - Vanden Plas saloon proposal by Laurence Pomery (and ERA?)

[Djetset]

Not Roland Fox.  The name I am looking for is rather better known.

[ropat53]

I haven't been able to find a picture of this car and the ERA prototype keeps popping up .
It wouldn't happen to be by my fellow countryman Ricardo "Dick" Burzi? He was connected with Austin, but so was Vanden Plas.

[Djetset]

Sorry, but it's not Ricardo 'Dick' Burzi.

[Carnut]

Vignale?

[Djetset]

Not Vignale, but an admired individual.

[nicanary]

Michelotti?

[targhediferro]

Flaminio Bertoni?

[Djetset]

None of the above.

[oko94]

Are we looking for an English designer ?

[Djetset]

Yes, he was English, but not a designer in the traditional sense.

[Paul Jaray]

Like Issigonis?

[Djetset]

Sort of like Issigonis, but not him.

[Carnut]

This is intriguing!
There's so much mis-information around on the 'Net that I don't know what's right and what isn't.
What strikes me is that there was either plagiarism going on or the 2 cars below were designed by the same person; I know one is only a model whilst the other is a full-size mock-up, but such are the similarities between these two cars that they are effectively one and the same car, except that one is the ERA designed by David Hodkin and the other is your puzzle car!:

[nicanary]

Yes. I was also confused......

[oko94]

Count me in the confused camp as well.

[Hiawatha]

Can I join the band?
Confused from Italy..

[wingroad]

I thought it was the ERA prototype in model form, so I went to specsavers for an eye test !

[Djetset]

Well, I seem to have stirred up a real hornet's nest here, as these are undoubtedly one and the same car, as constructed by coachbuilders Vanden Plas! 

My information sources are two authoritive published works, and not the internet. The name I am looking for would have almost certainly known and worked with David Hodkin of ERA fame.  However, my sources suggest that this car was conceived by another great sage of the post-war British motoring scene, who is not David Hodkin

[wingroad]

Laurence Pomeroy ? (Junior)

[ropat53]

Rex Fleming?

[Djetset]

Yes, that's the man.  Pom Junior conceived this unusual car for The Motor magazine, which he edited from 1945-60 and asked Vanden Plas to build it.  A strange choice indeed!

So, one point to Wingroad, with a bonus point to Oko94 as this puzzle created so much debate.  It will be interesting to know the full story behind this project, and the ERA connection.

[barrett]

Right, hopefully I can make some sense of this.

This the last design on the BMC/ERA Project 378 'Maximin' platform and was styled by Dick Burzi.

Pomeroy was the spark that set the entire project in motion although he didn't 'commission' the car as such, nor did he have any input in its design. He suggested to Leonard Lord a variety of criteria that together would make a world-class car from Austin in a time when they (and the British motor industry in general) were seen as lagging behind Europe in technological advances.

The design and engineering work was sub-contracted by BMC to ERA under David Hodkin, who designed and built an advanced air-cooled engine and automatic transmission system mounted on a platform chassis riding on self-levelling air suspension. the original cars was merely a running chassis frame, the second had a crude cobbled-together body, the third a very up-to-date body which was badged as an Austin. the final car had Burzi-styled coachwork and was built by VDP, who were short of work at the time.

More photographs of the finished VDP car and the other two prototypes can be seen in Woodinsight's puzzle for BMC/ERa Project 378.

Hope that clears it up!

[Djetset]

Excellent.  Thank you Barrett, your note really helps to make sense of this whole, rather confusing project. A BMC air cooled engine would have been an interesting one!