"Another Mystery Car" from 1962

Apologies, but cannot see an original thread for this conundrum, but can well believe there is one. Picture below.

Have after a daft amount of time solved some parts of the problem in that the builder is unknown. I believe the car is prop for a movie. However I know what the car in the picture is based on. It is 100% a Sunbeam Alpine.

Edited by Unsorted, 18 April 2021 - 19:35.

Might that be an Israeli Sabra???

LionelB

This photo generated much discussion a few years ago, but we never came up with a conclusive identification:

1950s/60s Mystery Car

Can absolutely guarantee it is a Sunbeam Alpine. Also, the work to make it into the mystery car is not totally irreversible. Unlikely, but it could still be walking/driving amongst us as a blue Alpine.

The really interesting thing about that photo (the photo is beautiful) is the man in a jacket and no tie walking by the traffic lights. He seems to be talking on his mobile phone, something very normal nowadays in that place, but in 1962????!!!.
Ideal for those people who are looking for proof of time travel.

The man by the traffic light is smoking a fag and is raising his hand to remove the said stogie from his gob, v. common in the Sixties but now a habit only practised by professional smokers and those of the historical bent.

The man by the traffic light is smoking a fag and is raising his hand to remove the said stogie from his gob, v. common in the Sixties but now a habit only practised by professional smokers and those of the historical bent.

That's what I assumed, but this photo would delight those who look for that kind of thing on the web. Of course I was joking when I wrote that.

There was a post on FB recently identifying the car as a Sunbeam design exercise based with a Debonair  body adaptation. The poster showed copies of the drawings etc. Fairthorpe/Turner pages spring to mind.

Roger Lund, who needs to get out more.

Can absolutely guarantee it is a Sunbeam Alpine. Also, the work to make it into the mystery car is not totally irreversible. Unlikely, but it could still be walking/driving amongst us as a blue Alpine.

I'd be interested to know the basis of 'absolutely guaranteeing' it is a Sunbeam Alpine.  The seats look as though they are too far back relative to the rear axle line, the bonnet line looks too low to accommodate an Alpine engine and radiator  and there is no sign of a scuttle between the windscreen and the training edge of the bonnet, which is structurally essential on an Alpine.  Granted the rear wing profile looks similar and the windscreen could be a contemporary Alpine rear window, but I really do doubt that it has Alpine underpinnings.

I remember catching the No.15 on a regular basis, never saw that car...

That's what I assumed, but this photo would delight those who look for that kind of thing on the web. Of course I was joking when I wrote that.

Your time-travel idea may be right, Claudio. Perhaps this car is still to be designed.    (I think the 'man with the mobile phone' is wearing a tie -  a bow tie perhaps?).

Back to the car. I was leafing through some early 1960s kit-car pages and, as Roger suggests, there are hints of Debonair, Turner and Fairthorpe. GSM Delta too. Even the Reliant Sabre 6.  There are some Ashley bodies that almost match, but not quite, so perhaps it was a one-off laminate shell, never to be seen again.

Although the Alpine theory is tempting, the door shape is wrong. On the Alpine, it is a basically oblong shape, but the mystery car has a oor that overlaps the rear wheel arch.

There were some fastback versions of the Alpine  such as this one from Harrington, but as can be seen, the doors are different, as is the fastback part itself.

As the only forum except for ScimitarWeb that came out well in the research on this picture, here is an update for you. Essentially have some more stuff to add when I have time but most of the research is on web here. Main thing to add is the 3D images against picture. Will more than likely do over this long weekend.

Spoiler alert. Have I found the builder or car? No. Could it have gullwing doors or a flip front as opposed to what I have created? Always possible. Is the car a Sunbeam Alpine size? Yes. Is it Sunbeam Alpine based, even if just a unique underpinning and a body based on an Alpine? Probably. In fact I believe it is, but without the car cannot go definitive.

Essentially the size of the car was resolved by 3D laser scanning the area of Oxford Street and Vere Street shown in the photograph. All the vehicles were created in 3D and placed in image along with the building and road scans. The Thames 300E van, white in lower left corner, was then placed in the overall 3D model and it was all matched up. The car is Alpine size as the wheelbases of the blue car and the Thames could be compared in a way they could not be beofre as the Thames front was not in the image.

Along the way, worked out the road layout at the time, found that most forums are not great at research and generally had a geek fest. Learnt some new design skills and found much obscure but fun info along the way. 

Blimey!  We don't know what this car is so we have recreated it from scratch.  That is taking things to a new level!

Fascinating work Unsorted!  Now we just need to identify everyone in the photo. That might be my grandma, amongst the crowd in the distance, alongside the furthest bus. And is that Christine Keeler blocking our view of the Debonair/Alpine? 

Fascinating work Unsorted! Now we just need to identify everyone in the photo. That might be my grandma, amongst the crowd in the distance, alongside the furthest bus. And is that Christine Keeler blocking our view of the Debonair/Alpine?

The lady nearest the camera is definitely Mary Whitehouse.  She looks like disapproval personified.