 by Mark Roberts: In 1984 my father purchased 1923 RR 20hp GF63 from the York Motor Museum in Western Australia. The vehicle was imported from New Zealand in 1979. At one stage it was painted completely white including the wheels, chassis, mudguards and the body! The coachwork is period for the car, but it's definately not the original Hooper tourer as fitted according to the factory build sheets. The coachwork is steel on timber frame and wears the builders plates H.F. Cooper, London (known for building hearses..). This doesn't necessarily mean they made it though. The body is slightly too long and wide for the chassis at the rear, indicating that it probably came from a different chassis beforehand. Sometime the rear tires rub on the inside of the mudguards if corners are taken too enthusiastically with two adults in the rear! The hood clamps are also very American in appearance. I've also attached a photo of a Packard sporting coachwork with remarkable similarities to ours, especially the aluminium capping and the shape of the doors. Any information about the coachbuilder and the vehicles history in New Zealand/UK prior to coming to Australia would be most welcome. Other than that, she's a lovely old thing and will drive comfortably all day at 45 mph. |
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Comments
Cheers Mark
I suspect somebody found the H. F. Cooper body years later and modified it to fit. Alternatively, you can't be too careful - it could be a standard body from a well-known make like Packard and then a Cooper plate added to create some provenance. The fact that it's steel-skinned is interesting - big trade coachbuilders used steel but bespoke coachbuilders making one-off bodies usually used aluminium, although often with steel mudguards (wings). It's odd that the centre portion of the body doesn't have a cross-beam with fixed front seat (unlike the blue Packard in your photos which has a more rigid body).
The mudguards on this car could be the original Hooper but are probably replicas in a more English style compared to the body itself. Certainly not the Packard type. The fact that the body has such simple doors with square corners, and very little style, implies cheaper origins I think.
The Cooper on the plate is the famous Cooper (later of Putney S.W.15) who were body brokers, buying up surplus or older bodies for recycling on other cars. They advertised bodies all the time in The Autocar and The Motor. Researcher Andrew Minney has found information on them: Herbert Frederick Cooper, born ca 1894, started the company in Shepherd's Bush, west London (hence the W.12 on the coachplate) and he was originally a coachbuilder into the 1920s. He moved to Putney in 1930 and the company gradually specialised in body broking and rebodying. It is therefore possible that in the earlier period, 1920s, Cooper built his own bodies but in the case of GF63 I still suspect it was a rebadged standard body from another make.
All the best,
Tom
:: Tom Clarke ::
would fit to a chassis if requested.
his was not an uncommon practice at
the time. It could mean the original
body either was worn out, or that the
then current body was not what the
owner required, or, in the trade made
a good chassi more diffilcult to trade.
Graham.
I too remember this car in the Tauranga area in the 1960's. There were many Aucklanders that belonged to the Waikato Veteran and Vintage Car Club who accepted Post Vintage Cars and at that time the Vintage Car Club of N.Z. [and it's Branches] did not. When the Waikato Club joined the Vintage Car Club of N.Z. we were forced to join the Auckland Branch however, a group of us made sure that the Nationional Body came to accept Post Vintage cars. The Waikato Veteran and Vintage Car Club had many of their Rallies to Tauranga. For the owner of this car I would recommend contacting the Vintage Car Club of N.Z. as the car must have appeared in the club magazine 'Beaded Wheels'.