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The Sumatra Seven-Photo Mystery (update: three different cars)
Earlier quiz winner Pieter Vos sends this set of photos. It is only on rare occasions that we see more than one photo of a mystery car. Here we have no less tahn seven photos of the same car (if we are correct). Not one photo giving away the full identity of the car. But all pieces od the puzzle together must be able to produce a fairly accurate ID.
The photos were shot in the twenties near Lake Toba on Sumatra, Indonesia. The car was in the ownership of a family Van der Bijl. Wilbert van der Bijl would love to know which car it is.
update by editor: well, er.. glad that you were not as sleepy as your editor when uploading this. We're looking forward what your final verdict on 'this fleet' will be.
Published:
Sunday April 4th, 2021
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Comments
Marjolein
06 April 2021, 15:55
Unknown
05 October 2016, 22:23
The car in the last picture im almost 100% sure it is a lafayette 134 tourer. Cilinder headlights and the doorhandles and the louvres in the side the bodyline above the doors is straight from front to back. Hope you have al the answers you wanted ( first one is indeed a hupmobile)
Greetings joep
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Greetings joep
Unknown
09 January 2015, 06:50
Had another look at that last photo. It is not an Oldsmobile because the hood louvres area wrong. The hood looks too long for a Rugby/Durant four.
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Unknown
07 January 2015, 11:54
Nobody has mentioned that in several of the photos, the guys are dressed for a cricket match. So what are American cars doing at a typically British sporting venue? That's not cricket, what!
editor:
well old Chap, these good sports are ' doing' Sumatra, at that time a Dutch colony.
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editor:
well old Chap, these good sports are ' doing' Sumatra, at that time a Dutch colony.
Unknown
06 January 2015, 01:08
I would agree with Mark the first three and five photos look like Model R Hupmobile, the bonnet louvres look right but the car has sidelights from an earlier Hupp, (maybe Model 32) and the crank handle bracket looks like from a 32 but mounted up high instead of at the bottom of the radiator. It headlamps are accetoline, much earlier than the car. These could have been taken from cars previously owned. Four and six are a 1925 Ford T, sloping windscreen, no sidelights. You can just make out the transverse spring in photo six. Photo seven is I think a 1926 Model R Rugby.
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Unknown
05 January 2015, 11:32
There can't be much doubt about the early '20s Hupmobile (photos 1, 3, 3 and 5), the Ford model T (photo 6) and the ca 1925 Oldsmobile. The only unknown remains photo 4, which can't be the Hupmobile (1 instead of 2 rear windows). Looking at the size, it could be the Ford, but unless a higher res scan will be available, this one will remain unsolved.
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Unknown
05 January 2015, 07:52
There are at least 3 cars, probably all American. The main pic, & 1st 4 pics below look like a late teens car with beaded edge tyres, split windscreen with the lower half curved to the shape of the cowling, which has no beading. The 6th looks to be a lighter and possibly earlier car with rectangular lower windscreen, and a very shallow cowling. The last looks like a Willys Knight mid to late 1920s, with straight-side tyres and typical American lower waist moulding.
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Unknown
05 January 2015, 07:23
The first 5 photos with gas lights looks a bit like a Studebaker. The 6th photo is a Model T Ford. The steering wheel gives this away. 7th photo---my guess Rugby or Durant.
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Unknown
05 January 2015, 07:15
5th photo looks very Model T to me judging by the spokes on the steering wheel.
6th photo. Maybe late 20's Willy's Knight?
As for the identity of your mystery car, I'm stumped.
Cheers
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6th photo. Maybe late 20's Willy's Knight?
As for the identity of your mystery car, I'm stumped.
Cheers
Unknown
05 January 2015, 05:28
The first five photos may be the same car which has brass headlights and side lights, where visible. The car in photo 6 is different as the windscreen is higher and has a deeper lower glass. The car in photo 7 is different again in that it has drum shaped head & side lights. To me this one looks like a mid 20's Rugby (British) or Star as it was known in USA
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Unknown
05 January 2015, 04:32
How about a 1925 Durant, or it's export counterpart, Rugby?
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Unknown
05 January 2015, 03:09
Surely we are looking at two different cars here. One with a chome/nickel plated radiator and one with black. Compare the gap between the bonnet louvres and the back of the bonnet in each if you don't believe me. Other details such as headlamps, sidelamps and hood frame change too
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Unknown
05 January 2015, 01:11
The car in the last photo is a 1926 Oldsmobile. Two-tone paint, two wheel brakes, five rim bolts per wheel and straight windshield pillars are clues
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Unknown
05 January 2015, 00:22
Looks like 3 different cars to me. First 5 pictures of a 1920 era Hupmobile with earlier gas lamps mounted. 6th picture is of a Model T Ford 1923-24 and the 7th picture is a late 1926 or early 1927 Star (American not British).
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Unknown
05 January 2015, 00:19
The car in most of the pics is a Hupmobile Model R. It has wooden felloe wheels so not later than about 1920. The car in the second last pic is a Ford T and the car in the last pics looks to have Studebaker hubcaps but I am not sure that is what it is.
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Also 1 of rhe photos has a subscription about the journey it makes to Medan. Medan was the only substantial city on Sumatra at the time and had only 1 car dealership registered: Fiat - N.V. Fiat Import Company, Soerabaja, Semarang, Bandoeng, Batavia, Medan.
Comparing the photos (except photo 5 which does not seem to have anything to do with the other photos) I think the car is a Fiat 509 or 520 tourer (company leaflet indicates they imported only 2 models). Most likely the 520 tourer, although the head lights seem not to match up completely.. but they could been exchanged for better working ones I suppose?