The mysterious home-made racer from Holland

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Another mystery motor has come to us from the Netherlands, this time from Martin Lor, who writes: “Does anyone have any idea what this car could be? The location is Schiphol in 1938.”

You may know Schiphol as the location of Amsterdam’s airport, which it has been for over a century, but once upon a time Schiphol was a lake. Legend even has it that the name ‘ship hole’ was a reference to the many ships supposedly lost in it. A good story, no doubt, but by 1938 Schiphol was working on its fourth runway and propeller planes were coming and going every day, but there was still plenty of room for motorists, too.

Our mystery motor wears a Dutch provincial plate, issued in the province of North-Holland (where Schiphol lies) and our guess is that it’s a home-built racer, tested on one of the runways, perhaps? It must be said it looks a nice build, with its aerodynamic grille surround (which doesn’t make identification any easier) and ‘humps’ with tiny see-through sections to protect driver and passenger.

The front suspension with leaf springs and rotating front wings must be instantly recognizable to one of you chaps. Martin would love to hear from you.

Words by Jeroen Booij, Picture by Martin Lor

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