Carnut/Wayneb/fyreline and of course Iluvatar:
I thank you three for your remarks and your "sympathy", but I am a mature (OLD) adult and I can usually advocate for myself.
As well, I have no interest nor desire to get in a pissing contest with anyone here on this Forum and I do recognize your other automotive history efforts, Iluvatar and I applaud them.
I think in this case, the broken link or whatever you wish to call it caused by posting a previous puzzle question may have led to some confusion and the original question never got properly posted and now we play a game of catch up which can be a bit tedious. As Wayneb has experienced, I have had at least four instances in the past 3-4 months where the question kept getting changed as I would submit my answers and although I had answered the basic question it seemed there was no satisfying the original poster. I have ceased even responding to questions asked by that type of poster.
Since I have a few minutes of quiet time, I will make some further remarks about this puzzle vehicle.
1. The present puzzle photo shows what may be a "Concept" vehicle as opposed to the actual one off prototype supplied to the US Army at the Aberdeen Proving Grounds.
There are numerous differences between the puzzle photo and the one I posted (BTW, I did not know until after I had posted my reply that the same photo was posted by Carnut on the other quiz).
2. The body has been changed considerably, I have mentioned the changed out body panels, the moving of the spare wheel and tyre to the rear and the change from civilian wheels and tyres to military wheels and tyres.
3. Obvious other external changes are the configuration change from three rows of seats to two rows of seats, due to the changing of the spare tyre location
4. The location of the mounting of the windscreen was changed from the back of the cowl to the front. and the headlamps are mounted slightly higher.
5. The body sides are raised on the military prototype compared to the earlier photo.
As to what changes may exist that one cannot see, I have absolutely no idea. I did mention the change of engines from Porsche to VW but that seems to have occurred later and I assume was done on the military prototype. Perhaps it started out with a VW engine, that got changed to a Porsche engine when sent to the Army and then later changed again.
Sadly, while there are a few photos of the original car on the Internet as used in this puzzle, there is literally no information about it except the name without me using SBI to find some obscure reference photo. There are multiple photos of the actual US Army prototype and several well written articles about both the company and the hlstory of the Fletcher 115 Flair on the Internet and I have used all of those references I could find plus one excellent book I have on the History of US Wheeled Military Vehicles.
All that being said, Iluvatar, I rest my case. 3 hours research and multiple posts are enough for me my friend.
Bill
