Topic: MPC#031 - Solved - sand dispenser to improve grip

[Iluvatar]

I'm fairly sure it's a mirror, and from the shape of the door, my current theory is that the car is an Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire 4-light saloon, something like this:

Unfortunately I can't find any decent interior shots of the 4-light body. It seems that the 6-light version, which has a small extra window behind the back door, is far more common. But you can just about see the mirror (circled) in this shot of a 4-light car under restoration.

And here's the interior of a 6-light version for comparison, showing the same door shape, and other details, including the slight thickening of the chrome trim at the lower rear corner of the window (arrowed) and ivory-coloured bezels round the handles. There's clearly something on the back seat in the puzzle picture which obscures the armrest.

I think I'll give you another point for finding the car... is it fair although it was not a puzzle question??

[Carnut]

Of course it is!

[fyreline]

These sand-dispensing devices are still fairly common on over-the-road trucks and emergency vehicles. It looks to me as if the canister for holding the sand in the puzzle car is very, very small . . . The supply of sand it could distribute would seem to have been exhausted before it could do very much good.

But, apparently they used it so it must have worked after a fashion.

[Otto Puzzell]

Showoff...

[Allan L]

  when did they ever carry rear-seat passengers in rally cars?!

Up until the 1960s it was quite common to have three in the crew. Remember that rallies were proper endurance tests in those days so one could sleep while the other two did the driving and navigating/timekeeping. A-S Sapphires competed in the 1955 Monte but the only one I can find a photo of (c/no 226) was a six-light and it left the road in the snow.
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[ropat53]

Thank you Tom_I this was driving me mad.

[Iluvatar]

Of course it is!

Point added!

[Tom_I]

Thank you! 

[WayneB]

Good call on the Armstrong Siddeley

[richard cuyler]

Cheers, Tom! Excellent find.

[Iluvatar]

Just to add more info... I've found the same pics on Motor Italia (another italian car magazine) from 1954... the caption says:
Su di un'Armstrong ed una Hillman di concorrenti inglesi era montato un dispositivo con cui dall'interno si poteva far scendere davanti alle ruote posteirori un getto di sabbia in caso di verglas

[Carnut]

Just to add more info... I've found the same pics on Motor Italia (another italian car magazine) from 1954... the caption says:
Su di un'Armstrong ed una Hillman di concorrenti inglesi era montato un dispositivo con cui dall'interno si poteva far scendere davanti alle ruote posteirori un getto di sabbia in caso di verglas

Which means?!

[Iluvatar]

Just to add more info... I've found the same pics on Motor Italia (another italian car magazine) from 1954... the caption says:
Su di un'Armstrong ed una Hillman di concorrenti inglesi era montato un dispositivo con cui dall'interno si poteva far scendere davanti alle ruote posteirori un getto di sabbia in caso di verglas

Which means?!

It describes the object and its purpose... nothing more... but the interesting part is that it talk about what cars fit it... Armstrong and Hillman...