Topic: Solved NIC#396 - 1920 Varley-Woods 14.3hp

[nicanary]

What is this car?

[nicanary]

Experts?

[magnette]

Waverley Light Six?

[nicanary]

Waverley Light Six?

No.

[nicanary]

Pros?

[pnegyesi]

British?

[4popoid]

UK built 1920 Varley-Woods 14.3 hp Tourer.

[Paul Jaray]

Too late..   

[nicanary]

UK built 1920 Varley-Woods 14.3 hp Tourer.

Yes - Tylor engine. An obscure marque even in the UK. The history of the company makes interesting reading, as the directors appear to have been dreamers/charlatans of some renown. Mr. Woods eventually moved to Africa where he was eaten by a lion.

How on earth do Pros solve these so fast?

[Paul Jaray]

Speaking for myself here but when a maker is pretty obscure and there are just few pics of it online, there is an high probability that it's in my HD.
Furthermore, once I found a nice source, I use to view it all and copy all its pictures in my folders.
There are some sources I recognize at once and some pictures that are very familiar for me.
This is the reason why, once it's been estabilished that a car is, for example a 500cc F3, I know exactly where to look, in my HD or online.
I have a program that I use to sort pictures according to some selected tags and even if there are thousands of pics, once I choose the few tags I need, I'm always seeing the same hundreds of pics. This one showed up hundreds of times: each time I was looking for a 'classic' and a 'British car'.

If you post a picture like the following, for example, I'm in big trouble: there are no distinctive features and it's not an iconic picture of that model. I can determine is an 'American' 'classic' car but the hundreds of pictures I'll see will be all different from it, even if I'm looking at cars of the same brand. In this case I have to study the picture and try to 'recognize it' the usual way.

I can't understand how some puzzlers can find with the same easyness a '32 Dodge or a 1911 De La Myre-Mory! 

[nicanary]

Thanks for your interesting insight as to how you solve puzzles. I expect we all have different methods.

PS I don't keep any files at all! I usually know where to look if the image is on the internet, but that's why I'm so slow.

[4popoid]

UK built 1920 Varley-Woods 14.3 hp Tourer.

Yes - Tylor engine. An obscure marque even in the UK. The history of the company makes interesting reading, as the directors appear to have been dreamers/charlatans of some renown. Mr. Woods eventually moved to Africa where he was eaten by a lion.

How on earth do Pros solve these so fast?

No magic involved here.  As I have said previously, just because a correct answer is filed quickly doesn't mean it was determined quickly.  It is my practice to examine all puzzles as soon as they are posted, generally in the Rookie section.  I will pick out those postings which are of particular interest to me, and flag them for future research as time becomes available.  Generally the postings chosen are unmodified production cars, especially those manufactured prior to 1930.  I almost never work on one-offs, especially those of a racing variety, although there is the occasional exception.  Unlike PJ, I keep no files either on paper, or digital.  If a posting can not be found currently on line I'm done.  I do have a number of reference websites bookmarked where I generally start my research. 

This method is not fast, and I generally spend in excess of 10 hours per day doing it.  If I get a hit the answer goes on my "ready list", in the hope that it will eventually make its way up to the Professional level.  Many puzzles never make it (less than 50%), and the research is lost, but some do.  As was the case with this puzzle, over two months had past since its initial posting, but today it made it to the Professional level and I was ready for it.  All that was required was a "copy and paste" from my ready list, which takes less than a minute.  It looks fast, but what isn't known is how many hours went into the research to get the answer onto the "ready list".  If all the postings went directly to the Professional level, I doubt that I would solve any puzzles, but, given enough time to do the research, I'll get a few. 

Do I waste a lot of time? Sure, but I enjoy what I do (or I wouldn't do it).

[ftg3plus4]

UK built 1920 Varley-Woods 14.3 hp Tourer.

Or, as at least one edition of Georgano calls it in the picture caption, "Valey-Woods". 

[nicanary]

UK built 1920 Varley-Woods 14.3 hp Tourer.

Or, as at least one edition of Georgano calls it in the picture caption, "Valey-Woods". 

My copy is the later Beaulieu 2-volume edition, and they've corrected it in that edition.