Topic: Solved: Monty028 - El Pampero by Barron Ackroyd (1912)

[el_monty]

Fellow autopuzzlers, here's another pic from my camera. For a point please tell me the name of this car, who built it and when

[el_monty]

Up to the experts

[barrett]

El Pampero, built by Barron Lee Ackroyd in 1912

[el_monty]

El Pampero, built by Barron Lee Ackroyd in 1912

That is correct! J. Barron Ackroyd (that's how his name appears in the RAF registry) was a British Royal Air Force pilot who designed and built this cyclecar with a 2-cylinder, 12 HP engine, and named it "El Pampero" to evoke Argentina, a fashionable and exotic location at the time. Ackroyd was killed five years later during WWI, in combat against "The Flying Circus", the Red Baron's unit. The car now belongs to Portuguese collector João Manuel Magalhaes, and is on display at the Auto Museum of Málaga, Spain, where I took the photo.

[nicanary]

The precursor of the Royal Air Force was the Royal Flying Corps which was set up in April 1912. The builder of this car must have been a member of the RFC and one of the earliest of British military pilots. The RAF was formed in 1918.

[el_monty]

Thanks for the correction nicanary! You are right, the RAF Archive does mention that he belonged in fact to the RFC. I suppose maybe he actually joined after building the car (and his engineering expertise was probably very useful in those early days of aviation.). Then the story of him being a pilot killed in action must have been passed from one owner of the car to another.

[Allan L]

For many years the late Arthur Jeddere-Fisher had this contraption (I assume there is only the one) in England
With luck these photos show him in it at Prescott in dry and wet conditions:

[el_monty]

Wow! Great find!