Solved NIC#656 - 1923 Lagonda 11.9hp of Hamish Moffatt (London-Cape Town)

[nicanary]

Year make and model required, and what made this particular car famous?

[FrontMan]

Austin 12/4 All Weather Tourer, 1923.  Inspiration for children's books?

[nicanary]

Austin 12/4 All Weather Tourer, 1923.  Inspiration for children's books?

Not an Austin, so not the car you're thinking of.

[Allan L]

I know the aeroplane of course

[nicanary]

I know the aeroplane of course

I recall building the Airfix model of it!

[nicanary]

Experts?

[Allan L]

Well it's a Bristol 170 Freighter, of Silver City Airways, which was about to take the car and its driver to Le Touquet as a preliminary to travelling the length of Africa (Algiers to Capetown).
The chap in the car is the 21 year old Hamish Moffatt and his car is a 1923 Lagonda 11.9 h.p.

This is more how we remember Hamish:

[nicanary]

Exactly, Allan. I guessed yoiu would be the solver, although I was quite surprised that there were almost no questions asked. The Lagonda looked far worse for wear by the time it reached Cape Town.

I built the Airfix model of the Bristol, which could comfortably contain Matchbox models, but not Dinkys.