Roland wonders where wall the nifty Singer roadsters like the one he
almost bought went.
If it's the car I remember, I knew a guy in college with one and it was
great. I seem to recall it was more of a drophead (but let's not
quibble over brit semantics).
Anyway, at the same time the Rover dealer in Berkely Calif had a Sunbeam
Talbot drophead that looked an awful lot like the Singer on his used
car lot. Rootes, the manufacturer of both, did a lot a badge
engineering so it's possible they were a lot alike. I decided this was
going to be my first car. The dealer said I could have it for $400 when
he got a clear title to it. I pestered him for weeks, but he was
never able to sell. On one pestering expidition I finally gave up on
the Talbot and bought a Hillman convert that had just arrived. A nice
enough car and the family insurance agent felt it entirely benign. But
I really still wanted the Talbot.
I kept checking on it until one day months later it was gone: I
couldn't bring myself to inquire about its fate.
Rootes Group parts were never real easy to find (especially if your car
wasn't an Alpine), and when Chrysler quit selling them in the US it
became even worse. They were pretty common in the Bay Area too, but my
guess is they mostly got crushed. Rootes stuff (especially the cars
that weren't marketed like the Alpine) never had a real big following,
and you had to be pretty hard core to stick with them. I was hardcore
enough to go through three Hillmans, but sold the last one when we
stumbled on this neat old Mercedes (please don't take me off the list
Jim!); the Hillman was just getting too hard to keep on the road.
Whenever I browse through a Hemmings I always check for Rootes stuff,
but hardly ever find anything but Alpines and Tigers.
I may have the wrong car Roland: that sector of the disk is pretty
dusty, but the mention of old, wierd Rootes cars just gets me going.
Mike "you never forget your first LBC" Tobin
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