The Third Man?

The time...June 1937.

The place...Los Angeles.

The man...Mr T. H. M. Taylor of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

The car...a light blue 1936 Singer Nine Le Mans Special Speed Model.

This photo accompanied an article by Mrs Taylor that was printed in the January 1938 edition of Popular Motoring, the Singer Company in-house magazine. It chronicles the Taylor's adventurous drive from Vancouver down to Mexico and back again. All-in, they travelled over 5,000 miles in three weeks at an average of 41 miles per gallon and the Singer never missed a beat. Not bad!

Here's the mystery: Revecomb Motors only sold ONE Singer Sports car via their dealerships in Vancouver and Victoria. That car, according to Gladys Revecomb, was sold new to a US resident and shipped to San Diego. This would have been my car, as discussed in this blog.

Toronto was the other popular city for British cars in Canada and a number of Singers were sold there. As mentioned in a previous post, Jack Luck's car was probably the 2nd of 3 officially imported 1936 Le Mans models sold new in North America and it lived in Ontario for much of its life, possibly going to the USA later. It is also possible that car was originally painted ivory and apple green. So where does Mr T. H. M. Taylor's car fit?! Unlike 'Baby Blue', my car, which was shipped down to California and worked her way north, this car was based in Vancouver and drove south.

Is there some convoluted way that my car and Mr Taylor's are one and the same? Unlikely, I expect, unless the Revecomb information is off and the car was traded in by the Taylors and shipped to the USA after to be purchased by Irene Fergusen.

So was this car a private import, but still one of the original three, as reported in the factory ledgers?

Any leads gratefully received!

Photo courtesy the Avis Collection

Please show good manner and ask permission to use any photo or text from this blog