javelin in paper

[TedAllen]

Today, 5th of August, the Mail on Sunday ran an article on the cars owned by Bernie Eccclestone of Formula One fame
A photograph shows the forecourt of Compton and Ecclestone, used car dealers, in 1951.
In pride of place in the centre of the forecourt is a white Javelin flanked by a bullnose Morris tourer and what looks like an R type Bentley on the offside and a selection of mororcycles on the nearside......but wait !....the Javelin carries the registration no. SMV 3, a car owned for many years by JCC member Sid Balchin and, I believe, one of the earliest in the club.

It looks like Bernie can be added to the list of famous Jowett owners, if only by virtue of his business.
I've scanned the photo so I'll try to figure out how to get it into the gallery when I've time.
Regards
Ted

[PAUL BEAUMONT]

As far as I am aware SMV 3 belongs today to Keith Waller (but please do not try to contach him as he is not in the best of health these days) Interestingly today SMV 3 is a fetching shade of ............................. BLACK!

[george garside]

It was certainly black in the early 60's when Sid owned it & did not look as if it had had a colour change, i.e. the impossible to spray parts without a bare shell stripdown were black. So where & when did the white come from, pretty sure it wasn't a factory colour - did it start off black go white on the outside and return to black. The only white one that was around in the club at that time was owned by the first northern section secretary Don March (or was it Marsh) . This was definately a respray. It also had an enormous heater off a Chevrolet in the hope of warming the parts the standard heater would't reach.
george

[ian Howell]

I heard this from George Mitchell many years ago . .

If you want to find out the ORIGINAL colour of a Javelin, remove one of the front suspension link top mounts - where they are bolted to the sides of the engine compartment sidewall.

There is a rectangular tube goes from side to side of the engine compartment, and NOBODY EVER goes that far when respraying!

[TedAllen]

What George says about a respray to white and then back to black is interesting but remember, this is 1951 so why would anyone respray a car so new unless they had a fetish for white cars and couldn't get a Javelin in this colour. I, too, have known this car for a long time and it has always been black in my memory. Another of those intriguing Jowett mysteries perhaps.
I have now posted the piccy in the gallery....clever or what ?
Ted