Registration No: RBN 833
Chassis No: A7600069
MOT: Exempt

• Part of the collection since 1999
• 56,668 recorded miles (unwarranted)
• In need of recommissioning / renovation

It must have been quite a feeling for Billy Rootes (by then Sir William Rootes) to rescue the company at which he had serviced an apprenticeship – Singer Motors Ltd – from bankruptcy in December 1955. The first Rootes Group Singer model, the Gazelle, was derived from its ‘Audax’ platform and debuted the following September. A ‘three box’ monocoque bodyshell styled by the celebrated American Raymon Loewy, it underpinned the Sunbeam Rapier, Hillman Minx and Singer Gazelle. Featuring independent front suspension, a ‘live’ rear axle and four wheel drum brakes, it was initially differentiated in Singer guise by the use of the Coventry marque’s proven 1.5 litre SOHC four-cylinder engine.

Notable as only the 69^th Singer Gazelle Series I to be manufactured, chassis A7600069 was first registered in Bolton (or so its ‘RBN 833’ number plate would imply). Strangely, the accompanying old-style V5 gives the date of first registration as 12^th May 1960. Acquired by Maksood Talati of Bolton in March 1982, the 4/5-seater entered the late Mr Lucas’s collection seventeen years later. Passing its most recent MOT test with ‘no advisories’ on 17^th August 2012 at an indicated 56,495 miles (less than 200 miles ago), this historic Singer is now in need of recommissioning / renovation.

David Lucas (1947 – 2023)

A motor engineer by profession, the late David Lucas amassed a collection of over forty vintage and classic cars, commercials and tractors between the 1970s and his death last year. A true petrolhead, he housed several of them in a private museum which was decorated with an amazing array of automobilia. Drawn to cars with original interiors, he also had a deep love of music and a quirky sense of humour. A champion of the underdog, he eschewed the more famous British marques such as Rolls-Royce, Bentley and Aston Martin in favour of Armstrong Siddeley, Singer and Standard Triumph. A stalwart member of various car clubs over the years, he exhibited at numerous events up and down the country. Summed-up by his loved ones as ‘one of the life’s true gentlemen’, David Lucas remains much missed.

For more information, please contact:
Damian Jones
damian.jones@handh.co.uk
07855 493737