1913-1916 Perry light car.
This isn't the first time that a Perry light car of the vintage era has appeared on OCC, as on this page which features a rare Austin Whippet aircraft in it, the bi-plane is shown with a twin-cylinder Perry that's not too dissimilar to the car shown below. Garage paperwork from 1920 also refers to work done to a Perry at the Queensberry Motor Works, in Dumfries, Scotland.
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The photo shown here was posted by Jeremy onto the OCC Facebook page some time ago, and was recently identified on there by Varun, as a Birmingham-built c1913-1916 Perry 8hp Roadster. The registration appears to be OA 3215 or OA 3315, from a Birmingham series that only ran from 1913 to 1915. The people in the car are Jeremy's uncle, and his uncle's mother, the photo dates to around 1915 or so.
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Jeremy adds: "The little boy with his mother in the picture, taken about 1915, is my uncle, Jack Moulder. He married my mother's sister. His father W J Moulder, who would have taken this picture, had the Cross Keys Garage in Hagley, Worcestershire, and Jack grew up to be the son in the business, W J Moulder & Son. My late cousin Patrick (Jack's son) and I were teenagers in the early 1960s, and very interested in cars. We and our gang of like-minded friends used the garage as a meeting place, and did all sorts of tinkering there with old and dodgy vehicles."
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Sighting of an 8hp Perry must have been a relatively unusual experience even back in the day. Cars were only produced between 1913 and 1916, powered by a twin-cylinder water-cooled engine of the firm's own design and build. Approximately 800 in all were built, and two wheelbase options were offered, the longer of the two allowing for a rear dickey seat to be installed. Before diversifying into the production of this cycle-car, the firm produced bicycles and powered tricycles. According to the Georgano reference book, there was also a sporty-looking variant of the 8hp offered. This version utilised the same engine, in the same state of tune, but had a more raked steering column and a shortened gearlever to give it more rakish looks, enabling it to hit "close on 40 mph".
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In 1914 a four-cylinder 11.9hp car was introduced, this sold in similar numbers (around 700 in this case) and continued in production until 1916 also.
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Return to Page 21 in the motoring image archive, or visit the main index of vintage & classic photographs here.
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