CC reader Jose Luis in Argentina sent me this photo and asked if I could identify the car on the right. Nope.
It’s clearly a local lay produced body in a style with that giant trunk/pickup bed that was fairly common in that part of the world. But what about the front half? Looks mighty British. Can anyone pin it down?
Hillman Minx mark IV or V??
It’s handmade from the doors back, but the front part could be Singer SM1500. On second thoughts, the wheelbase looks too short for that.
Can’t see this or the oversteer photo.
Edit – Now I can. Does look a bit Minxy.
Standard Vanguard.
It appears to be LHD, unlike the car to its left. That puzzles me unless it’s a British car made for export. Initially I had a problem with seeing this photo, as well as some from the last few posts, but it displays now. I can even enlarge it. I noticed that the photos that don’t appear seem to have a different addressing structure.
Hmm. Then my question is – what is the car on the left and what is an RHD car doing in Uruguay? Lancia?
Mid 50s Humber Hawk?
B pillar forward looks like a Minx to me as well … we need kiwibryce to chime in.
Teatro Solís is in Montevideo Uruguay and Hillmen do not seem to be totally unheard of there.
If it was Montevideo, it could be some Renault, as there was an assembly line until the 1980s. Maybe Renault Colorale/Savane.
Very nice and meaningful picture, taken in Plaza Independencia, Montevideo, Uruguay, towards the Old City. The Tupi Namba is a milestone, which sadly has not existed for 60 years now.
http://montevideoantiguo.net/index.php/ausentes/cafe-tupi-namba.html
The car is a very late 40s or very early 50s Rootes, most likely a Commer. Commer was the truck brand, and boatloads of them were shipped to Uruguay. For all intents and purposes, this is a Hillman Minx (I might be wrong, and it could be a Humber, as the scale is not clear to me) imported as a chassis and cab like a pickup and with the rear body added by a local shop. The reason behind that would be, as always…taxes. Uruguay had very long periods where any value added in the country was taxed much more lightly.
The car to the left is an Opel Kadett, produced before WWII. Uruguay drove on the left until September 2, 1945 on 4:00 AM. So lots of relatively new cars would be RHD for many years. Argentina had changed hands just a little earlier, around June of the same year.
There’s another evidence of this. The Leyland Cub bus seen behind the cars is also RHD. Some of them were converted, but as far as I remember, not all. The last batch went to that huge parking lot in the sky (where probably every vehicle has power steering) around 1979. Of some interest only to someone from Uruguay is that that particular vehicle seems to carry the number 514. If that’s right, it is bordering the Plaza Independencia towards 18 de julio, servicing probably lines 187 or 188 to the Palacio Legislativo (our Congress building).
Hey, it’s nice to see a question about my home town for a change!
At the end of the article to which I’m linking you can see the same view today, courtesy of Google Maps. Note that the building taking the place of the Tupi Namba is about 55 years old. The TEATRO SOLIS, in the background, is our best known cultural milestone.
Brilliant, thanks Rafael!.
Thanks for exhaustive explanation about Uruguay! Perhaps you can contribute to this site once in a while about the automotive history in Uruguay?
Rafael: I would enjoy reading much more about Montevideo. The variety of vehicles and especially the buildings looks fascinating. I’ve seen Buenos Aires but never crossed the River to Montevideo. The web site you linked is intriguing but I need it to be in English. Thanks for your insight. Please send CC more on Montevideo and Uruguay!
Thank you for your kind comments. I’d be happy to contribute.
I guess Sept 2, 1945 was a hoot to commute to work that morning?
Great post. Thanks.
There’s not many people around who were old enough at the time to remember. But I do remember the tales about there being many cops around, and apparently there were no accidents related to that change. Bear in mind that at the time in Montevideo the ratio of cars per inhabitants was very low. What is interesting is that trams were on equal standing with buses. You can change hand in buses…not so with trams, and they survived something like 20 years. I don’t know how they managed….will look for someone to ask.
Late in I know it does look early 50s Hillman Minx, and there was a Commer van and pickup that used Minx front sheet metal, the rear half doesnt resemble any Commer Ive seen so could be locally constructed. Hillmans were built LHD for those export markets requiring it,
I agree it’s a local reworking of a 1956-8 Commer Cob pick-up. The front door exactly matches the styling features (dropping wing line, door handle position, the roundness of the window corners, deep doors with shallow sills) and it has the Cob/Husky’s short wheelbase.
I will defer to Rafael as necessary, but my guess is a local (Argentine?) body on a Commer Express pickup (ute) chassis cab. The factory pick up looked like this.
Rootes has assembly partners in Argentina.
Roger, I’m sure there were some Commer pickups just like the one you show us. Even though the vehicle could have been built in Argentina, as they had the same kind of taxes for imported goods and protectionist laws, it wouldn’t make sense to import such a car to Uruguay. Taxes would have been no different as to importing the real car (let’s say, a Hillman Minx) from England.
So it’s highly unlikely that the contraption installed on the (supposedly) Commer chassis was made anywhere but in Uruguay.
Anyway, by virtue of our very small market, this would have been a handbuilt body. Curiously, some Uruguayan firms later on were able to export some copies of other European cars built here (namely, fiberglass Vauxhall Vivas with a doule cab body and Opel Kadett Ts in coupe and caravan form). All these cars were called Grumett and were powered in the case of the Viva by their original powertrain, a 1100cc, and in the T cars, a 1400 cc from the Brazilian Chevette.
The ’80 Grumett sport (same looks as a T-car coupe, with the front like a Vauxhall Chevette, tubular chassis supporting a fiberglass body, steel doors), 1400 cc, 4 speed manual.
And here y ou have the Opel Indiana. It is a Viva Estate fiberglass body with ’71 Opel Kadett mechanicals. Note that the front wheels are not centered in the wheel openings, because wheelbase on the Kadett was apparently shorter than in the Viva.
Regarding the car on the left of the picture, there was a Renault Juvaquatre that looked like a carbon-copy of the Opel Kadett perhaps as a result of some post-WW2 compensation, perhaps made under license in France. I could not tell them apart from a distance even when they were new.
The mistery car is definitely a 50’s Hillman with a one-off, locally-made rear end.