RREC Rolls-Royce classic car garage 1950s 

I too came across this gem by chance Sophie , we have a 93 year old Rolls that was bought 56 years ago for £190, now owned longer than anyone else, but as you know it is a different world of ownership now !.Although I have never owned a Norton , I have several Triumphs, the oldest of which is a ' 54 Thunderbird owned 42 years.

B90HK was suggested 1. Complete Classics no.4 currently has LRO331 as B90HK but it isn't that car. That car is an all-steel Park Ward saloon (LRO331 is an early composite construction type) but admittedly with the same pontoon wings as the LRO331 car. B90HK was owned new by a Belgian aviation engineer. 2. Of the candidates remaining for LRO331, B9BN was a Park Ward also owned by a Belgian aviation engineer; B97BN was ditto and owned in Belgium but not by an aviation engineer; B71BL was ditto but owned by a French aviation engineer, Poberejsky. 3. However, Will Morrison feels strongly that the pontoon wings that B90HK and LRO331 share are so so close to the Vesters & Neirinck type. In that case, it must be more likely that LRO331 would be a Belgian car, either B9BN or B97BN. Given that B97BN had no aviation connection and that LRO331 shows really good engineering in its added crossbracing, I think B9BN has to be the stronger candidate for either of the reasons, i.e. pontoon wings done in Belgium and/or engineering standards in the crossbracing. Hello Rick, Still no further ahead with LRO331. B9BN, my current favourite as LRO331, survives but can't locate owner Whitehead. I need to see pics of it. The other favourite was B97BN, now a shortened racer without any front bracing between the lamp stanchions. That doesn't mean it can't have been that car (current owner might have removed the bracing because it now has skimpy wings) but B97BN wasn't owned by an aircraft engineer when new though it was Belgian. The aircraft engineer link, as you know, is just a punt, i.e. such a person would recognise the flimsiness of the Derby's front end pre the DG series. Poberejsky's B71BL was last known in 1954. ASsuming the pontoon wings on LRO331 were by Vesters, i.e. Belgian, the current thinking is to choose a Belgian car, hence B9BN or B97BL. All the best, Tom