Recently, classic car technician Steve and Bridge Classic Cars Director Gordon took a trip to the British Motor Museum to take a closer look at the Riley 9HP they have on display. The purpose of the trip was to gather more information and references as to how our 1905 Riley 9HP goes together and works.
It’s not quite as easy as simply taking photos and then building our Riley in the same way though, as ours is slightly different to the very small number of others out there. It is strongly believed that we actually have the prototype for the Riley 9HP – the first car ever to have removable wheels. This means that it never looked exactly the same as any of the others produced.
Another challenge the workshop team faces is the age of the car. At more than 100 years old, there aren’t too many people around who saw one of these in their prime or know how they go together. It’s also worth noting that over the last 100 years, it’s highly unlikely that someone hasn’t tinkered with the vehicle in some way, making Steve’s job even harder to work out what is original and what may be a later modification.
That being said, after his trip to the museum, Steve has been hard at work and has made great progress on our Riley project.
He has been trial-fitting various components including the beautiful radiator!
With more photos and a bit more information to hand, hopefully, Steve will continue to make good progress on our very special 1905 Riley 9HP.
