The surprise find from the chook sheds, from the previous article, was finding a Singer Chamois Coupe!
I wanted to add this one to the collection!
This vehicle had been modified with a 4 headlight front, poorly fitted, but it was not rusty and it only looked bad due to a problem with the front bonnet. I have no idea how long it sat in the shed but other imp owners in Sydney said the car was remembered by some.
The trip home was adventurous as the poor old trailer had already done a 10 hour trip from the Sunshine Coast to Sydney plus another 6 hours loaded on a return trip to Canberra and again loaded full with parts! Whilst driving through Sydney I was flashed by a car behind who then pulled along side and said a trailer wheel had come of and last was seen going into someones front yard. It was on a dual highway no where safe to pull over so I had to keep going until I found a garage.
Luckily, my trailer is dual axle so at low speed I did not notice the wheel had come off. On inspection all seemed okay, but clearly no wheel or nuts so I fitted up the spare wheel and took a nut of each of the other 3 wheels (5 stud) so now three wheels held on with 4 nuts and the fourth wheel with 3 nuts and one nut driving the car! All was great and off we went again. Back on the road.
From memory, another 3 or 4 hours past and we were travelling nicely along the highway at approx 100 kilometres an hour when I looked out the window to see I was being overtaken by one of my trailer wheel. This time it went off the road and kept on travelling through a farmers cow paddock it did not stop it bounced and rolled until I could no longer see it. Again we pulled over but this time the whole wheel and hub and bearing had gone and it was just the stub axle sticking out.
I had no spare wheel, no hub and was stuck on rural highway and I just thought well one wheel still has air so lets go! I drove home for 6 hours on only one wheel through towns and cities and not once did anyone say anything or did I get pulled over; brilliant!
I have since fixed the hub and I still have the trailer and I have never lost a wheel again. I kept the Singer Chamois Coupe for many years but when the financial crisis hit I sold my house and with it my shed and storage and all but 2 of my 13 Imps were also sold during this time.
The Singer was sold to Ken in Victoria who in turn recently sold it. It is currently with an imp enthusiast who has several other rare imps. I have faith that it will be restored one day.
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