I was just digging through some old files and came across this 1932 Chevy Moonlight Speedster. At least two of these were built by Holden's in Australia and I believe they may have also made a couple of Moonlight coupes. To my eyes this is perfect as it is and you gotta love that 'mother-in-law' seat - it just screams 'factory hot rod'. Imagine rolling into the L.A. Roadster Show in this puppy. Australia made some of the coolest bodied cars of all. Any of you Aussies have any more info or pix of this? I believe at least one has survived.
As I recall, this was actually a scaled down copy of the Vauxhall Hurlingham - strange that a Chevy should be a scaled down British car. Here are some shots of the Vauxhall which 'inspired' the Moonlight Speedster.
Hey, Given that Vauxall was owned by General Motors Ltd. not all that strange that a Vauxall should morf into a Chevrolet. Oft times they shared the same designers. Holden of OZ was owned by General Motors, they perhaps didn't start out that way as coachbuilders, but in the end GM owned them. Swankey Devils C.C. " It's time for another Tea Party !"
Hi I know a LOT about the Chev moonlight speedster,there is one not too far from me. First though. Sir Lawrence Harnett was the boss of GM's operation in The UK and the Hurlingham Roadster was his idea to help shift cars at a period when Vuaxhall was a dying brand. He aslo invented the bedford name ( bedFORD was no coincidence ) . After his success in the UK he was told to move to Australia and sort out the debacle cuased here by laws saying all cars had to have locally built bodies to protect the coachbuilding industry. As a result,GM was sending chassis here and there were several different companies basically hand building cars. When he arrived he found several acres of unbodied chassis waiting for bodies and Chev was the big seller here in those days. With the greast depression starting he decided that a stratergy to bring the GM products to the customers attention was needed and the fact he had several new 1931 Chassis laying about clinched this. He had the buck sent out from England for the hurlingham body . One thing though,the english had the wheeling machine and there vwas nothing like that here,so the body skin was hammered out by hand for the chev bodies .On the Moonlight speedster you can still see the hammer marks inside the body. The Vauxhall and the Chev are almost the same size as a result of using the same buck. having seen and ridden in both I feel the vuaxhall is smaller. To enable the moonlight speedster to sell,the front hood and grill was a 1932 chev assembly . There were more than two built as the owner of the one here has several windsheild parts etc from others he has found over the years. All OZ built 32's have 1928-29 Chev fenders and bumpers. This a Holden bodied roadster,note the early style windsheild posts and fenders,bumper.
1931 Moonlight speedster Moonlight Coupe They offered them from 1930 through to 1932. The first picture ( of the 32 taken from above) was taken at the 1931 Melbourne Show . GMH said they built 400 of each. Highly unlikely as the total production for those years wasn't much more because of the depression.
Thanks for the history lesson, never knew these bodies were out there. That rear seat is called a Dickie or Dicky Seat.
I had a much worse name for my mother in law than "dickie"... Cool looking car to be sure, though. See, you really DO learn something new every day.
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