If you are ever puzzled by body-style terms such as "Sedanca de Ville" and "Landaulette", you'll share my pleasure that HJ has responded immediately to my suggestion that he should add a FAQ using the information from the 1998/9 edition of his Book of motoring answers:
www.honestjohn.co.uk/faq/faq.htm?id=118
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I thought a landaulette was where Pauline Fowler used to work ;-)
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I thought a landaulette was where Pauline Fowler used to work ;-)
no chris, thats a launderette, a landaulette is a chinese wash house i flink
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A laundaulette is a vehicle, often used by royalty /dignatories and the like, whereby the roof section encompassing the back seats of the car folds back a la hood [often contained in hood bag when down] The roof section encompassing the forward seats is fixed, and remains in position. Vehicles which the coachbuilders of the period applied their skills were, Rolls Royces, Benleys and the Queen Mum's favourite Daimler, although any of the prestiege makes of the period probably utilised this popular cofiguration.
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My father's 1932 Rolls-Royce 20/25, which I have previously described wrongly it seems as a coupe de ville, was in fact a landaulette, but the opening rear section of the roof, which had sort of pram hood folding external braces, didn't open, obviously hadn't been opened for a very long time, and discretion was definitely the better part of valour as it didn't leak.
It was a very commodious car, although quite an ugly one, with jump seats and a wind-up glass division. It had good road manners too like every Rolls-Royce I have been in or driven, but it wasn't very fast and of course had vintage handling and suspension.
Edited by Lud on 29/04/2008 at 20:41
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A definition I have come acroos describes an open driver's seat/area. "An early type of car with a folding hood over the passenger seats and an open driver's seat"
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As opposed to the coupe de ville, which had the rear properly covered as on a limousine, the driver - and footman, hopefully - being exposed to the elements in the front of the conveyance. Properly executed, the most elegant form of coachwork.
(Had one had Ettore's version on the Royale chassis, would one have preferred to be passenger or chauffeur? Chauffeur, by the way, was originally he who had to light the burners for the hot tube ignition.)
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A landau (French) was originally a 4-wheeled horse-drawn carriage with a two-piece folding hood, so a landaulette (not a French word) should be a little landua. It practice, I suppose it is what a given manufacturer decided, but a car with just the rear part of the roof foldable sounds right logically.
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Its funny, for years I had thought the spelling of it was 'landauette' without the second 'l'. Must have misread it as a child, reading my St Michael Pictorial History of Cars, and its not a word that crops up often.
Surprised at the spelling I looked on Wikipedia and that shows a picture of a Nash Rambler with full landau roof. also a Mercedes with landaulette, but they spell it landaulet!
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Landau_%28automobile%29
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"they spell it landaulet"
Is that the one with a Postilion?
For some reason, I've now got Chuck Berry's 'Maybelline' in my head - she was driving a 'coup de ville' you may recall...
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I remember that spelling too Rich. It used to be the standard one.
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I remember that spelling too Rich. It used to be the standard one.
Ah yes I've now found several different websites using an alternative spelling 'landauette'..
Including this one depicting a 1928 Isotta-Fraschini:
snipurl.com/26gux [www_conceptcarz_com]
Edited by Rich 9-3 on 30/04/2008 at 15:20
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What VED do they attract nowadays? Perhaps some modifications would be worthwhile.. :-)
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A landau existed as a horse-drawn carriage long before cars. It was open, but the important feature was that the hood could be independently raised at either or both ends to cover the occupants (not the coachman).
The term was transferred to cars, with the landaulette variant that had a fixed roof at the front, and a hood only at the rear. Initially the convention was maintained that the driver was exposed to the elements (as was obviously necessary in the case of a coachman, with reins and whip), but later concessions often extended the fixed roof to cover the driver too. Eventually he even received a windscreen.
To maintain the proprieties he was however separated by a glass screen, sometimes with communication via a speaking tube.
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Pedant's hat on.
Shouln't it be "Shooting Brake" not "Shooting Break" ?
Replaces pedant's hat with helmet.
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I wonder why refering to my car as an "estate" is acceptable but to call my Mondeo a "shooting brake" would almost certainly and rightly be considered pompous. To be fair, I neither own vast tracts of land nor a gun, but I have to call it something. But then I worry about why people in high rise flats with uninterupted views have net curtains as well. Oh... and yes the "break" bit was niggling me too if it helps! Must find another hobby.
Edited by shoespy on 30/04/2008 at 16:22
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Come to think of it, the Mondy has a sunroof as well. I rather like the idea that that could make it a "Landau Shooting Brake" ;-)
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Mine's a station wagon and the breaks aren't broken.
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why people in high rise flats with uninterupted views have net curtains as well.
We have a small astronomical telescope, 6.5 inch reflector. When we first got it, before taking it to foggy Sussex where the mirrors get corroded, I set it up in our sitting room here and trained it on some high-rise buildings down by Shepherd's Bush. You could see the flowerpots on people's windowsills, upside down of course. You can read the small print on a newspaper with it from seventy-five yards.
And quite apart from people like me spying, there is sometimes a veritable cloud of helicopters whop-whopping around peering in through people's windows.
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Y'see it takes a savvy street-wise metropolitan type to figure these things out. It's been bothering me for years......but of course, telescopes and helicopters, that'll be the reason. I feel better now. Still doesn't explain hat wearing in cars though! ( unless one of the aforementioned with optional roofs )
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You can't prove a thing Lud ,
.......the whop whopping around was never proved in court and its pure coincidence that I live in Sussex by the sea and I come from a very large family of peeping toms....... :0)
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We don't seem to get a lot of call for whopping round these parts. A lot of coupes, dropheads, and 4/4 station wagons though, being in Cheshire, but really very little whop whopping. I expect if there were, the obligatory fitment of privacy glass might make them very difficult to fly.
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I remember shooting brakes. They weren't just estate cars. They had wooden bodywork extending the back, with rear doors and seats down the sides. The front part of the vehicle was for family and guests ("guns") and servants and beaters sat in the back, along with guns, hampers, other clobber.
A shooting break is when you all stop for lunch and few drams from hip flasks. I remember as a child trying to pretend that I liked tea with a slug of scotch in it.
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