LOCAL SPECIALISTS

Clues across: 7. Model name used by AC for some vehicles in the late ’20s / early ’30s, and briefly part of the company name from 1927 to ’29 (6) 8. British company founded in 1897, for many years a world leader in brake-lining and -pad design (6) 10. East German small car of distant DKW lineage — average life span of each car was once calculated as 28 years, so it had some good points! (7) 11. Italian car maker (1904–’34), its claim to fame seems to be success in the 1907 Peking– Paris long-distance rally (5) 12. Racing car marque founded by Ron Tauranac, successful in many different racing formulae for over 30 years (4) 13. British car industry company owner, and, incidentally, one of the best car stylists around from the 1920s to the 1960s (5) 17. French two-seater mini car (c. 28,000 built from 1957 to ’61) designed by Piaggio in Italy, but built by Ateliers de Construction de Motocycles et Accessoires (ACMA) in France, with bodies by Facel (5) 18. Belgian car company (1898–1922) — no smoking, despite the name, from these top-quality and well-built cars (4) 22. A rather primitive form of independent suspension, used usually at the rear end but rarely and often scarily at the front, was the ----- axle (5) 23. 1965 onwards UK builder of racing and sports cars, still currently active, though its founder died in 1978 (7) 24. UK racing driver (1897–1979) best known for holding the world land-speed record on three occasions in the 1930s (6) 25. UK car builder, active from 1906 to 1954, and remembered for several classic flat-twin- and flat-four-powered designs (6)

Clues down: 1. De Tomaso’s successful Ford V8-powered supercar, c. 7200 built from 1971 to 1991 — Elvis is said to have fired a gun at his when it did not start! (7) 2. French car company, one of the oldest in the industry, having been founded in 1899 (7) 3. A right royal model name, though perhaps not for … (5) 4. … this UK car company’s three-wheelers, over 50,000 built from 1953 to 1973 (7) 5. Self-changing epicyclic transmission with electromagnetic clutches used by some ’30s French sporting cars (5) 6. 1969 Australian variant of British Motor Corporation’s (BMC) ADO16 design, using the Maxi 1500 engine in a five-door hatchback-modified BMC 1100 body (5) 9. Austrian variant of the Fiat Nuova 500, or Bambina, design, with 60,000 built from 1957 to ’75, using a flat-twin engine with some Porsche design input (5-4) 14. Another French car company, even older than 2 down, with its first car produced some nine years earlier (7) 15. Traction Avant, Deux Chevaux, Deesse, and Idee — who built them? (7) 16. Derek ------- was the founder of 23 across (7) 19. Model name used by Dodge from 1976 to ’80 for its range of compact, later intermediate, automobiles — they were replaced by the frontwheel-drive K-cars (5) 20. Austin’s 4WD rival to the Land Rover, which was handicapped in the market by a rust-prone steel body and complex independent suspension (5) 21. This was a much more successful Austin, with just short of 450,000 built from 1947 to 1952 (5)

Answers to last month’s crossword Across: 7. Kurtis 8. Toyota 10. Lagonda 11. Siata 12. Nine 13. Ampol 17. Redex 18. Ickx 22. Elite 23. Carrera 24. Pilote 25. Marcos Down: 1. Skyline 2. Brigand 3. Finns 4. Hotshot 5. Nomad 6. Jaray 9. Palm Beach 14. Vedette 15. ACDelco 16. Exhaust 19. Vespa 20. Ville 21. Break