Dellow Mysteries

The mysteries pages seems to be getting larger than any other page on this site.

A certain MkV Dellow has been known to the Register for many years since Mr. Headley Fletcher wrote in 1974 seeking the whereabouts of its previous owner Mr. Tom Kerly, (or was it Kerby) all to no avail. The car bore the number 514ADK and Headley was trying to register it with Swansea again to no avail.

Some years passed, Headley's nut  & bolt rebuild ground to a halt and the car lay dormant until 1997 when it changed hands and is now in the ownership of MkV enthusiast David Haley.

A further, recent attempt to register the car with Swansea and enquiries to Greater Manchester where the ADK series was issued drew a mysterious blank, Manchester Records Office were quite helpful but insisted that the number had never been issued to any vehicle.

The factory records and the information the Register holds showed that it was shipped, when new, to Nigeria and the agent was listed as J.I.Conrad-Taylor. Was it possible that the number 514ADK was a Nigerian issue? Nigeria was getting close to independence at that time but the British Bureaucracy was still in place.

And who was J.I.Conrad Taylor? was this a UK agent, a shipping company or the buyer?

Here is where the amazing power of the internet search engines becomes apparent, after a few hours browsing, the name  John Idowu Conrad Taylor appeared on the screen, Wow!. This was too good to be true surely, but no, John was a Nigerian by birth, had been educated in England and had returned to start a successful career in Nigeria in the field of Law where he rose to be Chief Justice before his untimely death in 1973 at the age of 56.

The article I was reading was an address by another distinguished Nigerian, Justice Akin Holloway, titled "Remembering J.I.C.Taylor" He goes on to say "As a child in Lagos I still remember how I would join other friends to stand on the street at 5 p.m. to watch J.I.C.Taylor fly past in his open hood racing car." Now I was convinced I had found the original owner of 514ADK.

I am pretty sure now that the number 514 ADK was a Lagos issue and that means the car has probably never been driven since its return to UK. But how did it get back to UK prior to 1974 without going through import controls and so on. 

I've just received information that the car was owned by Mr. Brian Parodi prior to Headley Fletcher.

Kindly donated by Malcolm Delingpole a colour slide showing this very car in pristine condition just prior to shipping to Nigeria 

If you have any information about this car, or if you have any contacts in Lagos, who may be able to help trace the Conrad-Taylor Family, please let us know!

Tantalising information has been sent in by Gary Colquhoun who used to own a Mklll previously unknown to the register. He owned PUG 611 in the late sixties and has supplied this picture.  Gary also said that he sold the car to Eric Dibble, a well known motorcycle collector who owned a hotel in the outskirts of Bolton called 'The Squirrel' but where is it now?

If there are any sleuths in Bolton who might help to track this down, please let me know.

In 1956 an unusual but very attractive car arrived in the USA. It had left Alvechurch as a standard MkV. However it arrived at the agents, London Road Motors reportedly with a very unusual body. Attempts by the agents to order more were received at the factory with bemusement.  In spite of all our enquiries we have never solved the mystery of the Dellow MkVB as it was dubbed.  Who rebodied the car and when. Was it carried out in the UK or in USA. Why was it done?

The car still exists and lives in a museum in the USA. If you have any information which might help solve this intriguing mystery for us, please do get in touch.

In 1955 a young Malcolm Delingpole (son of Ken) was serving with H.M. Forces in Hong Kong, and, looking for a bit of excitement at weekends thought it would be a good idea to enter the nearby Macau Grand Prix. The service vehicles being unsuitable, a phone call home resulted in the Pre-production MkV Dellow being shipped to H.K. and an entry was duly submitted. A tall story you might say! but it is true, albeit with some small embellishment from me. Here is Malcolm posing in what seems to be an enormous sports car, the prototype MkV - NUY80:

We recently had some correspondence with the Macau Grand Prix Museum who confirmed that indeed a Mr. Malcolm Delingpole had  entered and competed in the Novice race at the 1955 Grand Prix wearing race number 20. If you don't believe it, here is a rather poor photo of Malcolm in the car, on the day of the race:  

Being the first production MkV, there are a number of publicity shots of the car and it is the car featured on sales literature at the time. this is my favourite shot, The MkV is my favourite of all the models made by Dellow Motors.

Sadly all trace of this car after Malcolm had left Hong Kong was lost and because of the distance, our sleuth, Jim, could never follow up leads.

But now with the benefit of the internet,  out of the blue,  a recent visitor to the site brought news of the fate of this car up to the early sixties, Don Welsby, now in New Zealand remembered the car his father owned when he, Don, was a lad living in Hong Kong, only replaced by an Armstrong Siddley when the family grew. Here is the car with Don's father at the wheel in 1958:

BUT WHERE IS IT NOW!!

Amazingly after 50+ years, we have obtained from Malcolm Delingpole a colour movie film of the 1955 Macau GP with amazing shots of Malcolm in the MkV who came 3rd in class. If you would like a copy on dvd, get in touch with the Register!

The Ford Dellow?

Some correspondents and others I have spoken to have referred to the Dellow as the "Ford Dellow" as though it was a Ford Product. This is probably because some cars were sold through Ford Dealers with the blessing of the Ford Motor Company.  I have never seen any advertisement, or documentation to support the association of Ford with Dellow but I would like to find some evidence.

A DELLOW CLUB?

So reads an advertisement in the April 20 1951 edition of Autosport.

Local Dellow owners in the Birmingham area suggest forming a dellow owners' club and for this purpose a meeting is proposed for those interested this Sunday, 22nd April [1951] at the Bell Hotel, Shipston on Stour, Warwickshire.

Well, did anyone attend? A long shot I guess, but you never know.

For some years, the Dellow Register had a stock of prints from an original painting or illustration. Sadly these have all gone now with only a few colour photocopies remaining. The picture was used on the cover of a trade magazine advertising the Company Delson and their range of nuts and bolts. The artist signed himself or herself as Atkinson, but apart from that, information is sketchy and we would like to find out who the artist was, and whether the original still exists. Here is a scan of that picture: 

What happened to this car between 1955 and 1978            

It's a 1955 MkV and the factory records show that it was originally sold to a Mr. Toleman ( of Toleman-Hart Racing fame? ). 23 years later it was bought by a Mr. Terry Lovell in appalling condition after use as an autocross special. Since then it has daunted all who look on her, but there are plans to apply some TLC over the next couple of years, so watch this space!

Good news about this car, after years of searching, we have been able to contact the Toleman Family and can confirm the original ownership. Originally owned by Albert Toleman, the father of "Ted Toleman" of Toleman-Hart fame and used in the Essex area in club events. Sadly Albert is no longer with us but his Grandson, Michael, has furnished lots of background to this car. More importantly, it could be back on the road before long.

Essex County Archives have just confirmed the identity of the car but have introduced another mystery. The car was registered in 1955 by Albert Edward Toleman as an "ABT Special" not as a Dellow although it undoubtedly is one. But why ABT, was it a mistake by the registrar and should have been AET using the owners initials.

Do you have a Dellow mystery to share or a mystery to solve, let me know!