A three-wheeled car made by Mr. A. Graham of Kingston, Surrey in 1929. The vehicle, designed in a nautical style, reaches a maximum speed of 70 miles an hour with a body made entirely of sheet iron.
It’s always a joy to see film-makers predict vehicles of times to come when they make a picture that’s set in the future. It’s at least as good fun to look at them again decades later. High Treason is a 1929 British movie directed by Maurice Elvey and set in 1940. Supposedly inspired by the great flick Metropolis of just two years earlier, Elvey promoted his movie as “Marvels of science that would tax the ingenuity of a Jules Verne.”
Indeed, his visions of a future New York and London are remarkable, with giant airships everywhere and boats in the Rivers Thames and Hudson of a kind unseen before, but it’s a car we’d like to discuss here. The film starts with a scene of a couple driving a car to the border “between Europe and the Atlantic States,” trying to smuggle liquor when a grenade is thrown by guards. This leads to an exchange of gunfire, and the incident itself threatens to incite war between the Atlantic States and the Federated States of Europe.
Anyway, with its aerodynamic body with round doors, the car does look rather futuristic, or perhaps just plain odd. What is it? Well, the worldwide web has scratched its head about this before, rightly identifying the car as a modified “made-for-movie” version of the three-wheeler built by a man named A. Graham of Kingston near London.
Graham’s vehicle was powered by what looks to be a two-cylinder motorcycle engine and was said to be capable of 70mph speeds. One article mentions that he and his newlywed wife used it on their honeymoon in August 1931, showing the registration number PK 491. From the article: “The car, resembling a shoe in appearance, was built by the bridegroom himself to conform to his own ideas of speed and comfort.”
(via Pre War Car)
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