A one-off motorcar built by 'Jimmy' Ball.
Chris Ball, son of Henry Alfred Ball - whose father was usually known as Jimmy Ball - kindly sent over this superb old photograph, showing a car that his father built as a one-off during the war. Another car built by Jimmy at the Paramount Sheet Metal Works, in the 1950s, will be added to the site shortly. Chris adds: "I thought you might like to see another car made by my Father, it was made for the Miller Brothers during the war! You will see covers over the lights. Jimmy was a brilliant engineer and it was a sad loss to the engineering trade when he died, he was also a brilliant dad".
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It certainly is a cracking photograph. As Chris mentions, you can just make out the blackout cover fitted to the offside chrome headlamp. The car parked to the right of this shot, possibly a Morris 8 Series E? has its bumper painted in white, another sign of motoring during the blackout years of WW2. To call the car a 'homebuilt', or even a 'special', almost seems too modest a description for this smartly turned-out motorcar. The fit and finish of the car looks to be of the highest order. Does anyone recognise the car I wonder? or know what became of it?
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The rear has echoes of the Austin 7 Nippy to it, albeit on a larger scale. The easi-clean wheels were also bang up-to-date for the 1940s, a time when pressed steel wheels were beginning
to take over from spoked wheels on mainstream motorcars. Interestingly, the driver doesn't appear to have a door, so climbing in when the roof was
erect may have required a degree of suppleness. If anyone knows more about this car, or perhaps recognises the style of wheels (and thus possibly shed some light on the car's underpinnings and chassis) then please get in touch. Thanks again to Chris for sending this over, and the following two further photographs that show the car, registration VK155, from different angles. Note the provision of a door on the passenger side.
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Return to Old Vehicle Photos Page 7.
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