Dad and his Singers…!
Dad’s next Singer was an SM 1500 he bought in the early 1950s.
The SM 1500 was, in my opinion, the opinion of an eight-year-old, the plainest styling of a car I had ever seen. A styling reminiscent of the cheap tin toys from Japan or China.
This was the late 1950s era, American cars were very flashy with fins on the rear guards, the bigger the better.
The Singer is a British car. Very sober and very restrained in design.
The interior of the singer had bench seats and a column gear change. It was an austere design of post-war Britain, such a contrast to those flashy American cars of the fifties.
My brother Donald said the SM was “the best cornering car he had driven.”
It was the fastest car he ever drove around the corner from Hampstead Road into Rakes Road (now Regency Road) then turned in behind the Trev Metiskie’s Deli, opposite Galway Avenue.
He claimed he was doing 70 MPH down Hampstead Road when he turned into Rakes Road and then in behind the Deli. Some feat!
I wonder if Dad was aware of said cornering ability?
