Driver Magazine - 2025 - issue 1 of 3 - Magazine - Page 35
A SPECIAL DISCOVERY
Beginning in 2020, the restoration took four years to complete. With minimal reference material available, the project was
only possible due to the vast knowledge and experience of the team, collaborations with various other experts, and,
probably most importantly, a huge amount of determination to get the job done.
The British Motor Museum in Gaydon played an important role, providing the workshop team with full access to one of the
surviving production models of the Riley 9HP. Being able to photograph this certainly helped but, as it turned out that the
1905 model was a prototype, there were still differences in the design that the technicians had to figure out on their own.
During the initial assessment of the car (or hundreds of pieces of what was once a car), it was discovered that the brass
radiator was missing. While a replacement could be made, it would not come cheap and it seemed such a shame that
such an important piece of the original car would not be on the restored version.
Almost unbelievably though, a phone call from an auction house reunited the car with its missing front. After a house
clearance, a brass radiator was found with the word
