Finaly, Proof Positive!!

38ambul.jpg - 34912 Bytes

Jim, A friend of mine at work sent this to me.
It is in a museum in Duxford England near Cambridge.

Tom Anderson #5045


Classic Car Club of America.

Photo from CCCA Quartly Magazine, The Classic Car.

38_ccca.jpg - 224291 Bytes

Editor; Beverly Rae Kimes, 215 E. 80th St., New York, NY 10021

Volume XLVII, Number 4 - December 1999

Submitted by Vincent D'Augistano.

Hi Vince, One very interesting thing about these Nash's pictured, is that they have the parking lights mounted on the
front fenders as did the 37 Ambassadors. I've never seen a 38 pictured with these parking lights on the fenders.
Not even any of the New Zealand or Australian 38's I've received photos of, have ever had this feature.
Thanks so much for sharing this with me Vince,
Jim

I have recently found that when Ford V8s were imported to the UK circa 1936-9 the headlights
were too close together for UK laws, so additional side lights were fitted on the front fenders.
Maybe Nash did the same.

Mike Williams
MandM@tattenhoe70.fsnet.co.uk


Hi Jim: A reason for '37 parking lights appearing on British market '38s is probably
because of UK lighting laws. It used to be perfectly legal for cars to run in street-lit built-up
areas using only "sidelights" without turning on their headlights, probably with the
idea of saving battery drain. In fact, when I learned to drive there in the 1950s, it was
customary to switch off the headlights when entering a township in the evening. If you look at
photos of other British-built American cars from the '30s (e.g. Hudson) you will notice that
they have "sidelights" - usually Lucas units - on the front guards.

Regards, Bill Watson # 7215

billw@picknowl.com.au


Hi Vince, That's a great picture of the 1938 Nash display.
It's both interesting and unusual that these cars would be equipped with the 1937 style
parking lights on the front fenders.Here's my guess as to why those parking lights are there.
In Britain at one time the law required any car parked at the curb after dark to "burn" its
parking lamps, front and rear, all night long, presumably to make the car visible to those
passing in the dark. This, of course, made parking lights mandatory, at least in Britain,
and so they also became fashionable. My guess would be that parking lights were standard
equipment on export models bound for certain countries. This is only a guess of course.
The parking lights built into the headlamps of many models would seem to fill the legal bill,
but maybe they just looked like they were missing something to European eyes. Does anybody else
know anything more about these parking lights, or when Britain dropped its overnight
light requirement?

Take care,

Gerald "Jerry" Knutsen #1559

Seattle, WA

ambassador8@aol.com


Return to Inquiry Page.