1950 Riley RMC 2.5 Litre

Estimate:SOLD for £10450
Registration No:KVM 800
Chassis No: 5955382
Engine No:5382
CC:2443
Colour: Green
Trim Colour:Beige

Aimed squarely at the profitable US market, the Riley RMC Roadster was launched in 1948. The RM series were the last cars developed independently by Riley before the 1952 merger of the Nuffield Organisation with Austin to form BMC. They were originally made in Coventry but in 1949 production moved to the MG Works at Abingdon.

Based on the same low-slung chassis as its RMB saloon sibling, its sleek two-door bodywork featured cutaway doors, a compact hood, fold-flat windscreen and three-abreast seating, and the lack of rear seat allowed a larger boot. An engaging drive courtesy of independent torsion-bar front suspension, a live rear axle, Girling four-wheel hydro-mechanical drum brakes and rack-and-pinion steering, it was powered by the `big four' 2443cc hemi-head engine having twin camshafts mounted high in the cylinder block, mated to four-speed manual transmission. Quoted as having 100bhp and 134lbft of torque on tap, it could almost reach the magic `ton'. Neither glamorous enough (think Jaguar XK120) nor quaint enough (think MG TC) to win over the American public, the RMC was quietly dropped in 1951 after just 507 are thought to have been made, only around 100 of them with right-hand drive.

This being a right-hand drive car, it retains the floor gearchange, where left-hand drive versions were fitted with a column shift, and comes complete with full weather equipment including sidescreens. It has been on static display as part of a private Lake District collection for many years and therefore it is sold strictly as viewed, accompanied by a buff logbook and V5 / V5C registration documents, plus a number of spares in the boot.

Image and description kindly supplied by H&H Classic Auctions