c1928 Chevrolet Roadster (Dicky Seat)

1928 was the end of an era at Chevrolet. The Series AB National was the last car the company built with a four-cylinder engine — there would not be another until the Chevy II of 1961. The engine is a 171-cubic-inch overhead-valve four of 2.8 litres, making 35 horsepower at 2,200 rpm, through a three-speed manual box on a 107-inch wheelbase.

Around 13,000 four-cylinder Chevrolets were sold in Australia that year, and as with almost every American chassis of the period, the bodies were built here — overwhelmingly by Holden. The overwhelming majority of them were four-door tourers. The roadster was the rare choice: probably fewer than a thousand were bodied, and only a handful are known to survive anywhere.

The dicky seat is the detail that makes it. Where a modern car has a boot lid, this has a hinged panel that folds out into an upholstered seat for two more passengers, out in the weather behind the cabin — a wholly period solution to the problem of carrying more people than the body has room for.

This car has been fully restored, and it shows: the paint and the trim are as-new and to a high standard, in green over green leather with black guards and running boards, on timber-spoke wheels.