The Polish Sports Car Mystery (Upd. 1932 BSA FW32 ! )

Mattie van der Valk made a mistake. There was not Polish licence plate. KM - This arrangement of letters did not appear in the prewar vehicle registration plates in Poland.
This is The Lituanian Sports Car Mystery. KM was Lithuanian licence plate from Klaipeda region.
Note: Klaipeda in Lithuanian = Memel in German

Thank you all for your suggestions! Although the picture comes from Poland, the license plate of the car is absolutely not Polish, but probably Lithuanian. During the 1918-1940 independency, white plates with black lettering have been used with the code KM. As Lithuania was not part of the Soviet Union those days, a British car would be more logical than a Czechoslovakian one. However, all options are still open!

Could this rather small car be a Czechoslovakian Aero? These 2 stroke engined cars sold quite well over a number of years,& were imported into Poland.

I would like to suggest that this rather small car could well be a Czechoslovakian Aero.These 2 stroke engined cars were quite successful,over a number of years,& were imported into Poland.

This is a BSA FW32, a front wheel drive model only made for a year in small numbers but which inspired the successful 'Scout' sports car. The coachwork is most unusual. Nearly all these cars were completed with open four seat touring coachwork made for the Birmingham factory. This coupe is a two seater and appears to have a long and rather oddly shaped rear deck. It's very likely the car was bodied (or, more probably, re- bodied) in Poland. It appears to be quite old in this picture and the roof has clearly been rather crudely re- covered in canvas. From the dress of the gentleman I'd say the photograph may date from the 1950's or 60's.

That's a BSA. I had a 1931 BSA 3 wheeler way back in 1960. Looking at my old photos, there is no doubt that the car shown has the exact same radiator shell and front wheel drive set up, so it's of the same vintage ie 1931 - 33. My notes from that time show that I paid 25 pounds for the car and sold it a few months later for 35 pounds! Top speed was 40 mph (terrifying) and the car wandered ,regularly oscillating from right to left so that when overtaking one had to wait for the correct swing. To start it I would park it on a hill facing downhill, lean in to let off the hand brake , push, run alongside then jump in over the side, declutch, engage gear and bump it. I can't imagine why I didn't keep it. Also it was a chick repellent!

Hello,

Being Polish I do not know any car like this which would come from my country. Of course, I do not know everything, and something like this might have existed, but it is unlikely because Polish pre-war car models were not numerous and their history is quiet well described in the literature and known to any oldtimer fan in the country.
This is DEFINITELY NOT a CWS, as it is dignificantly smaller: CWS was a large, automobile with a wheelbase of 342 cm and a 3-litre engine, the bodystyles included luxurious limousines and tourersm used e.g. by the Polish government (you can google CWS T1 and T8, the latter being an 8-cylinder model with the same displacement, only a few prototypes were made).
There was a similar, small touring car called WM (from the initials of its creator, Wladyslaw Mrajski), but this is not the car (only 2 prototypes were made, a roadster and a coupe, both with disc wheels).
And regarding the steering wheel placement: It's true that the formerly Austrian regions of the country used to have left-hand traffic, but the cars had to drive on the right side of the road immediately after 1918. Lwow and Krakow switched their TRAMWAY traffic a few years later.
To me it looks similar to BSA, but the headlights are a little different.

Greetings from Krakow!!

It is a BSA four wheel by the transverse leaf front suspension.

this is a 1931-32 Bsa scout fitted with a Vee twin aircooled engine.

The car is a 1931-32 BSA Scout with an air cooled Vee twin engine. due to the raised lovered bonnet

The headlights are like that from a MG M of the same era so 1929-1931.
The DKW F1 of the same time has a different embleem on the radiator so most unlikely to be of that maker.

It is a BSA FW32 (1932 BSA front wheel drive four wheeler). My son, Simon, is in the final stages of restoring one of these rare cars. It is one of only about 100 built.

From the radiator enlargement it looks like it could well be front wheel drive, so perhaps a 1930 DKW? That doesn't explain the right-hnd drive, although a rhd DKW competed in the Garmisch ice race in 1932.

I wonder if it is/was a BSA front wheel drive? The radiator looks right and it seems to have the two transverse road springs, and they did make a four wheel model for a short time.

Its very nice BSA Coupe 1931.
http://www.classicmercedescars.com/a-z/bsa/

Could this possibly be a CWS cabriolet
CWS (Centralne Warsztaty Samochodowe)
The CWS T-1 was the first serially-built car manufactured in Poland. A series of different cars based on the T-1 chassis designed by Tadeusz Tański (hence T-1), it was the only motor car that could be completely dismantled and again put together with one tool; all its screws and bolts had the same diameter.
Although the car was designed in 1922, it was not until 1925 the prototype tests were completed. Between 1925 and 1932 approximately 500 CWS T-1 were manufactured in a variety of versions. (Wiki)
Stuart

Poland was recreated in 1918 as a sovereign republic from territories formerly belonging to the Austro-Hungarian, German and Russian Empires (Partitions of Poland). In the former Austrian areas left-hand traffic was in force. This was changed in the 1920s. In Lwow (at that time in Poland) the change-over took place in 1922 and in Kraków in 1925. (Wiki)
So at one time or another they have driven on both sides of the road.
Stuart

Looks like a front wheel drive BSA from about 1931