From The Classifieds: 1955 Riley Pathfinder

British cars in the 1950s were many things; they ranged from minute, usually undernourished family sedans to imperious luxury cars reserved for royalty – or a reasonable facsimile thereof.

In between was a long list of sporting British saloons and sports cars, spearheaded by the likes of Jaguar, Aston Martin, MG, Austin Healey and Triumph, all holding the English flag aloft during the heady days of post World War Two.

Sadly, many British car-makers of the era have since fallen by the wayside, even after numerous revival attempts aimed at keeping some of the famous marques alive.

Included in the list of the fallen is Riley, once an independent car-maker that eventually came under the wing of the British Motor Corporation, formed in a merger between Riley’s parent, the Nuffield organisation, and Austin.

The car emerging from that newly formed automotive giant on 1953 was the RMH Riley Pathfinder, which, unlike the old-school RMF model that went before it, was a shared development that saw the simultaneous arrival of sister brand Wolseley's 6/90 lookalike.

Riley's big, rounded sedan was of an ilk familiar in many British cars of the era with its smooth, tasteful and elegant proportions and sumptuous, leather-trimmed interior. The Pathfinder's coup de grace though was the torquey 82kW 2.5-litre four-cylinder engine taken from the old RMF and slightly tweaked to cope with the bigger, heavier body.

Where the Wolseley 6/90 employed a conventional inline six-cylinder engine, the Riley's four-cylinder powerplant had an unusual twin-cam arrangement where the camshafts were located low down on the sides of the engine and operated the valves in the hemispherical heads via long pushrods. The twin cam, hemi-head arrangement is said by some to be the inspiration for Jaguar's famous overhead camshaft XK engine (Ironically, it has also been said that the arrival of the slightly less expensive Mark I Jaguar in 1955 was at least partly responsible for the Pathfinder's eventual downfall).

The Pathfinder's four-speed manual gearbox was interesting too: the shift lever was located between the driver's seat cushion and the door where it didn't interfere with the car's six-passenger capacity.

Pathfinders were sold in Australia during the 1950s, but they are relatively rare today. That's why this 1955 version caught our eye. The West Australian car is for sale now because the owner, who is from the Perth suburb of Lower Chittering and has had it since 1998, is moving to a home without the space required to respectfully care for a classic 1950s British saloon.

The car is reportedly in top shape, having had a major restoration in the 1970s, along with an appropriate respray in British Racing Green. The leather interior remains impressive, while the paint is getting a little tired today. The owner says the body panels, bumpers and all the important bits are basically unblemished.

"The car drove beautifully when I first saw it in 1998 and still does today" he says. "What inspired me from the beginning was that it looked genuinely original."

The Pathfinder is club registered these days, and is not offered with a roadworthy. Asking price for this 1955 classic is $7,900 – good value, according to Riley enthusiasts, and a figure the owner is not intending to budge on.

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