TWO weeks ago, we featured a photo of the Austin A40 owned by Howard Thomas of Carlton, near Leyburn, parked in York in the mid-1960s. What, we asked, was the car to the left of it?

Eighty per cent of respondents thought it was Sunbeam Rapier while 20 per cent said it was a Singer Gazelle. That’s because the two cars were practically the same, with most people saying that the Gazelle was the four-door saloon version and the Rapier the two-door coupe.

“They were built by the Rootes Group in Coventry,” said Colin Reid of Baldersby. “The Hillman Minx was the base car with the Singer Gazelle the next model up with interior refinements like walnut veneer dash and door cappings. The Rapier was marketed as the sporty model.

"My father's first car was a smart silver grey with black stripe Gazelle – very stylish. Decent mechanically but terrible rust problems on front wings and around rear wheel arches.”

Duncan Hamilton of Northallerton said: “At the time, the Rapier was a very flashy car, and to those of us who survive, it still is.”

Bernard Robinson said: “The Rapier was a lovely car with a walnut dash, an array of clocks and dials and an overdrive on 3rd and 4th gear. Also, unlike modern cars, it had a starting handle in case your battery went flat! I had mine – a 1964 model, AXG 471B – for four years with not a bit of trouble.”

Howard Pigott said: “I owned one in the early 1960s in pippin red and pearl grey. It was a fine car.”

Ken Hannah of Guisborough said: “I remember going to school in a red one when I was 12 – 1963 or thereabouts – and I would not have called the king my cousin.”

And Richard Stone said: “As the flashy, sporty part of the Rootes Group, it was heavily related to the Commers and Hillmans, but it had an aluminium cylinder head as opposed to the cast iron head on the lesser models. A pal got into much trouble when he tried fitting the alloy head to a Minx through being unaware that the valves were arranged differently.”

There was no consensus about whether our Rapier was a Mark II or IIA or III or IIIA or IV or some other collection of Roman numerals and letters.

Whichever, it was fast.

“Rapiers were quite successful in international rallies such as the Monte Carlo, being driven by star names such as Peter Jopp, Paddy Hopkirk, Peter Harper and Pat Moss,” said Gerald Burnett of Richmond. “It seems your first name had to begin with a 'P' in those days.”

Honourable mentions to Peter Robson, I Winter, Alan Simpson, Mark Cooper, John Weighell of Neasham, Nigel Pritchard of Cowesby, Phil Garwood, Ian Wass, Frank Ellis, Keith Atkinson, Derek Noble, Andrew Waites of Leyburn, Bob Center, Tony Croser, Ian Rudd of Sowerby, Tim Bounds of Ingleby Barwick, Phil Haxby of Richmond, John Smith who was holidaying in Swaledale and Jerry Knight who lives in Germany.