Riley Nine Monaco

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The Riley company motto, “As old as the industry – as modern as the hour” summed up the product range very nicely, but their master-stroke came in 1926 when the Nine was announced.

The chassis, suspension and bodywork were the work of Stanley Riley, while the hugely talented Percy Riley designed the brilliant little 9hp engine. This 1,087cc unit thrived on high revs, which it would happily and reliably maintain for long periods of time thanks to its clever design. Twin camshafts were mounted high in the block, making for short and light pushrods which operated valves set at 45 degrees to the head. This, coupled with a crossflow head design, enabled prodigious power to be extracted from this willing unit.

The Riley Monaco saloon was one of the first models to take advantage of the new engine. At first it was only available with fabric coachwork, but a semi-fabric body was soon to follow. The biggest step forward came in 1932 when Riley launched a new version of its Nine chassis called the ‘Plus Ultra’.

This was considerably stiffer than previously and used a ‘dropped’ section in the chassis to give a lower seating position and create more room inside the cabin. When fitted to the Monaco, it also did away with the hump over the transmission tunnel at the back, creating a nice flat area for rear passengers, the car gaining its very attractive all-metal body in the process.

This delightful Monaco dates from November 1933 and while nothing is known of the early history of the car, the MJ registration prefix would indicate that it was first registered in Bedfordshire. An old buff log book shows that by c.1950 it was in the care of Lieutenant Colonel Evan Stewart Jenkins who resided at the Army and Navy Club in Pall Mall, London.

A number of entertaining notes and logs, richly annotated with pithy asides, detail his time with the car which appears to have been in regular use until around 1963 when it was laid up. A horse riding injury meant that Jenkins spent increasing amounts of time overseas for health reasons, and in 1977 he sold the Riley to a Mr Coomber who lived near Yeovil in Somerset.

The story picks up again when the vendor went to view the Monaco in April 2012. By this point it was well on its way to becoming yet another Riley special, having been partially dismantled. Seeing a glimmer of life left in the disassembled saloon, he decided it was well worth saving and began a sympathetic programme of reassembly and restoration.

He states that the chassis is very sound and that the bodywork has been reinstated much as it was. The green leather interior appears largely original and, while by no means perfect, retains that irreplaceable patina that is all too often lost during less sensitive restorations. On the mechanical side he has thoroughly checked and serviced the engine, gearbox and differential and has fitted new brakes and kingpins. We are told that since completion it has been a reliable starter and runs well.

A really genuine old Riley that wears its 83 years with pride, it would be a perfect contender for the ‘Oily Rag’ events which have grown so popular of late, conservation rather than restoration being the watchword among the more discerning old car enthusiasts of today. With patina and originality by the yard, and some richly entertaining material in the history file, old cars do not come much more charming than this.