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Riley 12/4 Kestrel. (1934-35)

The 12/4 series indirectly replaced the 12/6's. It gave slightly better performance, while still recieving the same RAC hp figure. It was withdrawn after about a year, to make way for the slightly re-worked 1½ model - essentially the same car!
The Kestrel body, being one of the more popular styles was one of the first to be launched, and in the end, one of only 3 that were produced in any numbers on the original 12/4 chassis. Approximately 700-800 of the 4-light Kestrels were produced in 1934/5, including a few Kestrel 'Sprites' although there is no differentiation on the chassis number, unlike the 6-light Kestrels.
The body itself was essentially the same as that already fitted to the larger 6 cylindr cars, but mounted on the new chassis with the shorter bonnet. Inside the interiors are likely to have been midway between the 9 and 6 cylinders in terms of trim-level.

For the following year, the whole 12/4 range was revised and launched as the 1½ Litre, albeit still referred to as the 12/4 by most people. There were a whole host of improvements to the chassis, but the biggest visual change was that the Kestrel had a new 6-light body.

1936 4-light Kestrels

It is interesting to note that the original plan seems to have been to continue with a revised 4-light Kestrel for 1936. Two examples are known to have been built, using the revised Kestrel 9 body on the refreshed narrow track 12/4 chassis. Whilst the combination proved successful in testing, a late decision was made to use the larger 6-Light body, as used on the 6 cylinder cars for 1936, on the wide track chassis. Despite this, rumours abound of a batch of 1936 12/4 Kestrel 4-Light models being built to avoid some curious import or tax restrictions in Portugal. To date, there are no survivors to prove this.

Chassis Type: 22T; 26K

1935 Riley 12/4 Kestrel

YS 1412