Our picture in last Saturday’s Central Western Daily of Salvation Army worker Olive Griffin at the wheel of an unusual little car in Kite Street has sparked a lot of intrigue.

While we are still hoping to idenfity any of the children, believed to be a Sunday school class from the Salvation Army church over the road, we have cleared one mystery that had even Orange car club members baffled - the make of the little car.

Motoring expert and former ABC commentator Will Hagon has identified it as a tiny three-wheeled Bond Minicar.

This model was made in England from 1949-1951 and with the NSW number plate on the car issued in 1951 it is believed to be one of the later models.

“It was powered by a 122cc Villiers motorcycle engine,” he said.

Mr Hagon said his mother considered buying one, but while the children wanted it, she wasn’t keen.

“Like other little cars, the Smart and the Messerschmitt and the Goggomobil they were really made for overseas conditions.”

He said it was most likely first sold in Sydney and the drive over the Blue Mountains to Orange in such a small-engined car would have been memorable.

Gnoo Blas Classic Car Club president Denis Gregory said he believed Miss Griffin’s car was light blue.

“I can remember her driving around in it,” he said.

“It was her car.”

Miss Griffin moved to Orange in 1946 with her father Ernest from Sydney.

She wrote a book on the history of the Salvation Army in Orange in 1988.

The only reference to herself in the book is from 1946.

“Bandsman Ernest Griffin and his daughter Olive transferred to Orange from Willoughby. She linked up with the primary section, songsters and guards.”

Her sister Laurel was also extensively involved in the Salvation Army.

Historian Ross Maroney said the family lived in Peisley Street, in a house next to the former Roberts Bakery near Summer Street.

Never marrying, Miss Griffin died last year aged 97, after a lifelong commitment to the Salvation Army.