When production of the Frazer Nash ‘Chain-gang’ started in 1925, it was pretty obvious, that a very special car had come to existence.
The first cars had an overhead-valve engine known as ‘Powerplus and later The British Anzani side-valve engines and Meadows overhead-valve engines followed.
The Frazer Nash models with Azani engine had three-speed (optional four) and reverse chain drive and the same Quarter elliptic springs that were used on the GN. The coachwork was made of light aluminium. It had a very snappy performance and would carry on all day at 40 mph. normally it would cruise at 60 or 65 mph and was even tested by the motoring press at 70 mph and the top speed was said to be 85 mph. With the low price of £315 it was a good value for money.
Thanks to the solid rear axle the Frazer Nash ‘Chain-gang’ was very stable under the most difficult conditions and the chain drive and smooth plate clutch gave a very rapid gear change. The steering was very high-geared and of highest quality and required highly responsible handling.
Because of the fact that it was light and handled so well its competitive potential was quite obvious even though it had a pretty poor aerodynamic shape.
Like the ‘TT Replica’ or the ‘Boulogne’ many models of the Frazer Nash were named after sporting successes.
The first cars were sold in 1924 and the last in 1939, when their popularity had ended.
The Singer Chamois, based on the Hillman Imp, was first introduced in 1964.
It was produced from 1964 to 1970 and 97,567 cars were built. They had a beautiful walnut veneer dash, the seats were larger and much more comfortable, the instrumentation was better with temperature and oil pressure gauge being standard as well as a heater blower.
When the Chamois was introduced most of the Imp’s teething problems had been sorted and it was a reliable car. But reliability alone wouldn’t sell. The Chamois also had a better sound damping, a heavier clutch and had Dunlop SP41 radials fitted to wider (1/2″) rim wheels that improved handling. And after all these improvements it received a very favourable press and was an immediate success. It was said to be better than the competition including the Riley Elf, the Wolseley Hornet, the Ford Anglia Super and the Triumph Herald 12/50.
In September 1965 the Mark II was launched but only minor changes had been made. Next was a limited edition of Chamois Spring specials in April 1967 but in 1968 the Mk II type designation discontinued.
The Chamois then was given a new dashboard layout with full width facia and round dials, new seats and upholstery and different external trim. They lost their beautiful veneer trim and had to make do with plastic ‘wood’ trimming instead. Both the Chamois and Chamois Sport were equipped with four headlights.
The Chamois Sport was introduced in 1966, together with the Sunbeam Imp Sport. And when in 1970 Rootes dropped the name of Singer only the Sunbeam Sport remained.
In January 1967 the Hillman Californian was announced, and the Chamois coupé followed in April. Both of them didn’t live a long life and even though they came through a major face lift in 1968 they didn’t sell very well.
In autumn 1965 a limited production of the Singer Rallye Chamois was made at the same time as the Hillman Rallye Imp.
The Jaguar XJ220, even though not really that old, certainly is a classic car.
In the 1980s when rich man had money to splash around with and were looking for more motoring excitement, a number of supercars were designed.
The newly designed Jaguar XJ220 was one of the fastest and most practical cars. Besides being fast it was indeed beautiful, powerful and of course expensive. But it was pretty bulky too and even a rich man wouldn’t choose it for everyday use. Besides that the two-seater was not really easy to drive.
The prototype that was introduced in 1988 was fitted with Jaguar’s V12 engine, had four-wheel-drive and was even bigger than the car later produced. Even tough it was not yet tested it already carried the XJ220 title that indicated how fast the car would be.
Because of the positive reaction the car then was produced in collaboration with Tom Walkinshaw Racing. 1989 the new car was first announced and it was not only smaller but also had a twin-turbo V6 engine and rear drive only. The engine now used was the same that was used in all Jaguar racing sports cars.
The customers didn’t seem to mind the changes, and even though Jaguar only wanted to produce 350 cars, 1,200 customers wanted to buy one.
The Jaguar XJ220 was manufactured in the new factory near Banbury. It was a civilised version of a race car but with air-conditioning.
In 1992 the car was first sold and even though the car had a top speed of 213 mph and everybody seemed to be fond of it, there was nothing Jaguar could do about the recession. The market for expensive cars collapsed and only 271 cars were built in three years. As not even all cars were sold the beautiful Jaguar XJ220 was a commercial failure.
The 1920 AV Monocar was a quite funny little car with a very low driving position with the driver’s legs stretched out forward into the pointed nose of the car.
The engine is mounted in the rear, driving the rear wheels. And even though the little AV Monocar might look strange, it was a quite popular cycle-car of its time. It was somehow a mixture of a motorcycle and a small car and offered more comfort and stability than a motorcycle.
AV of Teddington in Middlesex was founded by Ward & Avey Ltd. They bought a cycle-car design from designer John Carden and started to produce monocars.
The cars were single seaters, as the name Monocar already indicates, steering was by wires, and the transmission of the V-twin air-cooled JAP or Blackburne motorcycle engine was by chain through a Sturmey Archer three-speed motorcycle gearbox.
The tiny car was a simple little machine and easy to repair when things went wrong.
In 1919 T. G. John founded the T.G. John and Co. Ltd., a company producing stationary engines, carburettor bodies and motor scooters.
T. G. John was approached by Geoffrey de Feville with the design of a 4-cylinder engine with aluminium pistons and pressure lubrication. These units were called Alvis. In 1921 the company changed its name to Alvis Car and Engineering Company Ltd. and moved production to Holyhead Road, Coventry.
From 1928 to 1931 the Alvis 12/75 F.W.D. was produced, a front wheel drive car with overhead camshaft and in-board brakes. The car was available as 4-seat sports, 2-seat sports, and sports saloon. 142 cars were produced. Until the end of the 1920s, mostly smaller sports cars were manufactured. One of them was the Alvis 12/50, a successful classic sports car. One of the successors was the Alvis 12/60 HP. It was a 4-cylinder rear wheel drive sports car available as 2 seat, 4 seat, and saloon. 282 cars were built.
The Peel Microcars were produced in the 1960s by Peel Engineering on the Isle of Man and were the world’s smallest cars.
The Peel P 50 was a single seat 3-wheeler with a German 49 cc two-stroke engine produced by Zweirad Union (DKW) and originally was a moped engine.
The car was a simple glass fibre construction with no chassis, a length of 54 in (1.37 m) and a width of 41 in (1.04 m). The car was available in red, white and blue. As the engine was placed under the driver’s seat the car was very loud.
It also had hardly any comfort, no speedometer and not even indicators or brake signs. The driver had to use hand signs, which wasn’t too easy as only the window on the right hand side could be opened.
Less than 50 cars were built from 1963 t0 1964.The Peel Trident was a 2-seater 3-wheeler and a few cars had a 99 cc Triumph Tina/T10 engine and an 8” rear wheel, instead of the 49 cc Zweirad Union engine. The car was a little bigger than the P 50 with a length of 71 in (1.81 m) and a width of 42 in (1.07 m). Some of the cars were fitted with a shopping basket instead of the passenger seat. The colours available were red and blue and a little more than 80 cars were built from 1964 to 1966.
The Scootacar was a small car built by Scootacars Ltd, a division of the Hunslet Engine Company.
According to the wishes of the wife of one of the directors, who wanted a car that was easier to park than her Jaguar, Henry Brown designed the car by sitting on a Villiers engine and making an assistant to draw an outline around him.
The first car was the Mk 1fitted with a Villiers 197 cc two –stroke engine. It was a 3-wheeler (two front wheels and one rear wheel) with a steel floor, a fibre-glass body and a top speed of 50 mph (80 km/h). It was roomy enough for two people, one in the front the other one in the rear.
The car only had one large door on the left side. In 1959 the model was totally redesigned to improve it. The body shell of the Mk 2 was larger, the engine was placed under a rear bench and the driver’s seat could be tipped forward. It had room for three people now and a top speed of 55 mph (89 km/h). In 1962 a few Mk 3 were sold with a 250 cc engine and a top speed of 68 mph (109 km/h) The car didn’t sell too well and after a total of about 1000 Scootacars were manufactured the production ended in 1964.
The Hillman Minx of which 92,095 cars were manufactured from 1935 to 1939 certainly was neither a fast nor an extremely beautiful car.
But it was remarkably cheap and roomy. It was a reliable family car that could carry four or even five adults. The most popular version therefore was the 4-door saloon.
The Hillman Minx was produced by Roots Ltd. after having purchased Hillman in 1928. Mechanically the car was rather conventional, with a 4-cylinder side-valve front engine with Solex carb and a top speed of 60 mph. It had a separate chassis and beam-axle front and rear suspension. Significant might be that Bill Heynes (later working for Jaguar) as well as Alec Issigonis (the designer of the Mini) were employed at Roots at the time of the construction of the Hillman Minx.
In 1922 William Lyons and William Walmsley founded the Swallow Sidecar Company in Blackpool.
The company was producing motorcycle sidecars and coachwork. In 1928 the factory moved to Coventry to meet the demands for the Austin Swallow.
In 1931 the first car was presented with a chassis manufactured by Standard, exclusively for Swallow. This was the beginning of the S.S. cars.
The first models were the S.S. 1 and the S.S. 2. In the following years they were the basis for several successors. In 1934 William Walmsley left the company and William Lyons started to cooperate with Harry Weslake.
Harry Weslake started to improve the engines and founded a construction department under the responsibility of William Heynes. The S.S. 90 was introduced in 1935. It was a Roadster on the basis of the S.S. 1. In 1935 the name Jaguar was first use for a car. It was the S.S. Jaguar, a 4-door saloon with 2.5 L engine.
The smaller version was the 2-door S.S. Jaguar 1.5 L and the successor of the S.S. 1 and S.S. 2. During WW2 the company again produced motorcycle sidecars for military use. After WW2 and due to the unfavourable connotations of the S.S. initials the name was changed to Jaguar Cars Ltd. In the 1950s Jaguar produced a series of elegantly-styled sports cars and saloons. After several changes of the ownership the Ford Motor Company acquired the company in 1989. In 2008 Jaguar was sold to Tata Motors in India.
The Bristol 400 was the first car produced by the Bristol Aeroplane Company in 1946.
In 1910 Sir George White, who also was the owner of Bristol Tramways, founded the Bristol and Colonial Aeroplane Company in Filton near Bristol. In 1920 after WW I British and Colonial was liquidated and its assets became the British Aeroplane Company. During WW II the company’s most important aircraft was the Beaufighter.
After WW II the British Aeroplane Company bought a license to build BMW models from Frazer Nash. And the Bristol 400 was based on the best features of the pre-war BMW models. It had the BMW 328’s frame, a slightly modified engine of the 326 and the neat steel body was inspired by the 327.
Other models of the high quality luxury cars followed, but the cars never have been made in large quantities. Today 4 models are available. The Blendheim 3, a four-seated coupe, the Blendheim Speedster, a convertible, and the Fighter and Fighter T. But as the Bristol Cars Ltd got no distributors or dealers, the only way to get a car is to go to 368-370 Kensington High Street, London W14 8NL, where the company’s only showroom is situated.
