The Vintage Era 1919 to 1930

Economy Cars of the Vintage Era Part Two of the Story of the birth of the city car in Britain Veteran, Edwardian, and Vintage Era are terms used as British classification for historic periods of car production. The Vintage Era 1919 to 1930 Preface and Credit’s In "Economy cars of the Edwardian Era", I had noted the limitations of the cycle car on the page “Cycle cars", and described how the true economy cars were derived from the full sized cars of the day on the page "Beginnings of the economy cars in the Edwardian Era". it was very much the same at the beginning of the Vintage Era, but the cycle cars soon faded away as the true economy cars matured into reliable, economic transport. Acknowledgements The Vintage Motor Car, by Cecil Clutton and John Stanford, provide some period descriptions and opinions. A-Z of Cars of the 1920s by Nick Baldwin, has been the source of most of the technical data. Most of the graphics have come from http://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Category:Cars. It is a unique source information, particularly the items copied from Lightcar and Cyclecar and other publications. lightauto.com Page 1" of 28" Economy Cars of the Vintage Era The First World War had brought the British motor industry to a virtual standstill, as far as car production was concerned. It wasn’t until 1919 that production was resumed for some of the pre-war economy models, many not returning to the market at all, and some produced in a larger engine capacity form. Of the two cylinder economy cars on offer before the war, only the Jowett 8, was now available. The economy twin was not finished though, and new models began to replace those of 1914. First with a new twin was Rover with the Eight in 1919, Wolseley began production of the Stelitte Seven in 1920, with three more in 1921,The BSA Ten, the Stoneleigh, and the revised Jowett, the Seven. The last of the new twin’s, the Ariel Nine arrived in 1922. Of the pre-war four cylinder cars, Lagonda with 11.1, Singer with the 10, Standard with the 9.5, and Wolseley with the Stelitte 10, resumed production in 1919, being joined by Deemster with their new Eight. It wasn’t until 1921 that the next models were introduced, they were the Rhode 9.5, and the short lived Bayliss Thomas 9/19. In 1923 Swift introduced the Ten. In the early 1920s four British companies introduced quality economy light cars onto the British market place. They were in 1922, Talbot and Gwynne Austin with the 7, and in 1923 Humber with the 8, and Humber with the 9 in 1925. They all had four cylinder, water cooled engines of quite high efficiency, the Talbot and the Gwynne with overhead valves and Humber with the inlet over exhaust and Austin with the side valve arrangement. The difference between the Austin and the other four cylinder economy cars, was the price. The Austin Seven was in the price bracket of the economy twins, not the other four cylinders cars that were roughly twice the price of the twins, with them being economic to run but expensive to purchase initially . It’s initial price was was even lower than some of the twin cylinder cars, and in future years would be lower, leading to an overall price reduction in the market. This would have a profound effect on the economy car market and the demise of the low volume producers. By 1923 both Lagonda and Demster had increased the engine capacity of their cars, taking them out of the economy bracket. By 1925 a long list of manufacturers had a left the market, Rhode ceased producing the 9.5, Singer with the Ten, Standard with the 9.5, both the Stelitte Seven and Ten, and the Stoneleigh. The Rover Eight and the Ariel Nine only lasted another year. The BSA Ten, the Talbot 8/18 and the Humber Eight were last produced in 1926. Surprisingly, the Gwynne Eight, though expensive at over a hundred pounds more than the Austin Seven, survived until 1928. Jowett had replaced the pre-war Eight in 1921 with the Seven, that had been superseded by the the 7/17 in 1926, and would remain in production until 1930. A Jowett twin would be available until 1952. Meanwhile the Austin Seven had been joined in the market in 1926 by the Riley Nine a quality economy car, and in 1927 by the Triumph Super Seven, the Clyno Nine, and the Singer Junior, and what would be its greatest rival in 1928, the Morris Minor. The last new economy car in the Vintage Era was the AJS Nine, and the Swift Cadet. These car produced in the later half of the 1920’s, along with the evolving Austin Seven didn’t reflect the style of the Vintage Era, which was for cars produced in low volume at a relatively high cost, and were the forerunners of the mass produced economy car. lightauto.com Page 2" of 28" Economy Cars of the Vintage Era Jowett 7 hp 1919 to 1926. 7/17 1926 to 1930. When car production was resumed at the Jowett factory after the war, it was with the “8” with about one hundred and fifty examples produced before the company was reorganised as Jowett Cars Ltd, moving to Springfield Works, Bradford Road, Idle, Bradford in 1920. In 1921the 7 hp model fitted with a 907 cc version of the horizontally opposed twin cylinder engine was first produced. The chassis less body initially cost £180, but by 1925 when this model was replaced, after producing approximately six thousand of this model. The price of a complete two seat touring car was down to £125. The 7/17 model with the same engine with an output of 16.5 bhp was in production from 1926 to 1930. In 1930 the chassis price was down to £111, and a four seat saloon could be purchased for £158. About eleven thousand one hundred examples of the various 7/17 models were produced. Developed version’s of this engine were used by Jowett in many models until 1952. The following is a quote from "The Vintage Motor car", reflecting the snobbery in the Vintage movement in the 1950's. The basic Jowett design, which was to have such an unparalleled production run, was simple enough. The car was of unattractive appearance and slightly crude finish, but made up for this by the refinement of the well balanced engine, which was also a model of reliability. Indeed, it was claimed in 1926 that every Jowett made was still in service. As might have been expected from its somewhat provincial background, the steering and brakes were not of the best, and there is little to appeal to the connoisseur in these cars, which were, after all, of a strictly utilitarian nature. ! lightauto.com Page 3" of 28" Economy Cars of the Vintage Era Rover Eight 1919 to 1925 Rover used a former munitions factory at Tyseley, Birmingham, to produced a new ultra light car for the post war era the Eight. Jack Sangster had originally designed the car for his fathers company Ariel, but it was taken up by Rover, who reputedly spent £400,000 tooling up for its production, a considerable sum in 1919. A total of seventeen thousand seven hundred were produced between 1919 and 1925,. It had a 998 cc horizontally opposed, air cooled, side valve twin cylinder engined, later models having a 1135 cc engine, the engine output rising from 13 to 18 bhp. It had a simple channel-section chassis frame with leading quarter elliptic front springs, and cantilever quarter elliptic springs at the rear. The transmission consisted of a disc clutch, a three speed gearbox and a worm gear live rear axle. It had a cruising speed of 30 m.p.h. Priced at £230 in 1919, by 1925 the price was down to £139. The following is a quote from "The Vintage Motor car". The chassis was crude in the extreme, even for so cheap a car, and the standard disc-wheeled two-seat coachwork was distinctly un-beautiful. For all this the car was low in cost and capable as a rule of nearly 50 m.p.g. due to its light weight, and sold well in spite of a somewhat dubious name for reliability - the early examples being prone to cast away cylinder-heads at high r.p.m. The engine though noisy, was very well balanced and lively enough to give the little car respectable acceleration and hill-climbing powers, though its maximum was only about 45 m.p.h. ! lightauto.com Page 4" of 28" Economy Cars of the Vintage Era Wolseley Stellite 7 1922 to 1923 The Wolseley Stellite Seven was a refined car with a water cooled twin cylinder horizontally opposed engine of 984 cc. It was manufactured at the Stellite Works, Chester Road, Aston, Birmingham, by the Electric and Ordinance Accessories Co Ltd, a company owned by the Vickers conglomerate that had been passed to its Wolseley subsidiary in 1919. The Seven could cruise at 25 mph and average a fuel consumption of 45 mpg, it cost £255 in 1922. lightauto.com Page 5" of 28" Economy Cars of the Vintage Era BSA Ten 1921 to 1925 The BSA Ten was produced by the BSA Cycles branch of the BSA/Daimler combine at its Small Heath, Birmingham factory, from 1921 to 1925, making a possible total of between four to five thousand.

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