Argyll

GB, 1899 – 1932

(1) Hozier Engineering Co Ltd, Bridgeton, Glasgow, 1899 – 1905

(2) Argyll Motors Ltd, Bridgeton, Glasgow, 1905 – 1906, 1914 – 1932

(3) Argyll Motors Ltd, Alexandria by Glasgow, 1906 – 1914

The first Argyll production model was the brainchild of Alex Govan and was based on the contemporary Renault. This Argyll car was a voiturette or light car with a single-cylinder, 2¾hp, quarter-litre engine of De Dion type, shaft drive, and a tubular frame. A bigger 5hp engine was substituted in 1901 to the Argyll car for sale, and one of 8hp a year later. There were four forward speeds – an unusual feature in so small a car – but the gear-change was not easy to operate. By now, 2- and 4-cylinder Argyll cars were also sold. By 1904 business was booming, and Argyll was already Scotland’s leading make. Intensive competition in trials and record-breaking did much to keep the Argyll name before the public. Engines were by De Dion and by Argyll themselves (including a 3-cylinder), but most were made under Aster licence.

The business expanded and a huge and pretentious new factory was built at Alexandria, near Glasgow, but in 1907 Govan died and much impetus was lost. However, the name Govan had made for them kept them on an increasingly prosperous course for a while. A 6-cylinder Agryll model, and also a new Argyll 15hp for sale, the famous ‘Argyll Flying Fifteen’, were added to the range in 1909. By the time, too, the gear-change was easier. One of the 1911 Argyll models had Rubury front-wheel brakes. The 1912 Argyll cars included one with Burt-McCollum single-sleeve-valves and by mid-1914 all Argyll engines were so furnished. These were excellent and popular cars, helping to make Argyll at one time the fifth biggest motor manufacturer in Britain, but the Alexandria factory was designed for production on a scale the Argyll company never attained, and expensive litigation over patents for the sleeve-valve engines further undermined its financial position. Argyll passed into other hands in 1914. One of the pre-war models, the 2.6-litre Argyll 15.9hp was revived in 1920 and a new car, the 1½-litre Argyll Twelve was introduced for 1922, but neither could restore the earlier glories of the Argyll make and few were made.

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; TRN

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