G.N.

GB, 1910 – 1925

(1) G.N. Ltd, Hendon, Middlesex, 1910 – 1920

(2) G.N. Motors Ltd, Wandsworth, London S.W., 1920 – 1923

(3) G.N. Ltd, Wandsworth, London S.W., 1923 – 1925

The GN car was the best-known and longest-lived of the British cyclecars; the vehicles that provided the earliest form of motoring for the masses. H.R. Godfrey and A. Frazer-Nash installed air-cooled 1.100 V-twin engines of JAP and Antoine manufacture in the GN prototypes. By 1911 GN were manufacturing their own 90 degrees V-twin using in that year Peugeot cylinder barrels and in 1912 their own GN ioe design cylinder heads. The pre-World War 1 GN cars for sale used a variety of transmissions incorporating belts and chains. Production at Hendon of GN cars was low, not exceeding two cars a week. After the war the British Grégoire works at Wandsworth were taken over, and the GN car was redesigned. A steel chassis replaced the original ash, a conventional steering box replaced the wire and bobbin, and the final drive on the GN cars was by chains rather than by belts. Though high-geared, the steering was extremely light, road-holding was excellent, and the complete GN car weighed very little – 6½cwt for the basic 2-seater GN Popular of 1920. In conjunction with reasonable power and good low-speed torque, this recipe gave a sporting performance, simplicity and economy, and attracted many sportsmen. These GN cars were catered for by the GN Légère, a tuned model, and the GN Vitesse, a still faster car with chain-driven ohc.

Some 50 GN cars were being made per week in 1920 and 1921. Further developed, the GN Vitesse became a really powerful little racing car, with shaft-driven overhead camshafts operating very large inclined valves. In 1922 Godfrey and Frazer-Nash left the GN firm. By 1923 the family motorist had abandoned the cyclecar in favour of the comforts of the light car, so GN ltd began to build this type alongside the old. Shaft-driven chassis were made on these GN cars, powered either by the twin, in smoother, quieter and less potent form, or by water-cooled 4-cylinder units; DFP, Chapuis-Dornier and Anzani were used. Very few GN cars were in fact produced. The cyclecar and the GN name disappeared, but GN carried on in theory until 1929; in 1926 the GN firm re-issued an instruction book. GN Ltd still survives as a Vauxhall agent in Balham. 

GN’s were made and sold in France by the Salmson aero engine company between 1919 and 1922.

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; TRN

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