Chalmers / Chalmers-Detroit

US, 1908 – 1924

Chalmers Motor Car Co, Detroit, Mich.

The Chalmers was one of the most popular automobiles made in the United States for more than a decade. The Chalmers was the successor to the Thomas-Detroit which was built by a company which had been founded in 1906 by E.R. Thomas (builder of the Thomas car in Buffalo, N.Y.), Roy D. Chapin and Howard Earle Coffin; the two latter had previously served at Oldsmobile. The Thomas-Detroit of which some 500 were sold during the first year of production, was marketed through the parent firm in Buffalo which manufactured a larger line of cars under the Thomas emblem. The Thomas-Detroit was a medium priced four-cylinder car which had been designed by Coffin. In 1907, Hugh Chalmers, vice president of the National Cash Register Co and a noted salesman, entered the firm. Shortly after, he bought a half of E.R. Thomas’ stock and became president of the company which became the Chalmers-Detroit Motor Company. The Thomas-Detroit became the Chalmers-Detroit in 1908 and in 1910, the Chalmers. Open and closed Chalmers models in two lines comprised the Chalmers four-cylinder cars, with self-starters appearing in 1912. Chalmers (as Chalmers-Detroit) had distinguished itself in road races as early as 1908 when W.R. Burns won the Motor Parkway Sweekstakes at Jericho, N.Y., averaging 48.7mph in the six-lap 140.76 mile run.

In 1913, the Chalmers brought out its first 6-cylinder model, as well as the four and apart from small mechanical and design changes, continued both until 1914. The Chalmers four was dropped from the 1915 line, however, and sixes were to be used exclusively in Chalmers until the ending of manufacture. By 1915, some 20.000 Chalmers cars per year were coming off the Chalmers production line and would even exceed that figure before the advent of World War 1. In 1917, an L-head motor replaced the earlier overhead-valve type and on August 4th, Chalmers again headed racing news when Joe Dawson won the 24-hour stock Car Endurance Run at Sheepshead Bay, N.Y. Sales flagged following the end of the war and Hugh Chalmers, always the salesman, and with the realization that a competitor, Maxwell, wasn’t faring well either, arranged to lease his Chalmers plants to Maxwell, using his salesmanship to promote the two concerns and getting the benefit of Maxwell tooling and manufacturing equipment. By the early 1920s, however, many makes of cars were in financial difficulties due to over-expansion and recession, and Walter P. Chrysler was called in to try and reorganize Maxwell. Chrysler was at this time planning his own corporation and in 1922 Chalmers was taken over by Maxwell which had become a Chrysler subsidiary. The last Chalmer cars for sale were equipped with Lockheed hydraulic brakes but 1923 was the last year of Chalmers production with some 9000 units leaving the factories. The Maxwell survived until 1925 when it became the Chrysler Four.

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; KM
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Invicta

GB, 1900 – 1905

H.E. Richardson, Finchley, London N.

The Invicta car from Finchley was seen as a bicycle, a motor cycle and as a voiturette. Rather surprisingly for such a small concern, the latter two were powered by engines of the firm’s own manufacture.

Italy, 1906

Stabilimento Meccanico Carlo Mantovani & Cia, Turin

Carlo Mantovani had been technical director of Bender and Martiny (Perfecta) and he built a few light cars named Invicta cars with side-chain drive and 3-speed gearboxes in their old factory. The 6/8hp Invicta car was a twin and the 10/12hp a four with pair-cast cylinders; neither lasted long

GB, 1913 – 1914

Clark’s Engineering Works, Leamington, Warwickshire

The short-lived Invicta car from Leamington was one of the cyclecar breed. The Invicta car was powered by a watercooled V-twin JAP engine of 8hp, driving through a 3-speed gearbox and shaft primary drive to chain final drive.

GB, 1925 – 1938, 1946 – 1950

(1) Invicta Cars, Cobham, Surrey, 1925 – 1933

(2) Invicta Cars, Chelsea, London S.W.3, 1933 – 1938

(3) Invicta Car Development Co Ltd, Virginia Water, Surrey, 1946 – 1950

In 1925 Noel Macklin and Oliver Lyle, both of them with experience of motor design and Macklin a former manufacturer as well (Eric Campbell, Silver Hawk) introduced a type of car, the Invicta car, that was quite new to the British market. The idea behind the Invicta car was to combine in an assembled car the American concept of flexibility and performance with British quality and road-holding, thus getting the best of both worlds. The engine in the Invicta car, the Meadows 2½-litre, 6-cylinder engine had push-rod overhead valves. Its low-speed torque permitted the Invicta car to accelerate from a walking pace to 60mph in top gear, but a four-speed gearbox was provided, all the same, and the Invicta car make’s sustained high-speed cruising capabilities became legendary after winning the Dewar Trophy for long-distance reliability runs in 1927 and 1929. In outward appearance the first Invicta car was very staid, and it was marred by the fact that the brakes on the Invicta car were poor. The rivets down the bonnet were copied from the Rolls-Royce. During 1926, an engine with a bigger bore, providing 3 litres, was offered on Invicta cars alongside the original unit, and by 1927 was the only one sold. In that year real speed arrived for the fist time in the shape of the 4½-litre Invicta car. This Invicta car had a larger bore still, with an 85mph maximum and really shattering acceleration in spite of pulling a 3.9:1 axle ratio. By late 1929, the 3-litre Invicta car had been dropped. The 1931 4½-litre came in two types: the Invicta 4½-litre high-chassis, and the Invicta 4½-litre ‘100-mph’ low-chassis model. The latter Invicta car was lowered by underslinging the rear springs. This invicta car was capable of 95mph.

Unfortunately the splendid Invicta car was always expensive, and its roadholding reputation was damaged among sportsmen, who were by now its most important customers, by a highly-publicized accident to S.C.H. Davis at Brooklands in 1931. In spite of a win in the Monte Carlo Rally of an Invicta car, a Coupe des Glaciers in the Alpine Trial that year and almost equal success in the same events in 1932, only about 1.000 Invicta cars were made before production ceased in 1935. Invicta tried to stave off the end by introducing a small Invicta car for a more popular market in 1932. This Invicta 12/45 was not a success because the single overhead-camshaft 6-cylinder engine, amade by Blackburne, was of only 1½-litres’ capacity. However efficient this Invicta car was, it could not cope with its heavy chassis without the aid of an axle ratio of 6:1. This gave the famed flexibility, but not the performance you would expect on an Invicta car. The 12/45 was supplemented in 1933 by the supercharged Invicta 12/90, but only a handful were made. Both Invicta cars were seen with Wilson self-changing gearbox, the weight of which cannot have helped. After Invicta ended, Macklin went on to make the Railton, a machine with the traditional Invicta car performance characteristics allied to low price. For 1938, three new Invicta cars, in 2½-, 3- and 4-litre form, were planned. All these Invicta cars were to have 6-cylinder, overhead-valve engines, all-synchromesh gearboxes, and independent front suspension by transverse spring. Nothing was seen of these Invicta cars, the chassis of which seem to have been disguised Darracqs and the bodies similar to those of the 3-litre D670 Delage.

The old Invicta name was revived briefly after World War 2, when it was attached to a luxury car called the Invicta Black Prince, powered by a 6-cylinder Meadows engine of three litres, with two overhead camshafts and two plugs per cylinder. This unit produced 120bhp at 5.000rpm. Unlike earlier Invicta cars, the car’s other characteristics were highly unconventional. There was no gearbox in the Invicta car; instead, a Brockhouse hydrokinetic turbo transmitter that provided automatic transmission on any ratio between 15:1 and 4,27:1. Suspension was independent all round, by torsion bars. But the new Invicta car was another horribly expensive car, although plans envisaged an output of 250 a year, it met the same fate as its predecessors after only a score or so had been made. AFN Ltd, manufacturers of the Frazer Nash, acquired the assets of the dead firm.

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; TRN

The information is written with the greatest of care. However, if you have any suggested amendments please contact us at office@prewarcar.com