Phoenix

GB, 1902 – 1904

Phoenix Motor Works, Southport, Lancs.

The Phoenix Motor Works had been the home of the Hudlass car before Felix Hudlass left the firm; the few Phoenix cars made were closely based on the 12hp 2-cylinder Hudlass. In 1904 a new 10hp 3-cylinder Phoenix car was introduced, and the name changed from Phoenix cars to Barcar. As in the American Compound, and the first 3-cylinder Arrol-Johnston, the middle cylinder had a larger bore than the other two, and worked off the exhaust gases of its smaller neightbours.

GB, 1903 – 1928

(1) Phoenix Motor Co, London N., 1903 – 1928

(2) Ascot Motor and Manufacturing Co, Letchworth, Herts., 1911 – 1928

The Phoenix Motor Company’s first vehicles were motorcycles, and the Trimo and Tricar three-wheelers though as early as 1904 the firm marketed a short-lived conventional light Phoenix car with 6hp De Dion engine. These Phoenix cars were named after the Phoenix Cycling Club of which J. Van Hooydonk, their deviser, was a member. These Phoenix cars were motor tricycles with two wheels and the passenger in front. Machines of this type were cheap, economical and had a good performance because the Phoenix cars were light. In these respects, the Phoenix cars were the forerunners of the cyclecar. The Phoenix tricycles had brakes on the front wheels. Transmission was by chain. The Phoenix Quadcar of 1905 had four wheels and developed into a more car-like creation, with side-by-side seating and a dummy bonnet in front. The power unit on the Phoenix car was a horizontal water-cooled Minerva single or Fafnir twin transversely mounted. A true Phoenix car appeared for the first time in 1908: a Phoenix voiturette with a 10hp vertical 2-cylinder engine, still transversely-mounted, and retaining chain primary and final drive. In between was a 3-speed gearbox. The brakes on the Phoenix cars were as excellent as ever. This type Phoenix car was made until World War 1, but in 1913 a more orthodox light Phoenix car was added. The Phoenix car used an 11,9hp 4-cylinder in-line engine in front of a dashboard radiator, a metal-to-metal clutch, a 3-speed gearbox and worm drive. After the war, this Phoenix car was continued, but it was a slow and old-fashioned vehicle. The Phoenix 11.9 was given a flat radiator in 1921 and a stablemate, the 3-litre ohc 18hp Phoenix car in 1920. A more modern design was offered two years later: the 12/25hp, with an ohv Meadows engine and 4-speed gearbox. A Meadows-engined six was introduced in 1925.

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; GNG, TRN

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