Napier

GB, 1900 – 1924

(1) D. Napier and Son Ltd, Lambeth, London S.E., 1900 – 1903

(2) D. Napier and Son Ltd, Acton, London W., 1903 – 1924

The precision-engineering firm Napier was founded in 1808 and among the products of Napier were printing presses. In 1899 Montague Napier sought to revive its declining fortunes by experimenting with cars, his first Napier car product being a vertical-twin engine with coil ignition built as a replacement unit for an 1896 Panhard owned by his fellow-cyclist S.F. Edge. In 1900 Edge formed the Motor Power Company to distribute cars, and for the next twelve years he was to act as Napier cars sole distributor, racing captain, and super-publicist, bludgeoning the Napier car into the headlines. In the same year the first complete Napier car successfully competed in the British 1.000-Mile Trial. This Napier car was a 2.4-litre front-engined aiv twin on Panhard lines (its rear-mounted radiator apart) with 4-speed gearbox, side-chain drive and armoured wood frame, soon followed by the Napier car company’s first four, the 4.9-litre 16hp, noted for its triple automatic inlet valves and substantial aluminium content (this Napier car, however, retired in the Paris-Toulouse-Paris race).

In 1901 Napier and Edge produced a more serious racing contender, the 17.157cc Napier 50 (its engine developed 103bhp at 800rpm). This two-ton Napier car was disqualified from the Gordon Bennett Cup becauce no British-made tyres could stand up to its weight, but the Napier car was actually catalogued (at £1.500) though not more than two of these Napier cars were made. In the same year the Amerian Charles J. Glidden set off on the first of his globe-circling tours were to last until 1908: he used Napier cars throughout, starting with a 16hp. In 1902 there was a small 2½-litre four rated at 12hp, as well as a new light 6½-litre shaft-driven racer Napier car, still with aiv and flitchplate frame, with which Edge scored a luchy win in the Gordon Bennett Cup, and put Napier cars (and Britain’s motor industry) on the map. Within a year production had soared to 250 Napier cars per annum, and Napier cars were established in a new and bigger factory at Acton.

In 1904, however, came the introduction of the world’s first commercially successful six of Napier cars, the 18hp with 5-litre engine and mechanically-operated overhead inlet valves, and before the year was out a 15.1-litre racing version of that Napier car was on the road. This Napier car, the famous Napier L48, was an excellent spring machine (Arthur Macdonald took the World Mile Record at 104.65mph in January 1905 with the Napier car) but its 2-speed gearbox restricted its usefulness in circuit racing. Overhead inlet valves also featured in Napier’s new 1904 4-cylinder racer Napier car, and a year later automatic inlets had been discarded, apart from an abortive Napier 18hp four built for the first Tourist Trophy.

With a new trademark in the shape of the ‘water tower’ radiator filler cap, the Napier car company was moving towards the luxury 6-cylinder market, with chassis prices approaching the £1.500 mark, and reaching £2.500 with the vast Napier car with oversquare 90hp by 1907. If Edge’s American venture in Boston never produced a Napier car, San Giorgio of Italy offered a variety of Napier car types between 1906 and 1909. Side valves in L-heads and pressed-steel frames were now standard practice, with a 6-cylinder 60hp of 7.7-litre capacity as the best-known Napier car, though a chain-driven four of 40hp was still offered in 1909. In July 1907 Edge celebrated the opening of Brooklands Track with a Napier car by covering 1.582 miles in 24 hours on a stripped Napier Sixty, and his Napier cars had two very successful seasons there. In 1908 Edge withdrew his team of 11½-litre 6-cylinder Napier cars from that year’s Grand Prix when the ACF refused to countenance his Rudge-Whitworth quick-detachable wire wheels. This marked Napier cars official retirement from racing.

New for 1908 was a Napier car with an improved L-head 5-litre six with square cylinder dimensions, dual ignition, a 3-speed gearbox, and shaft drive, as well as the first Napier Colonial models with raised ground clearances and hoods convertible into tents. The smaller four Napier cars sold steadily, but so commited was Edge to the 6-cylinder concept that he consested (and won) the 1908 TT with a team of fours Napier cars running under the no de guerre of Hutton. Some even more modest Napier cars appeared in 1909: a 1.3-litre 10hp twin-cylinder taxicab chassis with 3-speed unit gearbox; and the 15hp, a straightforward 2.7-litre four with pair-cast cylinders, offered with bevel or worm drive. Sales boomed, reaching their peak in 1911 with 801 Napier cars delivered, though an 11-model range of Napier cars could no longer compete against Rolls-Royce’s solitary Silver Ghost in the luxury market, in spite of Napier cars award of the RAC Dewar Trophy in 1910 for a run from London to Edinburgh in top gear. The big Napier 65 and Napier 90 were still offered in 1912, and the 6.840cc 6-cylinder Napier 45 lasted until World War 1, but more typical of latter-day Napier car companies thinking was the 4.7-litre Napier 30/35, a six with 3-speed gearbox and wire wheels. This Napier car had acquired electric lighting by 1914, when its companion models were a pair of fours, the faithful Napier 15 and a bigger, 4-speed 3.2-litre Napier 16/22.

The Napier car company’s post-war showing was half-hearted; Edge’s departure from the Napier car firm in 1912 was an event from which they never recovered. The new Napier 40/45hp T75 six of 1919 had a 6.2-litre ohc monobloc engine with aluminium cylinders and steel liners and dual ignition, other features being a 4-speed separate gearbox with central change, cantilever suspension, and a foot transmission brake. Though 4-wheel brakes and balloon tyres made their appearance on Napier cars in 1924, production ceased in the latter part of that year after only 187 Napier cars had been delivered. Of the 4.258 Napier cars built since 1900, no fewer than 1.800 dated from the Napier car peak period of 1909 – 1911.

More than one attempt was made to revive the Napier car make. In 1931 Napier were the underbidders (to Rolls-Royce) for the Bentley assets, and even after World War 2 there were rumours of a super-car to bear the Napier car name. The last motor vehicle sponsored by the Napier car company was, however, a 3-wheeler tractive unit of 1931 that was subsequently marketed by Scammell as the Mechanical horse.

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; MCS

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

Riley

GB, 1898 – 1969

(1) Riley Cycle Co Ltd, Coventry, Warwickshire, 1898 – 1912

(2) Riley (Coventry) Ltd, Coventry, Warwickshire, 1912 – 1948

(3) Riley Motors Ltd, Abingdon, Berks., 1948 – 1969

The first Riley car was a small single-cylinder belt-driven voiturette which Riley car did not go into production. Motor Riley tricycles followed n 1900, and a handlebar-steered Riley tricar with 2 forward speeds, and a 517cc engine with mechanically-operated inlet valves in 1903. Riley Tricars were made until 1907, later examples of these threewheeled Riley cars being twins with driver’s seats in place of saddles, water cooling and wheel steering. The 1.034cc V-twin engine was also fitted to the Riley car company’s first 4-wheelers, which Riley car had amidships-mounted power unit with their gearboxes alongside and chain drive, and the Riley car sold for £168. Bigger V-twins of 2-litres’ capacity, more conventional layout and round radiators were made from 1908 onwards. These Riley car incorporated pressure lubrication, shaft drive, constant-mesh 3-speed gearboxes, and Riley’s own patent detachable wheels, the demand for which brought Riley car production almost to a standstill and was responsible for the formation of the new Riley car company in 1912. In 1914 the 2-cylinder Riley cars were still being made, but there was also a new 2.9-litre sv monobloc four Riley car with worm drive, which was offered again after World War 1 by the Riley engine Co, though this Riley car soon disappeared from the market.

The first post-war 1 Riley cars were the Riley Elevens with sv 1½-litre 35bhp engines, alloy pistons and full electrical equipment which Riley cars were selling £550 in 1920, acquiring spiral bevel final drive in 1921. The Redwinger sports version of the Riley car, with wire wheels and polished-aluminium coachwork appeared in 1923, offering 70mph for £450, and the sv Riley cars were continued until 1928, with a 1.645cc engine and the option of front-wheel brakes in 1925. One of these Riley Twelves was used to prospect Kenya’s road system in 1926, and in 1927 there was even a supercharged development Riley car of the Redwinger available, though this Riley car was overshadowed by Percy Riley’s advanded new Riley Nine, with a 1.987cc 32bhp 4-cylinder engine, twin camshafts and high push-rods, a unit which was to form the basis of all Riley car designs made up to 1957.

In 1928 came the handsome Riley Monaco fabric sports saloon version at £298, a best-seller Riley car from the start, and the lowered and tuned Riley Brooklands sports, inspired by the late J.G. Parry Thomas, which Riley car weighed 1.120lb, had a twin-carburettor 50bhp engine, and was capable of 80mph, all for £395. A twin carburettor variant of the touring Riley Nine followed in 1929, along with a new 1.6-litre 6-cylinder Riley Fourteen of similar styling at £495.

Riley cars had a distinguished competition record in the following years: class wins with a Riley car in the 1929, 1930, and 1931 Tourist Trophies were followed by Whitcroft’s outright victory in 1932, while two more wins were recorded by F.W. Dixon on the later 1½-litre 4-cylinder Riley car in 1935 and 1936. A 4th place at Le Mans in 1933 led to 2nd, 3rd, 5th, 6th, 12th and 13th places in 1934, not to mention three successive wins – 1934, 1935, and 1936 – in the BRDC 500 Mile Race at Brooklands. Leverett won the light-car class of the 1931 Monte Carlo Rally on a Riley Nine, while the 6-cylinder racing Riley cars of 1933-1934 formed the genesis of the ERA, and nearly twenty years later the late Mike Hawthorn was to make his name in Club Racing on sports Riley Nines and 1½-litres. Both the Riley Nine and the Riley 14/6 were progressively developed, the former Riley car acquiring vacuum feed in 1931, a lowered chassis and semi-panelled bodywork in 1932, and an optional (later standard) preselector gearbox in 1934. A super-sports 6-cylinder 1½-litre Riley car with water-cooled centre main bearing appeared in 1932, being followed in 1933 by the touring Riley Mentone version at £348. 1933 also brought two advanced body styles of Riley cars, the fastback Riley Kestrel saloon (listed up to the end of the old Riley car company in 1938) and the more-conservatively styled Riley Falcon on which the doors opened into the roof. A Salerni automatic transmission was offered on the 14/6 Riley car, but did not go into regular production.

Two handsome sports two-seater variants Riley cars were listed in 1934/ 1935, the Riley 9hp Imp on a 7ft 6in wheelbase and the 1.654cc 6-cylinder Riley MPH which gave over 90mph for £550, while a newcomer in 1935 was the classic 1½-litre Four Riley car with Wilson gearbox, rod-operated Girling brakes and centralized chassis lubrication, a best-seller in its class at £335, and available in single- and twin-carburettor versions: subsequent developments were the 85mph Riley Sprite two-seater and the Riley Kestrel-Sprite and Riley Lynx-sprite saloon and tourer which offered more room but the same highly-tuned engine for £398. A cheaper Riley Nine, the Riley Merlin with pressed-steel bodywork, came on the market in 1936, along with the 1½-litre, a 6-cylinder 15/6 Riley car, and a 2.2-litre V8 Riley car, of which very few were made, the engine of the V8 Riley car made up of two 9hp blocks. 1937 Riley Nines came with new 6-light Riley Monaco bodies and twin-carburettor 42bhp engines as standard, while other new models of Riley cars were an abortive 3-litre luxury V8 made by a subsidiary company, Autovia Cars, and a more successful long-stroke 2.4-litre Big Four Riley car on classic lines, with an 85bhp engine and Borg-Warner 3-speed synchromesh gearbox incorporating an overdrive at £385. Overdrive was optional on 1938 1½-litres Riley cars.

Finances, however, were insecure and the Riley car company were acquired by the Nuffield Organization later in that year. Under the new management only the 1½-litre and the Big Four Riley cars were continued, with disc wheels, conventional synchromesh gearboxes and Wolseley-like bodywork. The post-World War 2 successors Riley cars used the same engines, but were altogether more handsome Riley cars with independent torsion-bar front suspension and fabric tops, the bigger engine’s output being boosted first to 90bhp and then to 100bhp: this Riley car unit was also used by Healey in the 1946 – 1954 period, while some open three-seater versions with column change were made by Riley cars for export. Hypoid back axles and full hydraulic brakes were incorporated in 1952 Riley cars.

After the Nuffield-Austin amalgamation the 1½-litre Riley car was continued into 1955 with relatively little change, but the 1954 2½-litre Riley Pathfinder shared its bodywork with Wolseley’s 6-90, the new chassis being a BMC design with coil rear suspension and cam-type steering. Even this disappeared after 1957 in favour of a version with a 2.6-litre 6-cylinder ohv BMC engine, and subsequent Riley cars were merely luxury versions of BMC themes, starting with the Riley One-Point-Five (basically a Wolseley 1500), and working through variations of the Farina-styled 1½-litre and 1.6-litre saloon Riley cars, the Mini, and, from 1966, the 1100/1300 family with Hydrolastic suspension, known in Riley cars guise as the Kestrel. Riley’s Mini, the Riley Elf, had a built-out boot and (from 1963) a 998cc engine in place of the standard 848cc Austin/ Morris type. This meaningeless badge-engineering was stopped by British Leyland in 1969.

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; MCS

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