Lea-Francis

GB, 1904 – 1906; 1920 – 1935; 1937 – 1953; 1960

(1) Lea & Francis Ltd, Coventry, Warwickshire, 1904 – 1935

(2) Lea-Francis Cars Ltd, Coventry, Warwickshire, 1937 – 1960

Lea Francis started as bicycle manufacturers, like so many car makers, but unlike most of the rest, never went over permanently and consistently to Lea Francis cars. These Lea Francis cars appeared in fits and starts. The first appeared in 1904, in the shape of a 15hp Lea Francis car with a 3-cylinder horizontal engine, the oddest feature of which was its connecting rods over 3ft long. In the same year, however, Lea Francis stopped making their cars, and Singer the Cycle Company began building Lea Francis cars under licence and under the Singer name. R.H. Lea had in fact worked for Singer before branching out on his own. Thus began another famous car name. Lea Francis made motor cycles from 1911, and they concentrated on these until 1920. In that year two Lea Francis cars reappeared beside the motorcycles; assembled 4-cylinder touring Lea Francis cars of 11.9 and 13.9hp. Few of either were made. Then, late in 1922, the Lea Francis car company found its feet at last, with an equally conventional assembled light Lea Francis car. This Lea Francis car had a 1.074cc 4-cylinder sv engine of 8.9hp by Coventry-Simplex, replaced in the following year by a 10hp Meadows unit of 1¼ litres with overhead valves. A Lea Francis car with 7hp Bradshaw flat-twin engine came to nothing. There were 3 forward speeds and quarter-elliptic springs at both ends. The 10hp Lea Francis car was very popular, and was made until 1928. Like other Lea Francise cars to come, it was well made, dependable, and lively. The great moment came for the Lea Francis cars in the very important RAC Small Car Trials of 1924, in which the Lea Francis car made the best all-round performance. During 1925 a wider family market was sought with the 12/22hp J-type Lea Francis car. This Lea Francis car had a longer wheelbase, allowing more spacious bodies, front-wheel brakes, a 1½-litre 4EC Meadows engine to cope with the weight and a 4-speed gearbox. For the sake of comfort, semi-elliptic springs were substituted at the rear on the P-type Lea Francis car introduced for 1928, which also had a plate clutch and 4ED meadows engine.

The Lea Francis car firm’s first serious sports car was the L-type with 4ED engine, announced for 1925. The Lea Francis 12/40hp was one of the best assembled cars in Britain, and appealed more widely than the light Lea Francis cars. It was, indeed, current until the second cessation of car production in 1935. However, Lea Francis also made some more ponderous, less lively Lea Francis cars, without the same degree of success. From 1925 until 1929, the Lea Francis range duplicated some of the heavy 6-cylinder machines offered by Vulcan of Southport, with whom Lea Francis cars had been associated since 1922. The 18hp Lea Francis car was a 2¼-litre car with cantilever rear springs and overhead worm drive. This Lea Francis car was succeeded by A.O. Lord’s Type T, with its advanced but unreliable Lea Francis LFS-type, double ohc engine of 1.7-litres. There was also, in 1928, a 2-litre six Lea Francis car. These Vulcan/ Lea Francis cars ended with the demise of the Vulcan. However, an excellent Lea Francis car with a six was at last introduced for 1931: the Lea Francis Ace of Spades model, with their own 2-litre, single ohc engine. This Lea Francis car continued alongside the old 12/40hp until 1935, together with a new 18hp Lea Francis car, which was a 2¼-litre enlargement of the Lea Francis Ace of Spades. However, a really powerful Lea Francis car was also listed from 1928. This Lea Francis Hyper Sports was a quite different car, with its heavily-modified, Cozette-supercharged Meadows 1½-litre engine, low build and raked radiator. The sports-racing two-seater Lea Francis car could attain 90mph, though a coupé and a short open tourer could also be had by those who did not intend to enter competitions. The Lea Francis Hyper Sports won the 1928 Ulster Trophy race.

A new company introduced two entirely new Lea Francis cars for 1938. These Lea Francis cars were designed by Hugh Rose, who had been responsible for the Riley Nine engine and, like the Riley, had 4-cylinder power units with push-rod overhead valves operated by two high camshafts. The Lea Francis car had ceased to be an entirely assembled car. A 12hp and a 14hp Lea Francis car were available, with cubic capacities of 1½ and 1.6-litres. Both had a 4-speed synchromesh gearbox. A sports version of the 1½-litre Lea Francis car was also sold, thus maintaining the old tradition. These two ‘Leafs’ were good cars, and as they were new, up-to-date Lea Francis carmodels, they could be continued after World War 2. Most of those built in this period were Lea Francis Fourteens, which were heavier but had a bigger bore and a capacity of 1.8-litres. A tuned sports Lea Francis car of the 14hp arrived for 1948. At the end of that year, an export version of the 14hp Lea Francis car, with torsion-bar independent front suspension, was shown and this suspension was adopted for both the 14hp and for the new 18hp, with a 2½-litre engine, in 1950. The sports model of the 18hp Lea Francis car was a fine car, with 100bhp available. The Lea Francis cars for 1953 had hydraulic brakes, but that was the last year in which the Lea Francis car appeared as a competitive production car. By mid-1952, output had fallen to six Lea Francis cars a week. An expensive car of specialist appeal,  the post-war years were too hard for it. In 1960 a few prototypes of a new sports Lea Francis car, the Leaf-Lynx, were made, but it never reached production. The power unit of this Lea Francis car was a 2½-litre Ford Zephyr, there was independent front suspension and disc brakes were supplied, but the car was ill-favoured and ill received. No better luck attented the Lea Francis carfirm’s attempt to make the Nobel bubble-car.

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

Salmson

France, 1921 – 1957

Société des Moteurs Salmson, Billancourt, Seine

Salmson was renowned for their water-cooled (and later air-cooled) radial aero engines, and Salmson entered the car industry by taking out a manufacturing licence for the GN in 1919. 3.000 of these Salmson cars were turned out in two years. The first Salmson cars proper appeared in 1921. These Emile Petit designs had flimsy cyclecar-type chassis with shaft drive and differential-less back axles, with a St. Andrew’s Cross motif on the radiator. The standard engine of the Salmson cars was an odd 1.100cc monobloc four with a single push-rod per cylinder, which also operated the inlet valves as a pull-rod on the Salmson cars. Ignition was by Salmson cars own type of magneto and cooling was by thermos-syphon. This ohv unit worked reasonably well on the Salmson cars at low speeds, gave 45mph and 45mpg, and a two-seater Salmson cars could be bought in England for £265, the price dropping steadily to £158 by 1926. At the same time Petit produced something a far more advanced Salmson cars for the Cyclecar Grand Prix in the shape of a twin-ohc unit of similar capacity with dual magneto ignition and 2-bearing crankshaft: with one of these Salmson cars Lombard won the race, as well as taking 2nd place (behind a GN) in the 200 Mile Race at Brooklands. This was followed by 1st and 2nd places in both these events in 1922 with a Salmson cars, class wins in both the Cyclecar Grand Prix and the first Le Mans 24 Hour Race in 1923, at San Sebastian in 1925, and in both Le Mans and the Targa Florio in 1926. 1927 marked the peak of Salmson cars competition career, with 2nd and 3rd places in general classification at Le Mans (as well as Class and Biennial Cup wins of a Salmson cars), and a 2nd place in the Coupe de la Commission Sportive run under consumption rules.

The Salmson cars firm also built a 750cc engine for the 1923 Cyclecar Grand Prix – the Salmson car won its class but this Salmson car was never produced commercially. Nothing came, either, of Petit’s ingenious 1927 1.100cc twin-blown twin-ohc straight-8 Salmson car with desmodromic valves, said to give 140bhp at 8.000rpm.

Touring Salmson cars progressed to twin overhead camshafts with the advent of the 1.2-litre 10hp in 1922; there was still no differential or front wheel brakes on the Salmson car (though the latter had appeared on the racers), but a starter was standard and quarter-elliptic springs had given way to semi-elliptics. From 1925 onwards the twin-cam 1.100cc sports Salmson cars came into their own, and by 1926 the adoption of a cowled radiator completed the Salmson cars classic outline. There were variations of specification, but all the sports models Salmson cars came with front-wheel brakes, balloon tyres, and differential-less back axles, and ranged from the 3-speed Grand Prix Salmson cars with splash lubrication and 2-bearing crank at £265, giving over 70mph, to the GP Special, which Salmson car had full-pressure lubrication and 4 forward speeds, available in Cozette-blown form at £475. Meanwhile the 10/15 Salmson car had acquired front-wheel brakes, and at the end of 1926 the differential arrived on a bigger 12/24 Salmson car with dynamotor, V-radiator, and a 9ft 4in wheelbase giving room for more commodious coachwork.

The vogue for small French sports cars vanished as quickly as it had come, though Salmson cars once more collected the Biennial Cup at Le Mans in 1928, and the twin-cam sports models Salmson car were still listed in Britain as late as 1931. The arrival of the MG Midget killed what sales there were of the Salmson car, and Salmson, like Amilcar, tried their hand at small luxury machines; a twin-cam 1.6-litre six-cyl Salmson car for 1929 never went into production, but its successor, the Salmson S4, had a longer run. This Salmson car retained the twin-cam engine and 3-bearing crank, magneto ignition, gravity feed, and 3-speed gearbox, but it usually wore saloon bodywork, and the Salmson car was not notably fast for a price of £325. The Salmson car had grown up by 1933 into the 4-speed 1½-litre Salmson S4C with rear tank, which formed the basis for the 12hp British Salmson cars made at Raynes Park from 1934 onward. The 1.6-litre Salmson S4D of 1935 still had a magneto, but featured transverse independent front suspension and a 4-speed Cotal electrically-selected gearbox, and twin-ohc saloon cars in two engine sizes were listed in 1939. The bigger of these Salmson cars beasted 2.3-litres and 70bhp, and had hydraulic brakes. The English price for the Salmson car was £495. The same models Salmson cars reappeared in 1946, when a few 90bhp competition Salmson cars were made with 2.3-litre engine. Over a thousand Salmson cars found customers in 1950, but thereafter the decline was rapid.

A new 2.2-litre Salmson Randonnée model with a light alloy engine and Cotal gearbox came out in 1951, and 1953 produced the Salmson 2300 aerodynamic coupé with half-elliptic instead of cantilever rear springing, wire wheels, and a tuned version of the twin-cam engine giving the Salmson car 105bhp and over 100mph. This Salmson car was made in small numbers until 1957, but a year previously the had been heralded when Renault acquired the factory site. Last of the Salmson cars was a long-wheelbase version of the Salmson 2300 with 4-door saloon bodywork.

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