Star

GB, 1898 – 1932

Star/ Starling/ Stuart

(1) Star Motor Co, Wolverhampton, Staffs., 1898 – 1902

(2) Star Engineering Co, Wolverhampton, Staffs., 1902 – 1909

(3) Star Cycle Co, Wolverhampton, Staffs., 1905 – 1909

(4) Star Engineering Co Ltd, Wolverhampton, Staffs., 1909 – 1928

(5) Star Motor Co Ltd, Wolverhampton, Staffs., 1928 – 1932

Edward Lisle Sr’s Star Motor Co, an offshoot of the Star Cycle Co, produced its first Star car in 1898, and offered the Star car for sale in the following year. The Star car was a Benz-based machine, with a single-cylinder, water-cooled 3½hp engine, belt primary drive and chain final drive. It was an improvement in that water circulation on the Star car was assisted by a pump. In 1900 there followed a 2-cylinder Star car with 3 forward speeds, still on Benz lines. 1901 brougth De Dion-engined single-cylinder Star cars, and 1902 an 8hp twin of Panhard type in addition. Other, larger Star cars of Panhard ancestry joined the 8hp, up to a 20hp four Star car. By 1904, although a De Dion-powered single and Panhard-type twin were still there, the bigger machines were of Mercédès pattern, these Star cars came with honeycomb radiators, mechanically-operated inlet valves and pressed-steel frames. All veteran Star cars up to 1914 were extremely well-made, well-furnished, conventional, rather expensive cars lacking in technical originality, showing a line of development appearance in the 1907 range. The best-known Star car of the veteran period was the excellent 15hp Star car of 1909, a shaft-driven 2.8-litre four which had become the 3-litre 15.9hp by 1914. A great variety of other Star cars, basically similar models were turned out, not only by Star but also by the Star Cycle Co. The latter, run by Edward Lisle Jr, had made motor tricycles and bicycles, and produced the Starling car in 1905. It had 2 forward speeds and a De Dion single-cylinder engine, but was otherwise of Panhard type, with armoured wood frame and chain drive. One year later the Star car company supplemented it with the more modern Stuart car, which had 2-cylinders, 3-speeds and shaft drive. This name was dropped in 1908, all models being called Starlings, but these too, disappeared in 1909 when Star cars cheaper line was entrusted to the new Brion Motor Co, a more indepented concern that was still run by Edward Lisle Jr. So popular was the Star car that its makers were among the six largest in the country before 1914.

The 15.9hp Star car was continued after World War 1, together with another sv four Star car of pre-war origin, the 20hp Star car of 3.8-litres. A modern light Star car of fashionable type, the 11.9hp, arrived in 1921. This Star car used a 1.795cc sv engine with a detachable head, made in unit with a 3-speed gearbox which had central change. By 1924, the 11.9 Star car had grown up into the 2-litre 12/25hp Star car. It shared cylinder dimensions with the 18hp Star car, which was a new 3-litre six. The 12/25 Star car could be had as a very fine fast touring car with overhead valves and 54bhp, in which form the Star car was called 12/40hp. Thereafter, the Star car range reverted to its pre-war complexity. By 1927, there were three sv Star car models and two additional and more up-to-date Star cars with overhead valves. The 14/40hp Star car, new in 1926, was a solid 2-litre, ohv machine which in spite of having only 4-cylinders and 3 forward speeds, this Star car was a notably smooth and flexible car, thanks to a 5-bearing crankshaft. The ohv 20/60hp Star car, a 2½-litre six with the same bore and stroke as the 14/40 and a 7-bearing crankshaft, was the most luxurious Star car. A light six, the popular ohv 18/50hp, joined the Star car range in 1928, the year of the Star car company’s acquisition by Guy, and replaced the 14/40 Star car for 1929. By this time, the sv Star cars had gone, leaving the two sixes. As the 18hp Star Comet and the 21hp Star Planet, these Star cars were revised with handsome bodies and very full, luxurious equipment, including one-shot chassis lubrication, thermostatically-controlled radiator shutters and a built-in jacking system. Two other engines, of 14hp (2-litres) and 24hp (3.6-litres) were also obtainable in Star cars for 1932, as alternative Comet and Planet power units. These Star car were the last new Star cars, for they were too expensive to make, and the times favoured the mass-produced economy car. Production of Star cars ended in March 1932, but the unsold stock was sold by McKenzie and Denley of Birmingham, and the Star car was quoted in the Buyer’s Guide lists until 1935.

US, 1903 – 1904

(1) Star Automobile Co, Cleveland, Ohio

(2) H.S. Moore, Cleveland, Ohio

This Star car was driven by a single-cylinder, watercooled engine of 1.9-litres, mounted beneath the front seat, with false bonnet and coil radiator in front. A champion planetary transmission and double chain drive was used on this Star car. Both two- and five-seater Star cars were made, the latter with rear entrance.

US, 1908

Star Automobile Co, Chicago, Ill.

Star runabouts were offered in three models, selling for $500, $600 and $700 respectively. The smallest Star car was an open two-seater, and shaft drive was employed on all Star cars.

US, 1908

Model Automobile Co, Peru, Ind.

The short-lived Star car from Peru was offered in conventional 2- and 4-cylinder forms. The twin was chain-driven, while the big, expensive four Star car ($4.000) had shaft drive.

US, 1922 – 1928

Durant Motor Co of New Jersey, Elizabeth, N.J.; Lansing, Mich; Oakland, Calif.

William Crapo Durant’s Star Four was one of the most serious attempts to take away some of the Model T Ford’s market, for the cheapest practical car. Unlike the Ford, the Star car was an assembled machine.The Star car had a 2.2-litre, 4-cylinder engine by Continental, and was conventional in design in every way except the gearbox, which was separate; a feature common to all the vehicles in Durant’s empire, but very unusual in American mass-produced cars by the early 1920s. The touring Star car cost only $443 in 1923, which helped Star to be the seventh biggest seller in America that year. The Star car was sold outside the United States as the Rugby. In 1926, a 2.8-litre six Star car was introduced. Front wheel brakes appeared in 1927 but a year later the Star car make disappeared in the collapse of the Durant interests. By this time, 250 Star cars a day were being turned out. Only the Four was still called the Star car for the 1928 model year, as the Six was now known as the Durant Model 55.

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; TRN, GMN, MJWW, TRN

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

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