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ARMSTRONG
SIDDELEY MOTORS 1919 - 1999:
Part
1 - The Early Years
BEGINNINGS
Armstrong
Siddeley Motors Ltd. was officially formed on 1st November 1919 although
agreement to create the Company dated from 19th February of that year.
The Company was born out of the act of the Siddeley Deasy Company being
taken over by the Armstrong Whitworth Development Company. There had,
however, been Siddeley cars before 1919.
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John
Davenport Siddeley set up the Siddeley Autocar Company in 1902
and in 1903 four Siddeley models were shown at Crystal Palace
and by 1905 there was a choice of more than a dozen models from
two-seater to landaulet. Some of these early cars have survived,
one being in the possession of the late Peter Baxendale's family
and one being on show at the Rolls Royce Heritage Trust Museum
in Mickleover, Derbyshire.
In
1905 John Siddeley joined Wolseley as Sales Manager and from then
until 1909 a series of Wolseley-Siddeley automobiles was produced.
These were most impressive cars. One of the cars is believed to
have belonged to Queen Alexandra, patroness of the Company, and
John Siddeley is believed to have driven King Edward VII in front
of Buckingham palace in one in 1906. A five litre 1909 model is
believed to be still in existence in private ownership and a preserved
Wolesley-Siddeley Phaeton resides in a museum in Bergeyk in Holland.
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John
D Siddeley
A Siddeley Autocar
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In
1909 John Siddeley again moved on and joined the Deasy Motor Company,
becoming Managing Director in 1910. The Deasy Motor Company was established
in 1906 at Parkside in Coventry by Henry Deasy and its early business
was importing cars from France and transforming them for use in this
Country. Under Siddeley's management the Company was substantially expanded,
growing from 200 employees in 1909 to 5000 in 1919.
Siddeley
started to obtain chassis from Rover, engines from Aster and Daimler
and bodies from various contracted suppliers. In 1911 the Company was
using the Daimler Knight engine, a unit of particular quietness. Not
content with the engines as supplied Siddeley had them stripped, polished
and tuned resulting in an even quieter unit described by one impressed
journalist as "As silent and inscrutable as the Sphinx".
THE
GREAT WAR
In 1912 the name of Siddeley-Deasy was in use and by 1914 The Company
had become a successful car builder. The Great War changed things dramatically.
The size of the workforce increased tenfold and the products changed
also. Lorries, ambulances and staff cars rolled out of the factory gates
and, from 1915, airframes and aero engines too.
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ARMSTRONG
SIDDELEY MOTORS IS BORN
With
the return of peacetime things again changed and Siddeley Deasy
merged with Sir W. G. Armstrong's Armstrong Whitworth Development
Co. and a subsidiary, Armstrong Siddeley Motors Ltd. was created.
This was the company that produced Armstrong Siddeley cars thereafter
until manufacture stopped in 1960.
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The
original Sphinx
The
'evolved' Sphinx
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The
first cars made by the new company were 30hp models, a 4960cc
six, and the first style of A/S V fronts were incorporated in
the design. (see the reproduction of the announcements and illustration
of November 1919 published in the November 1999 Sphinx).
The
30hp was a substantial vehicle in all respects, being sold to
the aristocracy including the then Duke of York, later King George
VI, and to the carriage trade.
The
30hps were followed by an 18hp model introduced in 1921 having
a 2318cc engine and by a 14hp four cylinder model in 1923. Unlike
the 30s and the 18s, the 14hp sported a flat radiator. The 14
became a very popular model and over 14,000 were built in the
next six years, many going for export.
Changes
to the models took place in 1925 when Mk II models were introduced
on the 14, 18 and 30hp chassis.
The
two smaller cars had revised chassis and the 30 received a new
mono-block engine instead of its original bi-block engine, the
origins of which could be traced back to 1914. In 1927 a 15hp
six joined the range.
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TECHNICAL
INNOVATIONS
1928
saw the introduction of the Wilson Epicyclical fluid flywheel drive
and, what W. G. McMinnies (Publicist to A/S) called the self-changing
gear, setting the style of Armstrong Siddeley cars which was to continue
almost unchanged, apart from the introduction of the Newton clutch in
1936, until automatic gearboxes were offered on the 346 Sapphire some
twenty five years later. The archetypal Armstrong Siddeley car had arrived.
Through
the thirties the V radiator style was followed exclusively, the flat
radiator of 14s etc. disappearing from production, identifying an array
of models as unmistakably A/S. Between 1929 and 1939 there were at various
times 12s, 12+s, 14s, 15s, 16s, 17s, 20s, 20/25s, 30s and the doyen
of them all, the 4960cc Siddeley Special.
.
. . Part 2 of this brief history of ASM will be added to the web site
in the next few months.
MORE
THAN SIMPLY CARS
It is important to recall that Armstrong Siddeley was not just a car
company. Throughout
the inter-war years it built aero engines and aeroplanes. It also became
involved in the construction and powering of railcars (See April and
July 1997 Sphinx). Subsidiary and associated companies (Armstrong Whitworth
Aircraft, Improved Gears Ltd., the Coventry Pneumatic Railcar Co. etc.)
came along.
John
Davenport Siddeley remained at the helm of The Company until 1935 when
A W Aircraft was sold and became part of Hawker Siddeley Aircraft, the
Hawker part of the company being based in Surrey and having its origins
with both Messrs. Sopwith and Hawker, and in 1936 Tommy Sopwith became
Chairman of ASM.
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