Invicta (car)
Encyclopedia
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
automobile
Automobile
An automobile, autocar, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...
manufacturer. The brand has been available intermittently through successive decades. Initially, the manufacturer was based in Cobham, Surrey
Cobham, Surrey
Cobham is a town in the Borough of Elmbridge in Surrey, England, about south-west of central London and north of Leatherhead. Elmbridge has been acclaimed by the Daily Mail as the best place to live in the UK, and Cobham is a prosperous part of the London commuter belt...
, England from 1925 to 1933, then in Chelsea
Chelsea, London
Chelsea is an area of West London, England, bounded to the south by the River Thames, where its frontage runs from Chelsea Bridge along the Chelsea Embankment, Cheyne Walk, Lots Road and Chelsea Harbour. Its eastern boundary was once defined by the River Westbourne, which is now in a pipe above...
, London, England from 1933 to 1938 and finally in Virginia Water
Virginia Water
Virginia Water is an affluent village, a lake and, originally, a stream, the village being in the Runnymede Borough Council in Surrey and the bodies of water stretching over the borders of Runnymede, Old Windsor and Sunninghill and Ascot, England....
, Surrey, England from 1946 to 1950. More recently, the name has been revived for the new S1 sports car.
Early history
The company was founded by Noel MacklinNoel Macklin
Sir Noel Campbell Macklin was an innovative British car maker and boat designer. He was also the father of post-war sports car and Formula One racing driver Lance Macklin....
, who had previously tried car making with the Eric-Campbell
Eric-Campbell
The Eric-Campbell was a British car made from 1919 to 1924. The company was formed by H Eric Orr-Ewing and Noel Campbell Macklin. Macklin would go on to found Invicta cars....
and Silver Hawk companies, with Oliver Lyle of the sugar family
Tate & Lyle
Tate & Lyle plc is a British-based multinational agribusiness. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index as of 20 June 2011...
providing finance, with assembly taking place in Macklin's garage at his home at Fairmile Cottage on the main London to Portsmouth road in Cobham, Surrey. The cars were designed to combine flexibility, the ability to accelerate from virtual standstill in top gear, with sporting performance. With the assistance of William (Willie) Watson, his mechanic from pre-World War I racing days, a prototype was built on a Bayliss-Thomas frame with Coventry Simplex engine in the stables of Macklin's house on the western side of Cobham. The first production car, the 1925 2½ litre used a Meadows
Henry Meadows
Henry Meadows of Wolverhampton, England were major suppliers of engines and transmissions, to the smaller companies in the British motor industry...
straight six, overhead-valve engine and four-speed gearbox in a chassis with semi elliptical springs all round cost from £595. Three different chassis lengths were available, 9 in 4 in (2.84 m), 9 in 10 in (3 m) and 10 feet (3 m) to cater for the customer's choice of bodywork. As demand grew a lot of the construction work went to Lenaerts and Dolphens in Barnes, London but final assembly and test remained at Fairmile.
The engine grew to 3 litres in 1926 and when production of the model finished in 1929 about 200 had been made. A larger engine, still by Meadows, was used in the William Watson
William Watson
William Watson may refer to:*W. Marvin Watson , U.S. Postmaster General*William E. Watson, military historian*William H. Watson , Mexican-American War soldier from Maryland*William J. Watson...
designed 1928 4½ litre available in short SSC (118 inch) or long LC (126 inch) versions and also high Type A and low Type B chassis. The sporting low chassis was arranged by using underslung rear springs. About 500 were made up to 1934 which was quite a lot considering the high price. The long wheelbase NLC luxury model could cost up to £1800.
In an attempt to widen the market appeal the 1½ litre straight-six overhead-cam Blackburne
Blackburne (motorcycles)
Blackburne was a trade name of Burney and Blackburne Limited a British manufacturer of motorcycles from 1913 to 1922 at Tongham near Farnham, Surrey...
engined 12/45 L-type was announced in 1932. It was a large car with its 118 inches (2,997.2 mm) wheelbase and proved too heavy for the available power needing a 6:1 rear axle ratio. It was available with a preselector gearbox
Preselector gearbox
A preselector or self-changing gearbox is a type of manual gearbox used on a variety of vehicles, most commonly in the 1930s...
as an option and could be bought complete with coachwork by Carbodies
Carbodies
Carbodies LImited is a British company based at Holyhead Road, Coventry. It started business as a coachbuilder, and now, as The London Taxi Company is best known for its production of London taxicabs.-History:...
. The supercharged 12/90 of 1933 increased the available power from 45 to 90 bhp but few were made and a proposed twin-cam 12/100 never got beyond a prototype.
Sporting success came with Invictas driven by Violette Cordery, who was Noel Macklin's sister-in-law, when she was twice awarded the Dewar Trophy
Dewar Trophy
The Dewar Trophy was a cup donated in the early years of the twentieth century by Sir Thomas R. Dewar, M.P. a member of parliament of the United Kingdom, to be awarded each year by the Royal Automobile Club of England "to the motor car which should successfully complete the most meritorious...
, for reliability in 1926 driving 5000 miles (8,046.7 km) at Montlhéry, and 1929 driving 30000 miles (48,280.2 km) at Brooklands
Brooklands
Brooklands was a motor racing circuit and aerodrome built near Weybridge in Surrey, England. It opened in 1907, and was the world's first purpose-built motorsport venue, as well as one of Britain's first airfields...
. Sammy Davis had a spectacular accident in an S-type at Brooklands in 1931. Donald Healey
Donald Healey
Donald Mitchell Healey CBE was a noted English rally driver, automobile engineer, and speed record holder.- Early life :...
in 1930 gained a class win in the Monte Carlo Rally
Monte Carlo Rally
The Monte Carlo Rally or Rally Monte Carlo is a rallying event organised each year by the Automobile Club de Monaco which also organises the Formula One Monaco Grand Prix and the Rallye Monte-Carlo Historique. The rally takes place along the French Riviera in the Principality of Monaco and...
, and, starting from Stavanger, won the event outright the following year.
End of production
Car production seems to have finished in 1935. Noel Macklin went on to found RailtonRailton (car)
Railton was a British car maker based in Cobham, Surrey between 1933 and 1940. There was an attempt to revive the marque by a new company between 1989 and 1994 in Alcester, Warwickshire....
who used the Cobham buildings to make their cars after Invicta moved to Chelsea in 1933. An attempted revival using Delage
Delage
Delage was a French luxury automobile and racecar company founded in 1905 by Louis Delage in Levallois-Perret near Paris; it was acquired by Delahaye in 1935 and ceased operation in 1953.-History:...
and Darracq
Darracq
Automobiles Darracq S.A. was a French motor vehicle manufacturing company founded in 1896 by Alexandre Darracq.Using part of the substantial profit he had made from selling his Gladiator bicycle factory, Alexandre Darracq began operating from a plant in the Parisian suburb of Suresnes...
components failed to get off the ground.
1940s reformation
Frazer Nash
Frazer Nash was a British sports car manufacturer and engineering company founded by Archibald Frazer-Nash in 1922. It produced sports cars incorporating a unique multi-chain transmission before World War II and also imported BMW cars to the UK. After the war it continued producing sports cars with...
makers, AFN Ltd.
2000s
Chippenham, Wiltshire
Chippenham is a market town in Wiltshire, England, located east of Bath and west of London. In the 2001 census the population of the town was recorded as 28,065....
, England. The car is powered by 4.6 or 5.0 litre engines supplied by Ford's Special Vehicles Team (SVT) in America which can be tuned by Invicta to deliver up to 600 bhp and has a claimed top speed of upwards of 320 km/h. The car boasts "the world's first one piece carbon fibre body to increase vehicle rigidity and minimise weight" and claims to have "the strongest chassis ever tested in the UK". The range prices start at £106,000 and finish at £160,000, or about $156,000 to $236,000 US dollars. (December 2008)
The car features AP racing 6-pot(front) and 4-pot(rear) main braking system with ventilated and cross drilled race spec discs, an independent handbrake system by Brembo
Brembo
Brembo S.p.A. is a manufacturer of automotive brake systems, especially for high-performance cars and motorcycles. It was established in Bergamo, Italy in 1961. Soon after the company was formed, it specialised in disc brakes, which were exclusively imported from the United Kingdom at the time...
, fully adjustable shock absorbers with double-wishbone race suspension, a BTR Hydratrak limited-slip race differential, 50/50 weight distribution and a tubular space-frame chassis and rollcage.
Main models
- 1925-1926 2½ litre
- 1926-1929 3 litre
- 1928-1934 4½ litre
- 1931-1935 4½ litre S-Type
- 1932-1933 12/45
- 1932-1933 12/90
- 1937-1938 2½ litre
- 1946-1950 Black Prince
- 2004- S1
Miscellaneous
There were earlier but unconnected Invicta companies which made cars in FinchleyFinchley
Finchley is a district in Barnet in north London, England. Finchley is on high ground, about north of Charing Cross. It formed an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex, becoming a municipal borough in 1933, and has formed part of Greater London since 1965...
, London from 1900 to 1905 and Leamington, Warwickshire, England from 1913 to 1914. There was also an Invicta in Turin, Italy in 1906. In addition, the name was also used on the Buick Invicta
Buick Invicta
The Buick Invicta was a full-sized automobile produced by General Motors' Buick Motor Division from 1959 to 1963. The Invicta was a continuation of the Buick Century concept that mated the standard size Buick LeSabre body with Buick's larger 401 in³ Nailhead V8 engine, yielding what was referred...
.