The Xtra was an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 three wheel cyclecar

Cyclecar

Cyclecars were small, generally inexpensive cars manufactured mainly between 1910 and the late 1920s.-General description:Cyclecars were propelled by single cylinder, V-twin or more rarely four cylinder engines, often air cooled. Sometimes these had been originally used in motorcycles and other...

 built from 1922 to 1924 by Xtra Cars, Ltd., of Chertsey

Chertsey

Chertsey is a town in Surrey, England, on the River Thames and its tributary rivers such as the River Bourne. It can be accessed by road from junction 11 of the M25 London orbital motorway. It shares borders with Staines, Laleham, Shepperton, Addlestone, Woking, Thorpe and Egham...

, Surrey.

A very basic machine, it was designed by Cuthbert Clarke and resembled a three-wheeled sidecar

Sidecar

A sidecar is a one-wheeled device attached to the side of a motorcycle, scooter, or bicycle, producing a three-wheeled vehicle.-History:A sidecar appeared in a cartoon by George Moore in the January 7, 1903, issue of the British newspaper Motor Cycling. Three weeks later, a provisional patent was...

 in most respects. The car was powered by a 3.75hp single-cylinder, two stroke, 270 cc Villiers

Villiers Engineering

Villiers Engineering was a manufacturer of motorcycles and cycle parts, and an engineering company based in Villiers Street, Wolverhampton, England....

 engine and had a friction drive two-speed transmission

Transmission (mechanics)

A machine consists of a power source and a power transmission system, which provides controlled application of the power. Merriam-Webster defines transmission as: an assembly of parts including the speed-changing gears and the propeller shaft by which the power is transmitted from an engine to a...

, using two cork covered wheels of different sizes, chain driven by the engine. These wheels ran within a drum which was mounted on the single rear wheel and one would make contact to provide drive at the appropriate ratio. They were controlled by a lever which could be pushed or pulled to engage drive and had a central neutral position. There was no reverse gear. Rear suspension was by a coil spring on the engine frame. There was no front axle, the wheels were controlled by two transverse leaf springs. Steering was by rack and pinion. Braking was on the rear wheel only and used shoes operating on the outside of the transmission drum.

The first Xtra was a single seater (monocar) with a light plywood

Plywood

Plywood is a type of manufactured timber made from thin sheets of wood veneer. It is one of the most widely used wood products. It is flexible, inexpensive, workable, re-usable, and can usually be locally manufactured...

 on ash frame body with an occasional seat behind the driver on top of the engine . It featured acetylene

Acetylene

Acetylene is the chemical compound with the formula C2H2. It is a hydrocarbon and the simplest alkyne. This colorless gas is widely used as a fuel and a chemical building block. It is unstable in pure form and thus is usually handled as a solution.As an alkyne, acetylene is unsaturated because...

 lighting. A top speed of above 30 mph (48 km/h) was claimed .

The monocar was joined in November 1922 by a "Sociable" two seater with side by side seats and an option of having an 8 hp, V-twin JAP

JA Prestwich Industries Ltd

JA Prestwich Industries, was an English engineering company named after founder John Alfred Prestwich, which produced cinematographic equipment, internal combustion engines , and other examples of precision engineering.-History:J. A...

engine in place of the Villiers.

Xtra went into voluntary liquidation in May 1924 and was finally wound up in July 1926. It is not known how many cars were made.