Here on Motoring Weekly we have written about all three parts of this entity and this grouping of marques didn’t last that long in an industry that was hit by the Great Depression of the late 1920s and was constantly evolving with smaller companies either going bust or being gobbled up by larger conglomerates. The three companies had an interesting evolution of their own … [Read more...]
Sunbeam
Over the past few years, Motoring Weekly has described the brands that became part of the Rootes Group and for this article we add to the list with the Sunbeam company. Sunbeam were famous not only for road cars but also aero engines, which ended up in Land Speed Record winning cars. The Sunbeam company was originally founded as a bicycle maker in 1877. John Marston was a … [Read more...]
Lagonda
Several weeks ago I wrote about Sir David Brown who owned two marques, one of which was Lagonda – a classic British sports car, although created by an American abroad. Wilbur Gunn founded the company to make motorcycles and completed his first car in 1907 – the Torpedo with a six cylinder 20hp motor. Like other budding manufacturers he entered early races and managed to win … [Read more...]
Lea-Francis
This history article is about Lea-Francis, another bicycle maker who moved into motorised transportation - namely cars and motorcycles. The company was founded in 1895 as a bicycle manufacturer and as the new car industry was being kick started, the owners, Richard Lea and Graham Francis decided to cash in. During 1903, they developed a car with a four litre, 3 cylinder … [Read more...]
Reliant
This weeks marque article is about the British car company, Reliant, not to be confused with the very successful Plymouth Reliant model of the 1980s. The British company was founded in 1935 when a designer, Tom Williams, left the Raleigh bicycle company to build a three-wheeled delivery van that he designed for them but they didn’t want to manufacture anymore. He set up a … [Read more...]