The Humber car company has featured a few times in my history articles. Most people know the Humber brand from the Rootes Group and was seen as the luxury brand within the group. Thomas Humber who founded the company started like many entrepreneurs in the 19th century by building bicycles. He was very successful opening 3 factories across the UK. He had invented a "safety … [Read more...]
Morgan
Morgan Motor Company is one of those classic old companies that hasn’t been gobbled up by a conglomerate and has survived well over 100 years producing sports cars that are quite niche in style but has an enthusiastic following the world over. Henry Morgan founded the company in 1910 after studying engineering and working for Great Western Railways in the UK within their … [Read more...]
Singer
Like many European manufacturers, this week’s article starts in the 19th century with a company making bicycles – Singer were a successful maker of bicycles, motorcycles and then later cars. George Singer started making bicycles in 1875 in Coventry in the UK. Coventry was the heart of bicycle making at the time. With the advent of the internal combustion engine, Singer … [Read more...]
Peel
Peel Engineering was formed on the Isle of Man between England and Ireland in the small town of Peel, founded as a settlement prior to 800 when the Vikings arrived from Scandinavia. On this windswept island were a group of boat builders who recognised that Glass Reinforced Plastic, or GRP, could be used for more than building boats. In the 1950s they started to make fairings … [Read more...]
AC Cars
If you mention AC to most enthusiasts they immediately think of the Cobra – of which many fibreglass replicas exist. This car was the quintessential high performance sports car and was created at a time when many manufacturers were building similar vehicles. More on this later but let’s start at the beginning back in 1903. It was in 1903 that the forerunner of AC was founded … [Read more...]