John Godfrey Parry-Thomas was an outstanding engineer born in Wrexham, North Wales, in 1885. In 1917, he was appointed chief engineer of Leyland Motors Ltd. He patented electrical transmission systems, the Thomas piston, and designed an advanced luxury car, the Leyland Eight. When plans to manufacture the Leyland Eight were axed, Thomas decided to set […]

A case of bad timing An engine with more cylinders gives greater power than one of equivalent capacity but fewer cylinders. An engine with more cylinders also fires more times for each crankshaft revolution, giving a smoother delivery of torque (turning force). These were the reasons that Cadillac chose a V16 for its new luxury car-a

In 1926 the ailing Duesenberg firm was bought by the businessman Errett Lobban Cord, who already owned the Auburn motor company and would go on to create a famous car marque under his own name. Cord briefed the Duesenberg brothers to design the ultimate high-speed luxury U.S. car, and in 1928 they came up with

The Type 35 Bugatti was emblematic of France’s racing prowess in the 1920s. In motor sport, it was the French equivalent of the legendary British Bentley. The Bugatti was the product of an engineer born into a family of artists: For Ettore Bugatti, aesthetic perfection was as important as technical flair. Model Bugatti Type 35B,

The 1926 Bugatti Type 41 was Ettore Bugatti’s vainglorious attempt to sell his cars to emperors and kings. The lofty Italian-born carmaker called it “La Royale”. The car had a 779ci (12,763cc) straight-eight engine, with three-valves-per-cylinder, but just a single carburetor. It had a wheelbase of 14ft (4.3m), longer than a complete Subaru Impreza, and

The great Walter Owen Bentley of Bentley Motors rather disapproved of his most famous car, the 268ci (4,398cc) “Blower” Bentley. In the great tradition of steam (Bentley served his apprenticeship at the Great Northern Railway’s Doncaster works), he preferred to gain power by increasing engine capacity. “WO” had every right to be concerned, because, as

Alfa Romeo 6C 1750 (1929-33) One of the finest models ever produced by Alfa Romeo, the 6C 1750 is often considered to be the first true Grand Tourer. Equally at home on the road and the racetrack, the 6C was supplied as a rolling chassis upon which specialists ranging from British company James Young to

Austin Seven 1922 Herbert Austin quit Wolseley in 1905 to set up his own company, called Austin, and by the early 1920s it was one of Britain’s most important carmakers with 22,000 employees. But it was not all plain sailing. The company struggled after World War I, as the inevitable financial downturn bit hard, and

Vauxhall KN 1909 Before World War II, Vauxhall, still very much with us today as General Motors’ British subsidiary, was as eager as any maker of sports cars to prove its products on the racetrack. At the newly opened Brooklands circuit in Surrey, the company wanted to show that a relatively “ordinary” car could reach

The electric vehicle is not a recent development. In fact, the electric vehicle has been around for over 100 years, and it has an interesting history of development that continues to the present. The early electric vehicles, such as the 1902 Wood’s Phaeton, were little more than electrified horseless carriages and surreys.The Phaeton had a