Vintage Vauxhall Motors Advertisement

Restored and enhanced by Scenesfromthepast.net. Alexander Wilson founded the company in Vauxhall, London in 1857. Originally named Alex Wilson and Company, then Vauxhall Iron Works, the company built pumps and marine engines. In 1903, the company built its first car, a five-horsepower model steered using a tiller, with two forward gears and no reverse gear. This led to a better design which was made available for sale. To expand, the company moved the majority of its production to Luton in 1905. The company continued to trade under the name Vauxhall Iron Works until 1907, when the modern name of Vauxhall Motors was adopted. The company was characterized by its sporting models, but after World War I the company's designs were more austere. Much of Vauxhall's success during the early years of Vauxhall Motors was due to a man called Laurence Pomeroy. Pomeroy joined Vauxhall in 1906 as an assistant draughtsman, at the age of twenty-two. In the winter of 1907/8 the chief designer F.W. Hodges took a long holiday and in his absence the managing director Percy Kidner asked Pomeroy to design an engine for cars to be entered in the 1908 RAC and Scottish Reliability Trial, held in June of that year. The cars were so successful that Pomeroy took over from Hodges.[6] His first design, the Y-Type Y1, had outstanding success at the 1908 RAC & Scottish 2000 Mile Reliability Trials showing excellent hill climbing ability with an aggregate of 37 seconds less time in the hill climbs than any other car in its class. With unparalleled speeds around the Brooklands circuit the Vauxhall was so far ahead of all other cars of any class that the driver could relax, accomplishing the 200 miles (320 km) at an average speed of 46 mph (74 km/h), when the car was capable of 55 mph (89 km/h). The Y-Type went on to win class E of the Trial. The Y-Type was so successful that it was decided to put the car into production as the A09 car. This spawned the legendary A-Type Vauxhall. Four distinct types of this were produced between 27 October 1908 up to when mass production halted in 1914. One last A-Type was put together in 1920. Capable of up to 100 mph (160 km/h) the A-Type Vauxhall was one of the most acclaimed 3 litre cars of its day. Two cars were entered in the 1910 Prince Henry Trials, and although not outright winners, performed well and replicas were made for sale officially as the C-type but now known as the Prince Henry. During World War I Vauxhall made large numbers of the D-type, a Prince Henry chassis with de-rated engine, for use as staff cars for the British forces. After the 1918 armistice, the D-type remained in production along with the sporting E-type. Pomeroy left in 1919, moving to the United States, and was replaced by C.E. King.[6] In spite of making good cars, expensive pedigree cars of the kind that had served the company well in the prosperous pre-war years were no longer in demand the company struggled to make a consistent profit and Vauxhall looked for a major strategic partner.