THE A TYPE VAUXHALL 1908 to 1915
The 20hp A Type was the first production Vauxhall designed by Laurence Pomeroy: it became the most acclaimed 3 litre of its day and at Brooklands on 26th October 1910, it became the first 20 hp car to exceed 100 mph of any make in the world.
Pomeroy had joined Vauxhall Motors in 1906 as an assistant draughtsman, at the age of twenty-two, and first made his mark in the 1908 RAC and Scottish Reliability Trial, held in June of that year.
Originally the Company had intended to enter a 12/16 hp X Type in the Trial. This car had a "T" head 85mm x 95mm side-valve engine and had been in production since 1906. However FW Hodges, Chief Designer at Vauxhall at the time, was away in Egypt on holiday and young Pomeroy, by then promoted to Assistant Designer, seized this opportunity to develop his own design for the event.
On the engine test bed the X Type could only develop 23.5 bhp at 1,800 revs, whereas the Pomeroy design, later to be known as the Y Type, developed 38 bhp at 2,500 revs. On this basis the Company decided to enter the Y Type in the 2000 Miles Trial.
Two of these cars were made by the Company for the 1908 RAC Trial: one was entered in the event and a second car was kept in reserve. The Vauxhall Y1, driven by Percy Kidner, completed the whole event with the loss of fewer marks, in terms of time penalties, than any other car in the trial, irrespective of class. The car won Class E of the Trial and the overall event, second place being awarded to a 40-50 hp Rolls Royce.
The A Type was developed from the Y Type prototype, following its outstanding success in the 1908 RAC & Scottish 2000 Mile Reliability Trial, and was put into production as the A09 car.
In fact, the cars marketed by Vauxhall as the A Type from 1908 to 1914 were three quite distinct models: the A09, then the A11 and A12, all designated as 20 hp cars, and the 16/20 hp A Type. These cars represent a continuous evolution from 27th October 1908, when the first A09 was manufactured, up to the end of 1914 when mass production halted. A few were produced in the early years of the War and some remnants were put together to make one car after the end of the War, this car leaving the factory on 2nd October 1920, as the last A Type made by the Company.
In broad terms, the A09 was a development of the X Type, initially with a three speed gearbox with three mountings on the sub-frame, but converted to a four speed gearbox towards the end of the production run, and with the Y Type engine installed in a light U section chassis. At least the first 70 cars retained the sheet copper sump, as fitted to the X Type engines, before the aluminium cast sump was introduced that was retained on most engines into the mid-1920s.
From its inception, the A Type was conceived as a 3 litre car with a 90mm x 120mm five bearing forced lubrication side-valve monobloc engine. Pistons were made of cast iron and were available in a number of crown heights, to give a range of compressions to suit different quality fuels. However, there was a fundamental change in engine design between the A12 and the 16/20 hp A Type. The earlier models had a separate inlet manifold, a massive exhaust bottle rather than a manifold, and the camshaft and magneto were driven by direct gears from the crankshaft. For the 16/20 A type, the block was redesigned with an integral inlet manifold, a finned exhaust manifold and the gear drive to camshaft and magneto was replaced by inverted tooth "silent" chain drive, as fitted to all D Types and later Pomeroy-designed cars.
In 1909, the A09 engine produced 38 bhp, by the following year the power output was raised to 60 bhp, and in its most advanced form, as fitted to the 1913 Coupe de L'Auto cars, the engine output was quoted as 80 bhp, as reported by Pomeroy's son.
Cooling in the A09, A11 and A12 was by fan and thermo-siphon, whereas in the 16/20 hp, most were cooled by thermo-siphon but some included a water pump, integral within the water inlet pipe and driven by belt off the front of the crankshaft.
In the earlier years, the A09 and A11 were supplied with 30mm White & Poppe carburettors. For the A12, some were fitted with the White & Poppe carburettor but the 36mm Zenith carburettor was also fitted. However for the 16/20 hp A Type, although a few had White & Poppe carburettors, the 36mm Zenith was preferred, but as these became unavailable the Company resorted to 26mm Claudel Hobson carburettors.
In all the early cars petrol supply was gravity feed from a tank mounted under the driver's seat. For the A12 model, fuel supply was usually gravity feed but in a few cars this was replaced by forced supply from an air pressurised tank mounted between the rear chassis forks. For 16/20 hp cars the fuel supply was always by force feed from a rear mounted tank.
Similarly, in the A09, A11 and A12 cars, the Bosch D magneto was standard ignition equipment. For the 16/20 hp A Type, this was replaced by the Bosch ZU4 magneto, but as the Bosch product became scarce, the American Eisman EK4 was fitted, and the last production A Type was supplied with a Simms SR4 magneto.
It is in the chassis that the most obvious differences between the A Type models are found.
In the early years of production, the A09, A11 and A12 were produced in two wheelbases (9'7" and 10'3"), with the additional eight inches costing an extra five pounds on the chassis price. With the introduction of the 16/20 hp car from late 1912 onwards, the car was offered only in 9'9" wheel-base form.
All A Type chassis have parallel sides, with a 3inch out-tuck 4.5ins wide after the fire-board. The A09, A11 and A12 are 30ins wide at the front forks broadening to 36ins backwards after the fire-board, whereas the 16/20 hp A Type is 28ins wide at the front, widening to 34ins at the rear. In cars manufactured for the UK market the widened out-tuck only runs for some 18ins back, but in the Colonial cars, the out-tuck was tapered back to the rear cross member of the chassis, for greater load bearing strength.
Furthermore, the chassis of the A09 is of much lighter in construction, with a flimsy sub-frame of thin U section steel (3.0ins x 1.5ins) which sometimes broke, whereas the A11 onwards the chassis is made of much thicker 5/16th inch steel, with a heavy sub-frame made of 4ins angle iron of the same thickness. The chassis of the 16/20hp A Type retains the more robust construction, but is narrower, both at front and rear, than the earlier models, as described above.
In the A09 and the early A11 cars, drive was through a cone clutch, direct metal to metal onto a surface on the flywheel. This was changed towards the end of the A.11 production run to a multi-disc system, running in graphite, as is found in all later Vauxhalls of Pomeroy design. The rear axle ratio varied in the early years. For the A09 cars 17 or 19:56, and 15, 16, and 17:62 were all available, but after this the crown wheel was standardised with 62 teeth and in the A11 and A12 only 16 or 17 tooth pinions were fitted. The great majority of 16/20 hp A Types had 16 toothed pinions (1:3.85), although a few were recorded as being fitted with 15 or 17 toothed pinions.
Braking was by rear wheel brakes actuated by the hand-brake, supplemented by foot operated transmission brake. On the A09, A11 and A12 cars 12 ins brake drums were fitted, but with increased power output of the 16/20 hp A Type, 9ins drums were standard as they were on most Prince Henry cars! A triumph of heart over head, where stopping power was sacrificed for lightness of chassis.
Another major difference in the A Type series concerns the wheels. On A09 cars, artillery wheels were fitted and these were non-detachable from the axles, whereas in the A11, A12 and 16/20 hp cars, detachable wire wheels were fitted. The earliest fitted with "Riley" self-locking rings, through C rings to "knock-on" wheel nuts.
In the A09 and the A11 the king pins are vertical, giving these cars the characteristic bow-legged front end view of early Edwardian vehicles, whereas inclined king pins were first introduced in the A12 model.
As was usual in the Edwardian era, wheel diameters were reduced over the production period. In 1910 and 1911 the cars were offered with 875 x 105 tyres, in 1912 tyre size was quoted as 880 x 120 and in 1913 and 1914 tyre size was down to 815 x 105 as standard. In 1914, the car speed was quoted as 24.5 mph per 1,000 revs, in top (direct) drive.
The car was available in a number of body styles. In 1910, semi-racers, landaulettes, phaetons and cabriolets were available, with the popular semi-racer body priced at £35 0s 0d and the top of the range cabriolet at £200 0s 0d, on a chassis price of £420! By 1913 production was much more organised, with factory body styles including the rare Ascot two seater torpedo, the popular Norfolk open tourer, the Harborough sporting saloon and the Dunstan single landaulette. If you wanted more substantial body-work, but could not afford one of the Vauxhall six cylinder cars, you bought a D Type!
The production run of the A09 was 253 cars, starting on 27th October 1908. From 3rd October 1910 some 359 A11 cars were produced. The first A12 had a manufacture date of 2nd June 1912, with only 57 produced, of which 21 had 3.5 litre (95mm x 120mm) engines. 271 16/20 hp cars were produced, the first leaving the factory on the 21st November 1912, and the last on 2nd October 1920. In all, nearly nine hundred and fifty A Types were produced by the Company: 18 in 1908; 224 in the peak year of 1911; tailing off to 26 in 1915 and 1 in 1920! It was described as "The most remarkable 'twenty' in the motor car world" by the Daily Telegraph on 6th October, 1910.
Alisdaire Lockhart
THE A TYPE VAUXHALL 1908 to 1915
The 20hp A Type was the first production Vauxhall designed by Laurence Pomeroy: it became the most acclaimed 3 litre of its day and at Brooklands on 26th October 1910, it became the first 20 hp car to exceed 100 mph of any make in the world.
Pomeroy had joined Vauxhall Motors in 1906 as an assistant draughtsman, at the age of twenty-two, and first made his mark in the 1908 RAC and Scottish Reliability Trial, held in June of that year.
Originally the Company had intended to enter a 12/16 hp X Type in the Trial. This car had a "T" head 85mm x 95mm side-valve engine and had been in production since 1906. However FW Hodges, Chief Designer at Vauxhall at the time, was away in Egypt on holiday and young Pomeroy, by then promoted to Assistant Designer, seized this opportunity to develop his own design for the event.
On the engine test bed the X Type could only develop 23.5 bhp at 1,800 revs, whereas the Pomeroy design, later to be known as the Y Type, developed 38 bhp at 2,500 revs. On this basis the Company decided to enter the Y Type in the 2000 Miles Trial.
Two of these cars were made by the Company for the 1908 RAC Trial: one was entered in the event and a second car was kept in reserve. The Vauxhall Y1, driven by Percy Kidner, completed the whole event with the loss of fewer marks, in terms of time penalties, than any other car in the trial, irrespective of class. The car won Class E of the Trial and the overall event, second place being awarded to a 40-50 hp Rolls Royce.
The A Type was developed from the Y Type prototype, following its outstanding success in the 1908 RAC & Scottish 2000 Mile Reliability Trial, and was put into production as the A09 car.
In fact, the cars marketed by Vauxhall as the A Type from 1908 to 1914 were three quite distinct models: the A09, then the A11 and A12, all designated as 20 hp cars, and the 16/20 hp A Type. These cars represent a continuous evolution from 27th October 1908, when the first A09 was manufactured, up to the end of 1914 when mass production halted. A few were produced in the early years of the War and some remnants were put together to make one car after the end of the War, this car leaving the factory on 2nd October 1920, as the last A Type made by the Company.
In broad terms, the A09 was a development of the X Type, initially with a three speed gearbox with three mountings on the sub-frame, but converted to a four speed gearbox towards the end of the production run, and with the Y Type engine installed in a light U section chassis. At least the first 70 cars retained the sheet copper sump, as fitted to the X Type engines, before the aluminium cast sump was introduced that was retained on most engines into the mid-1920s.
From its inception, the A Type was conceived as a 3 litre car with a 90mm x 120mm five bearing forced lubrication side-valve monobloc engine. Pistons were made of cast iron and were available in a number of crown heights, to give a range of compressions to suit different quality fuels. However, there was a fundamental change in engine design between the A12 and the 16/20 hp A Type. The earlier models had a separate inlet manifold, a massive exhaust bottle rather than a manifold, and the camshaft and magneto were driven by direct gears from the crankshaft. For the 16/20 A type, the block was redesigned with an integral inlet manifold, a finned exhaust manifold and the gear drive to camshaft and magneto was replaced by inverted tooth "silent" chain drive, as fitted to all D Types and later Pomeroy-designed cars.
In 1909, the A09 engine produced 38 bhp, by the following year the power output was raised to 60 bhp, and in its most advanced form, as fitted to the 1913 Coupe de L'Auto cars, the engine output was quoted as 80 bhp, as reported by Pomeroy's son.
Cooling in the A09, A11 and A12 was by fan and thermo-siphon, whereas in the 16/20 hp, most were cooled by thermo-siphon but some included a water pump, integral within the water inlet pipe and driven by belt off the front of the crankshaft.
In the earlier years, the A09 and A11 were supplied with 30mm White & Poppe carburettors. For the A12, some were fitted with the White & Poppe carburettor but the 36mm Zenith carburettor was also fitted. However for the 16/20 hp A Type, although a few had White & Poppe carburettors, the 36mm Zenith was preferred, but as these became unavailable the Company resorted to 26mm Claudel Hobson carburettors.
In all the early cars petrol supply was gravity feed from a tank mounted under the driver's seat. For the A12 model, fuel supply was usually gravity feed but in a few cars this was replaced by forced supply from an air pressurised tank mounted between the rear chassis forks. For 16/20 hp cars the fuel supply was always by force feed from a rear mounted tank.
Similarly, in the A09, A11 and A12 cars, the Bosch D magneto was standard ignition equipment. For the 16/20 hp A Type, this was replaced by the Bosch ZU4 magneto, but as the Bosch product became scarce, the American Eisman EK4 was fitted, and the last production A Type was supplied with a Simms SR4 magneto.
It is in the chassis that the most obvious differences between the A Type models are found.
In the early years of production, the A09, A11 and A12 were produced in two wheelbases (9'7" and 10'3"), with the additional eight inches costing an extra five pounds on the chassis price. With the introduction of the 16/20 hp car from late 1912 onwards, the car was offered only in 9'9" wheel-base form.
All A Type chassis have parallel sides, with a 3inch out-tuck 4.5ins wide after the fire-board. The A09, A11 and A12 are 30ins wide at the front forks broadening to 36ins backwards after the fire-board, whereas the 16/20 hp A Type is 28ins wide at the front, widening to 34ins at the rear. In cars manufactured for the UK market the widened out-tuck only runs for some 18ins back, but in the Colonial cars, the out-tuck was tapered back to the rear cross member of the chassis, for greater load bearing strength.
Furthermore, the chassis of the A09 is of much lighter in construction, with a flimsy sub-frame of thin U section steel (3.0ins x 1.5ins) which sometimes broke, whereas the A11 onwards the chassis is made of much thicker 5/16th inch steel, with a heavy sub-frame made of 4ins angle iron of the same thickness. The chassis of the 16/20hp A Type retains the more robust construction, but is narrower, both at front and rear, than the earlier models, as described above.
In the A09 and the early A11 cars, drive was through a cone clutch, direct metal to metal onto a surface on the flywheel. This was changed towards the end of the A.11 production run to a multi-disc system, running in graphite, as is found in all later Vauxhalls of Pomeroy design. The rear axle ratio varied in the early years. For the A09 cars 17 or 19:56, and 15, 16, and 17:62 were all available, but after this the crown wheel was standardised with 62 teeth and in the A11 and A12 only 16 or 17 tooth pinions were fitted. The great majority of 16/20 hp A Types had 16 toothed pinions (1:3.85), although a few were recorded as being fitted with 15 or 17 toothed pinions.
Braking was by rear wheel brakes actuated by the hand-brake, supplemented by foot operated transmission brake. On the A09, A11 and A12 cars 12 ins brake drums were fitted, but with increased power output of the 16/20 hp A Type, 9ins drums were standard as they were on most Prince Henry cars! A triumph of heart over head, where stopping power was sacrificed for lightness of chassis.
Another major difference in the A Type series concerns the wheels. On A09 cars, artillery wheels were fitted and these were non-detachable from the axles, whereas in the A11, A12 and 16/20 hp cars, detachable wire wheels were fitted. The earliest fitted with "Riley" self-locking rings, through C rings to "knock-on" wheel nuts.
In the A09 and the A11 the king pins are vertical, giving these cars the characteristic bow-legged front end view of early Edwardian vehicles, whereas inclined king pins were first introduced in the A12 model.
As was usual in the Edwardian era, wheel diameters were reduced over the production period. In 1910 and 1911 the cars were offered with 875 x 105 tyres, in 1912 tyre size was quoted as 880 x 120 and in 1913 and 1914 tyre size was down to 815 x 105 as standard. In 1914, the car speed was quoted as 24.5 mph per 1,000 revs, in top (direct) drive.
The car was available in a number of body styles. In 1910, semi-racers, landaulettes, phaetons and cabriolets were available, with the popular semi-racer body priced at £35 0s 0d and the top of the range cabriolet at £200 0s 0d, on a chassis price of £420! By 1913 production was much more organised, with factory body styles including the rare Ascot two seater torpedo, the popular Norfolk open tourer, the Harborough sporting saloon and the Dunstan single landaulette. If you wanted more substantial body-work, but could not afford one of the Vauxhall six cylinder cars, you bought a D Type!
The production run of the A09 was 253 cars, starting on 27th October 1908. From 3rd October 1910 some 359 A11 cars were produced. The first A12 had a manufacture date of 2nd June 1912, with only 57 produced, of which 21 had 3.5 litre (95mm x 120mm) engines. 271 16/20 hp cars were produced, the first leaving the factory on the 21st November 1912, and the last on 2nd October 1920. In all, nearly nine hundred and fifty A Types were produced by the Company: 18 in 1908; 224 in the peak year of 1911; tailing off to 26 in 1915 and 1 in 1920! It was described as "The most remarkable 'twenty' in the motor car world" by the Daily Telegraph on 6th October, 1910.
Alisdaire Lockhart
