The Prince Henry Vauxhall (1910 to 1915)
On 23rd April 1910, the Vauxhall Motor Company announced in the Autocar that it would enter three special 3 litre cars in the Prince Heinrich of Germany Trial that year. The cars were to be a new design from Laurence Pomeroy, designated the C10 Type, in keeping with Company practice for identifying new models. It introduced the distinctive V radiator on a special narrow and tapered chassis with a high lift over the rear axle. This chassis would carry a light body which was of generally sporting appearance for the time.
A new engine with overhead valves was also designed as it was the intention of the Company to have a “new” car for the Trial. However the new engine proved a complete failure and at the last moment the cars were fitted with tuned A Type side-valve engines and despatched to Germany from Harwich on 21st May for the event.
The event took place in early June and while none of these cars won the Prince’s Trial, they performed so well against other entrants with much larger engines that they attracted widespread interest. The Company continued to develop the cars for their sporting and record-breaking endeavours.
In an interview which appeared in Autocar on the 25th June that year, Percy Kidner gave the game away in trying to rationalise these cars performance against the German opposition. He explained that the Company knew they would not win the Trial as the overhead valve engines were not (and never were) ready in time, but that the Germans had copied the rules to the full, by using much larger engines (105x165mm) and fitting light narrow bodies which only complied with the regulations for the breadth of the body at one point, whereas Vauxhall had fitted proper touring bodies capable of carrying four people. Well, if you cannot win, let’s accuse the winners of cheating!
On their return to this country, the cars were fitted with narrow single-seat racing bodies for the August meeting at Brooklands, to compete for the O’Gorman Trophy. Two of these cars were entered in the Race and they finished first and second, with Hancock winning with a fastest lap of 80.82 mph. After this race, two of the cars had their touring bodies re-fitted, while the third car returned to Brooklands that autumn. On 26th October 1910, Hancock established a new 21hp Class E Record for the flying half mile at 100.08 mph after many attempts.
Thus, in 1910 the Prince Henry Vauxhall was born to become widely acknowledged as the first British Sports Car and, equally important, the first car in the world to exceed 100 mph for a 21hp car.
Vauxhall then made two “new” Prince Henry cars – registered as V 1088 and V 1089 - and one of these – V 1088 - had Hancock’s 100 mph engine fitted for Percy Kidner to drive in the 1912 Swedish Winter Trial.
In this sense, the A Type engine came to the rescue of the Prince Henry and during the first two years from 1910, the car was known as the 20 hp "Prince Henry" Type, carrying both A11 and C10 Type engine and chassis numbers. However it was not until the end of 1911 that the car was first offered to the public in the Company's sales literature.
The technical specification of the 3 litre Prince Henry Vauxhall is as follows: the C10 chassis was made of pressed steel channel section 28 ins across the front tapering to 32 ins at the rear with a wheel base of 9ft 5 ins. The engine was a tuned version of the standard A11 side-valve engine 90mm x 120 mm 3054 cc with a White & Poppe or Zenith carburettor, high tension Bosch magneto, water cooled by thermo-syphon. Transmission was by cone and later by multi-plate clutch driving four forward and one reverse gear.
In fact, the Company made very few 3 litre Prince Henry cars over the three year period and most of these were made in the final year.Total production was less than sixty cars, the last twelve cars had stretched engines of 95mm x 120 mm, 3,402 cc capacity.
The bored-out 3-litre engine was introduced to stave off competition from Sunbeam and Talbot, but in late 1912, the Company introduced the D Type Vauxhall, with its larger and more powerful engine. It was natural, therefore, to substitute the ageing A11 engine with the D Type engine of 95mm x 140 mm (3996 cc) into a much modified C10 chassis to take the larger and longer engine. The D Type engine had a number of developments from the earlier side-valve engines: the camshaft and magneto drive were by inverted tooth "silent" chain drive for ease of adjustment and the engine had a water pump belt driven off the front of the magneto drive. The chassis was widened by 2 ins front and back while the wheelbase was extended to 10 ft with the radiator forward over the chassis front cross-member, giving the cars a nose heavy appearance. However, this was rapidly modified after the first few cars by fitting the radiator 2 ins back to give the beautiful appearance of the later cars.
The 4-litre Prince Henry proved very popular, especially with the "young bucks" of the age, and total production was around 130 cars, with the last car off the assembly line in 1915.
Alisdaire Lockhart - October 2013
On 23rd April 1910, the Vauxhall Motor Company announced in the Autocar that it would enter three special 3 litre cars in the Prince Heinrich of Germany Trial that year. The cars were to be a new design from Laurence Pomeroy, designated the C10 Type, in keeping with Company practice for identifying new models. It introduced the distinctive V radiator on a special narrow and tapered chassis with a high lift over the rear axle. This chassis would carry a light body which was of generally sporting appearance for the time.
A new engine with overhead valves was also designed as it was the intention of the Company to have a “new” car for the Trial. However the new engine proved a complete failure and at the last moment the cars were fitted with tuned A Type side-valve engines and despatched to Germany from Harwich on 21st May for the event.
The event took place in early June and while none of these cars won the Prince’s Trial, they performed so well against other entrants with much larger engines that they attracted widespread interest. The Company continued to develop the cars for their sporting and record-breaking endeavours.
In an interview which appeared in Autocar on the 25th June that year, Percy Kidner gave the game away in trying to rationalise these cars performance against the German opposition. He explained that the Company knew they would not win the Trial as the overhead valve engines were not (and never were) ready in time, but that the Germans had copied the rules to the full, by using much larger engines (105x165mm) and fitting light narrow bodies which only complied with the regulations for the breadth of the body at one point, whereas Vauxhall had fitted proper touring bodies capable of carrying four people. Well, if you cannot win, let’s accuse the winners of cheating!
On their return to this country, the cars were fitted with narrow single-seat racing bodies for the August meeting at Brooklands, to compete for the O’Gorman Trophy. Two of these cars were entered in the Race and they finished first and second, with Hancock winning with a fastest lap of 80.82 mph. After this race, two of the cars had their touring bodies re-fitted, while the third car returned to Brooklands that autumn. On 26th October 1910, Hancock established a new 21hp Class E Record for the flying half mile at 100.08 mph after many attempts.
Thus, in 1910 the Prince Henry Vauxhall was born to become widely acknowledged as the first British Sports Car and, equally important, the first car in the world to exceed 100 mph for a 21hp car.
Vauxhall then made two “new” Prince Henry cars – registered as V 1088 and V 1089 - and one of these – V 1088 - had Hancock’s 100 mph engine fitted for Percy Kidner to drive in the 1912 Swedish Winter Trial.
In this sense, the A Type engine came to the rescue of the Prince Henry and during the first two years from 1910, the car was known as the 20 hp "Prince Henry" Type, carrying both A11 and C10 Type engine and chassis numbers. However it was not until the end of 1911 that the car was first offered to the public in the Company's sales literature.
The technical specification of the 3 litre Prince Henry Vauxhall is as follows: the C10 chassis was made of pressed steel channel section 28 ins across the front tapering to 32 ins at the rear with a wheel base of 9ft 5 ins. The engine was a tuned version of the standard A11 side-valve engine 90mm x 120 mm 3054 cc with a White & Poppe or Zenith carburettor, high tension Bosch magneto, water cooled by thermo-syphon. Transmission was by cone and later by multi-plate clutch driving four forward and one reverse gear.
In fact, the Company made very few 3 litre Prince Henry cars over the three year period and most of these were made in the final year.Total production was less than sixty cars, the last twelve cars had stretched engines of 95mm x 120 mm, 3,402 cc capacity.
The bored-out 3-litre engine was introduced to stave off competition from Sunbeam and Talbot, but in late 1912, the Company introduced the D Type Vauxhall, with its larger and more powerful engine. It was natural, therefore, to substitute the ageing A11 engine with the D Type engine of 95mm x 140 mm (3996 cc) into a much modified C10 chassis to take the larger and longer engine. The D Type engine had a number of developments from the earlier side-valve engines: the camshaft and magneto drive were by inverted tooth "silent" chain drive for ease of adjustment and the engine had a water pump belt driven off the front of the magneto drive. The chassis was widened by 2 ins front and back while the wheelbase was extended to 10 ft with the radiator forward over the chassis front cross-member, giving the cars a nose heavy appearance. However, this was rapidly modified after the first few cars by fitting the radiator 2 ins back to give the beautiful appearance of the later cars.
The 4-litre Prince Henry proved very popular, especially with the "young bucks" of the age, and total production was around 130 cars, with the last car off the assembly line in 1915.
Alisdaire Lockhart - October 2013