Invicta Reviews and Road Tests

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Invicta


The original Invicta 4.1-litre low-chassis model was a blue-blooded sport that warmed up Brooklands, performed heroically at Monte Carlo and the gruelling Alpine Coupe des Glaciers. The original bearer of the name was a hairy car designed for high performance yet possessed of hour-glass reliability. Owners of Invictas would wax profound when they told of the great car's latter virtue. For designers (of the Fairmile, Cobham, England Invicta) went to great lengths to endow their big, impressive cars with extra stamina and fortitude needed for high-speed touring and competition. But they went to even greater lengths to make theirs a well mannered thoroughbred capable not only of getting there in a hurry but of getting back as well.

The high-priced speedsters were fitted with everything conceivable to assure fast motoring and a safe return. Invictas were aptly described as the "just in case car" because of the long list of spare utilities included in their innards. The Invicta's 6ESC Meadow's engine rated twin electric fuel pumps that fed twin S.U. carburettors, but just in case, a pressurised fuel system with dash air pump and a reserve tank (gravity fed) were ready in an instant to take over if the electric fuel system failed. A reserve oil tank and twin ignitions to two banks of plugs added even greater emphasis on reliability.

To further ensure a minimum of pit stops in competition and to make a day or a week of fast motoring worry-free, Invictas carried dual sets of shoes enclosed in their rear brake drums (a separate set for operation by hand brake) plus adjustable oil seals. The rear hubs were machined at opposite sides in case they suffered from worn key-ways. Two-of-a-kind appendages appeared again at the rear axle, where the shafts turned on not one, but two taper roller bearings. On the performance side the mighty Invicta was a threat to any marque. A handful of the 4.5-litre low-slung models that were record setters in the pre-World War II days are still around.
 
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