The policy of the Alta Engineering Co., Ltd., had always been to develop sports cars alongside their racing products. As improvements were incorporated in the single-seaters, so they were passed on to the production sports cars. The Alta cars were, at the time, possibly the fastest road vehicles offered for sale in Britain, and, in the hands of private owners, they made a regular habit of putting up best time of the day in all manner of speed events, and beating up the opposition in sports-car races.
The single- seater exponents, of course, were very well known in their day. George Abecassis, Charles Mortimer, Bob Cowell, Geoffrey Taylor (builder-designer), and so on were amongst the few drivers of British cars who could meet (and often beat) the E.R.A.s and Maseratis on equal terms. The first Alta was built around 1928, and Geoff Taylor drove it hard in every type of event before he was satisfied that he could produce a satisfactory sports car. Alta No. 1 had a 1074-c.c. engine (60 x 95-mm.), and, like all Altas since, had twin overhead camshafts operating the valves. Taylor's long experience with the special head for sports Austins resulted in the Alta head being constructed entirely from aluminium alloy. The cylinder block made use of wet liners made of centrifugally shrunk cast iron. Crankcase, sump and cylinder block were all of aluminium alloy, whilst the very robust crankshaft was carried in four main bearings.
A racing-type gearbox of the crash type was fitted (ratios, 4.4, 6.4, 9.3 and 13.7). Later cars, however, were fitted with self- changing boxes. Clutch was of the single, dry-plate pattern, whilst the prop, shaft was carried in a torque tube, and the final drive was by spiral bevel. The low-set frame was underslung at the front end, and made use of Jonas Woodhead racing semi-elliptic springs. The same concern was also responsible for the quarter-elliptic rear.
The brakes were of Taylor's own design, cable operated and extremely efficient, whilst steering and road-holding were all that the sports-car driver desired. Bodywork, however, was a bit on the amateurish side, but was vastly improved in subsequent production cars. The Alta was designed with a view to supercharging, and the majority of the cars were, in fact, blown, especially the later 1.5-litre and 2-litre productions. The cars produced just before the Hitler war were incredibly fast, and were rapidly putting the prestige of British sports cars on a much higher level than formerly obtained, particularly in the 2-litre classes.
The engine is basically the original 1074-c.c. four-cylinder unit, developed to a high degree of efficiency. The camshafts were driven by dual chains. Un-supercharged, the 9 h.p. unit pushed out over 68 b.h.p. at 6,000 r.p.m. The blown 12 h.p. (68.75x 100, 1485-c.c.) engine was capable of 120 b.h.p. at 5700 r.p.m., giving the sports car a maximum speed of 115 - 120 m.p.h. The racing engines exceeded 180 b.h.p. at the same revs., and Abecassis's old silver single-seater was reputed to be capable of over 140 m.p.h.
The 2-litle cars, of course, had a much higher output and Taylor's own car, which held the old half-mile Brighton record, must have had a phenomenal stable-full of horses. Beadle's 2-litre racing car showed signs of being one of the fastest 2000-c.c. cars in the country, but the war intervened just as the car began to get really cracking. The 1939 sports Alta was a beautiful little car, and looked every inch a thoroughbred. It was intended to produce a torsion- bar sprung, all-independent two-seater, on the lines of the racing cars, but Hitler put a stop to Taylor's plans. |
