Although Napier cars had not been marketed for many years prior to WW2, the name was not readily forgotten by anyone interested in the development of the modern big-engined sports car. The early road-racing Napiers can truthfully be said to have been the first successful British sports cars, and to have established the reputation for sound automobile engineering. Originally, the Napier concern were connected with the manufacture of printing and engraving machines, and it was not until about the turn of the last century that the building of motor-cars was begun. In 1900 a two-cylinder Napier performed very well in the 1,000 Miles Trial, and the following year a four-cylinder 16/24-h.p. car was made. S. F. Edge made history in 1902 by winning the Gordon-Bennett Cup Race in France, in his big Napier racing car. It is thought that this car was the first large-engined vehicle ever to be fitted with a live axle.
The concern was the first to build and produce a successful six-cylinder car (1904), and thereafter the majority of Napiers were of that type, except for the 15-h.p. four-cylinder car, which was introduced in 1909. The Hutton car (25.6-h.p.) was in reality a four-cylinder Napier, and was a most successful racing vehicle. The 1914 - 1918 war years saw the Napier concern busy with aero engines, and it was in 1919 that the famous 40/50-h.p. cars were introduced.
Napier Torpedo Sports
The Torpedo Sports Napier was a very fast car indeed. It was powered by the big 102 x 127-mm. (6105-c.c.) engine, which had an aluminium cylinder block. The valves were operated by an overhead camshaft, and it was one of the first engines to be fitted with a thermostat in the
cooling system. Power output was considerably over 80 b.h.p. at very low r.p.m. Like most high-priced cars of the period (1920 - 1924), dual ignition was featured. The chassis was interesting in that the rear cantilever springs incorporated an anti-rolling device; front springing was by normal semi-elliptic. Undoubtedly the big Napiers were amongst the finest cars ever built in their day, and many of them were still on the road right up to, and even after WW2. The racing and record-breaking successes of Napier cars are far too numerous to mention here. The concern still interested themselves in large racing cars, and, prior to the Hitler war, were partly responsible for the power units of cars such as John Cobb's Napier Railton and certain of Sir Malcolm Campbell's "Bluebirds."
It is to be regretted that the interests of the concern in heavier engineering caused the abandonment of private car manufacture. British car production was all the poorer for the absence of the magnificently conceived Napiers.
