British and European Car Spotters Guide - 1957

After the gloomy forecasts of the prevIous year by so many people, it must have been with more than a little satisfaction that the British Motor Industry was able to announce that during the year they had exxported more cars than in any previous comparable period. British sales on the other hand showed an increase of only 6% over the previous year - due largely to purchase tax and credit restrictions. The year's total car export figure was 424,320, whereas UK home registrations numbered 438,301 (including hackneys); a grand total of 862,621 cars. In addition the industry regained from Germany, during June and July, the position as leaders in the imported car market in the USA, and reduced Germany's ascendency over Britain in car exports from 27,500 in JanuaryyMarch to a mere 32 cars in May-JuIy. Newcomers to car showrooms during the year included the Berkeley sports car, the Jaguar 3.4 and Mk VIII, the Singer Gazelle, the Vauxhall Victor and the Wolseley 1500 saloons.

The Dellows

The Birmingham company of Dellow started out building competition cars and then going on to make road cars. At the time competition seemed to be the ideal base for the small manufacturer to advertise their wares The basis for their cars was the Ford 10, and the Dellows proved to be quite successful in trials and rallies; some vehicles were offered in supercharged form. The road cars that the company produced were all based on the trial-car concept. That was up until the advent of the Mk VI in 1957 which was a sports car proper. Unfortunately, this car did not catch on, and it marked the end of the firm.

The Enzmann concern, of Schupfheim Switzerland, in 1957, were one of the first companies to use the Volkswagen platform chassis and engine as a basis for their sports cars. In all, a hundred or so of these little doorless glassfibre cars were made in the firm's nine-year existence. France contributed to the small sports-car field with many companies producing bodies and chassis to take Dyna Panhard engines, including the odd little REAC, with a submarine-type body. The body itself of the REAC was actually built in Casablanca.

In the UK specialist cars were becoming more specialised, with cars like the Ashley and Falcon. Ashley, who were later to make more of a name with their glassfibre roofs for a variety of sports cars, initially made shells to clothe old Fords. Later on, they marketed complete kits basically designed for BMC parts before concentrating on the hard-top business in 1961. Falcon too, started by building glassfibre bodies. Their first production car used a chassis based on well-known designer, Len Terry's ideas. Again, the engine used was a Ford unit of 1172cc. Later, several versions were marketed, the two-seater Caribbean and the two-plus-two Bermuda. Just before this firm folded, a; two seater aptly named the Peregrine was marketed. In all, 2000 or so Falcon body and body/chassis units were sold.

Encompassing roughly the same time span as Falcon, the Tornado company of Rickmansworth first built the Typhoon, a device that looked like an early Marcos and one that obviously had the same aerodynamic qualities. Four hundred of the space-frame-chassis Ford-engined cars were built, and later models, like the Tempest and Talisman, proved almost as popular. One Typhoon had used a Triumph TR2 engine, a power unit that was seen in several other cars. Swallow Dorettis a few years previous had top speeds of 100 mph, courtesy of the TR2 engine, and Peerless were about to go off on the same TR trip in 1957.

The Peerless

The Peerless was an aggressive-looking car that took its name from the American car of the early part of the century, by way of the company's sponsor renovating old Peerless trucks after World War 1. The TR3 engine gave the car a top speed of about 110 mph. It proved remarkably popular, over two hundred being produced in three years. A slightly modified version, built under the Warwick name, was produced from 1960 to 1962.