Selwyn Francis Edge - The Driving Force of the Straight Six

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Selwyn Francis Edge


Selwyn Francis Edge
Selwyn Francis Edge
THE SIX-CYLINDER ENGINE has become such a common-place item of motor engineering, that it is difficult to realise that when it was introduced, in the 1900s, it was an object of controversy as intense as that which, during the early 1970s, raged over the rotary engine.

A concept so revolutionary needed promotion if it was to become a commercial success, and the lasting fame of the six-cylinder power unit can be directly attributed to the man who virtually founded the motoring-public-relations business - Selwyn Francis Edge.

It was Selwyn Edge who launched the Napier six in 1903. In 1907, at the height of Edge's fame, one of his friends wrote: 'Mr S. F. Edge has shown a rare and almost unique combination of the abilities, mental and physical, and of the spirit of enterprise tempered by prudence, which is exactly calculated to carry a man to the highest place in connection with the automobile movement'.

However, the irresistible rise of Selwyn Edge began almost by chance. Edge was born in Concord, Sydney, in 1868, and was taken to England at the age of three. As a young man, he became an enthusiastic cyclist, and held a number of long-distance records on solid-tyred ordinary bicycles and tandem bicycles.

Like many racing cyclists of the day, Edge was an early advocate of the new Dunlop pneumatic tyre, an interest which culminated in his joining the Pneumatic Tyre Company as manager of its London depot. It was during this period that Edge travelled, in 1895, to Paris, where his friend and fellow racing cyclist, Fernand Charron, gave him his first ride in a motor car-a Panhard & Levassor.

The Emancipation Day Run



A couple of years later, Edge acquired his own car, a similar Panhard, which had finished second in the 1896 Paris-Marseilles race with Rene de Knyff at the tiller, and which had been brought to England for the Emancipation Day run of 14 November 1896. He ran this for a year or so, and then, as several of its design features were becoming somewhat passe, decided to have it updated by his friend Montagu Napier, another former cyclist, who had an old-established engineering works at Lambeth.

Napier modified the car extensively, and eventually decided - or was cajoled by Edge - to become a motor manufacturer. Edge, backed by Harvey du Cros, formed the Motor Power Company in 1899, selling the imported Gladiator and Clernent-Panhard cars built by Adolphe Clement, who also controlled the French Dunlop company (as Harvey du Cros owned the British Dunlop company, the tie-up was perhaps inevitable).

The Motor Power organisation became the exclusive sales agency for the new Napier cars, and Edge entered the prototype for the 1900 Thousand Miles Trial. At the turn of the century, no British manufacturer was active in racing, and Edge, fully aware of the publicity to be gained for a car which could successfully challenge the world's best, entered a four-cylinder, 16 hp car for the 1900 Paris-Toulouse-Paris race (his riding mechanic was the Hon C. S. Rolls), only to be eliminated by minor troubles.

The Gordon Bennett Trophy



The following year, Napier built him a monstrous 17-litre racer for the Gordon Bennett Trophy, but its Dunlop tyres could not stand up to the strains of racing and, once more, Edge was out of the running. In 1902, however, Edge won the Gordon Bennett with a new 40 hp Napier - a hollow victory if ever there was one, as the car upheld the marque's competition record for breakdowns, only winning because the opposition's breakdowns were more serious and caused them all to retire.

Edge failed to retain the cup the following year as, in the Irish Gordon Bennett, the Napiers ran - or rather, did not run - true to form, and Edge finished last, but was promptly disqualified anyway. This was his last serious appearance in major open competition - and from then on he acted only as eminence grise of the Napier team, and he controlled the sales of its touring cars, which were enjoying a far greater success than the racers. Not that there was anything gris about Edge's personality - with his piercing gaze, bristling eyebrows and bushy moustache, he was a striking figure, and one who made enemies as easily as he made friends.

Edge's prolific correspondence to the motoring papers was very much a feature of the Edwardian motoring scene. He did have to fight hard to defend the validity of the six-cylinder concept, which he launched at a dinner at London's Trocadero Restaurant in October 1903 - in later years, he recalled the 'courage' of Mr W. Bramson, who bought the first six-cylinder car. Sometimes his arguments were spurious, but they commanded attention.

The Napier was well established as a high-powered luxury car when Edge took the wheel of a racing 60 hp, inaugurating the Brooklands circuit in 1907 with a fantastic solo 24-hour run at an average of 66 mph (fifteen years later he comfortably beat this average with a six-cylinder). Under his management, Napier dominated the first two years' racing at Brooklands, then, after his I908 Grand Prix cars had been debarred from entering the French GP on the grounds that their detachable wire wheels constituted an unfair advantage, Napier withdrew from racing altogether.

In 1912 Edge and Montague Napier quarrelled over marketing policy, and parted company; Edge received £I20,000, on condition that he kept out of the motor industry for seven years (which, in view of the intervening War 1 (WW1), was probably fortuitous), and set up a pig-breeding establishment.

Controller of Agricultural Machinery



Napier lost more by the parting than did Edge. During the war, Edge combined his interests and was appointed 'Controller of Agricultural Machinery' to the Ministry of Munitions, and in 19I7 the author's great-uncle, Norman Stone, demonstrated the first Fordson tractor to him, which resulted in massive MoM orders for this machine.

In 1921 Edge re-entered the motor industry, acquiring large share-holdings in AC and Cubitt cars, but neither venture prospered and in 1929, when AC collapsed, he retired from the scene. He published an autobiography in the mid 1930s and inaugurated the Brooklands Campbell Circuit with a 1903 Gordon Bennett Napier in I937. He died in 1940, when most motorists had forgotten the man who was once famed for his courage, physical strength and electrically rapid decision.

Also see:
Honour Roll - Founding Fathers Of The Automotive Industry
S. F. Edge at Brooklands
S. F. Edge standing behind the driver of a 1921 AC 2-litre at Brooklands, with the Member's Bridge beyond Spyker, which recorded 74.27 mph over two twelve-hour stints.
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