Vale Special

Vale Special
Overview
Manufacturer Vale Engineering Company
Production 1932-1935
approx 100 made
Designer P. E. Pellew
Body and chassis
Body style two-seat tourer
four-seat tourer (Tourette)
Powertrain
Engine Triumph 832 ccI4
Coventry Climax 1098 cc I4
Coventry Climax 1476 cc I6
Transmission 4-speed manual
Dimensions
Wheelbase 84 or 102 inches (2134 or 2590 mm[1]
Width 55 inches (1397 mm)[1]
Chronology
Predecessor none
Successor none

The Vale Special (sometimes just Vale) was a British sports car made between 1932 and 1935 in Maida Vale, London.[2][3]

History

A Vale Special, previously belonging to Allan Gaspar, in the process of being restored by David Cox in 2005.

The Vale Motor Company was established in 1931 by Pownoll Pellew (later 9th Viscount Exmouth) as a 'gentleman's hobby' in a rented workshop behind The Warrington pub in Maida Vale.[2][3] It was initially funded by Pellew (helped by his mother and his actress girlfriend Kay Walsh) and his two business partners Allan Gaspar (with help from his bank manager father), and Robert Owen Wilcoxon[4] (thanks to early film proceeds of his film actor brother Henry Wilcoxon).[5] It was Henry who designed the striking Vale Motor Co. badge.[6]

The cars were initially handmade and based on Triumph Motor Company components. The first cars used the 832 cc side-valve engine from the Triumph Super 7 fitted to a chassis bought in from Rubery Owen, semi-elliptic leaf springs all round, and the hydraulic brakes and axles from the Triumph. The top speed was only 65 mph (105 km/h),[7] which was too slow for serious sporting events: so from 1933 a 1098 cc, overhead-inlet, side-exhaust, four-cylinder, Coventry Climax engine was offered, followed in 1934 by the 1476 cc six-cylinder version of the same engine.

Most of the cars had lightweight two-seater open bodies with fold-flat windscreens, but a four-seat version on a long-wheelbase chassis, called the Tourette, was available with the larger-engined versions.

About 100 cars had been made when production stopped in 1935,[2] though the actual figure is greatly disputed.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Culshaw; Horrobin (1974). Complete Catalogue of British Cars. London: Macmillan. ISBN 0-333-16689-2.
  2. 1 2 3 David Cox, "Ave Atque Vale - the story of the Vale Special" ISBN 0-9553010-0-9
  3. 1 2 David Cox, "Ave Atque Vale - the story of the Vale Special"
  4. Robert Owen Wilcoxon was killed at the Dunkirk evacuation in 1940
  5. Cox, p.26
  6. Cox, p.27
  7. Georgano

Bibliography

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