Brightwells March 18th auction in Leominster, Herts, has plenty of perfectly normal Jaguars and Mercedes. But in a lineup of 31 cars, they have more insanely cool oddities than you’ll see in any five Carasaurus-toting years of Barrett-Jackson. First up is the ATCO.
I just profiled the restoration of a Fury Jr. in Classic Car and Dan did the Poppen’s Special kid’s racer here a couple of weeks ago, but those are both novelties. The ATCO Junior Safety-first Trainer was a car built for children. (See a lot more here.)
Launched amid great fanfare in June 1939, the ATCO Junior Safety-first Trainer was designed to help stem the rising toll of road casualties by introducing children to the skills of driving from the tender age of seven onwards. It was the brainchild of the boffins at Charles H Pugh Ltd of Whitworth Works, Birmingham, rather more famous for the manufacture of lawnmowers. The plan was to sell the cars in huge numbers to schools and local authorities as part of a nationwide road safety initiative, and it received widespread backing from press and politicians alike, including the House of Lords Select Committee on the Prevention of Road Accidents.
The specification featured a 1hp 98cc 2-stroke ATCO-Villiers rear mounted engine and reproduced the controls of a full-sized car with accelerator, brake and clutch pedals in the normal positions. Single forward and reverse gears were driven through a cone clutch, by chain transmission, and top speed was given as 8 – 10mph. Starting was by a pull-handle between the two seats. It rode on disc wheels with pneumatic Dunlop 16×2½ tyres and was accompanied by a 68-page illustrated training manual.
Cost was posted at £35 although it would be available to local authorities and schools at ‘special rates’. An HP scheme was also offered with a deposit of £8-15s, and 12 monthly instalments of £2-7s. Distribution of the mini-car was to be through the motor trade and established factors of the ATCO motor mower. A special demonstration track was even laid down at the Birmingham works, complete with road markings and Belisha beacon crossings, and educational films were made for showing in schools.
Unfortunately, the launch couldn’t have been timed more badly and the whole project was cancelled just a couple of months later with the outbreak of World War Two after just 200 Trainers had been sold. Bizarrely, some of the cars were subsequently road registered and used by adults in city traffic when rationing and pool petrol came into force, as they could travel 80 miles on a single gallon of fuel!
Going way, way back for tiny wackiness is their Singer Motorwheel Tricycle. I don’t ride bikes, but wouldn’t having a front wheel hub-mounted engine make it impossible to turn under any circumstances? And doesn’t having it completely enclosed by both spokes and forks on both sides make it just a little hard to access? On the other hand, I imagine an amusing fork failure of some sort allowing it to speed its way down the road all by itself. An uncontrolled, hurtling self-propelled 40-pound chunk of hot metal. Whee! You’ll note the little poster also shows two-wheel versions.
Believed to date from 1901 and certainly pre-1904, this Singer Tricycle is fitted with a Perks & Birch Motorwheel, invented in 1899 and to which Singer acquired the rights in 1901. An ingenious piece of engineering, the engine is enclosed within a two-sided cast alloy spoked wheel (somewhat reminiscent of the much later Bugatti wheel) which it drives via a planetary gear system meshing the pinion on the engine shaft to an internally toothed ring on the hub. The engine is a 208cc four-stroke single-cylinder unit producing a nominal 2.25hp with a top speed of about 20mph. It is fitted with a surface carburettor and a low-tension magneto, probably the first engine to feature such a device.
The Singer Motorwheel caused quite a sensation when it was exhibited at the 1901 International Motorcar Exhibition at the Agricultural Hall in London, being heralded as the first all-British-built motorcycle ever to come on the market. After the show Singer’s Motor Department manager, HW Duret, drove the two-wheeled machine all the way back to Coventry, “the fourth such journey he had made without touching his machine either for adjustment or as a result of any accident at an average speed that was well up to the legal limit.” The same year with Edwin Perks aboard, the Singer was the only bike to climb the Crystal Palace Hill without pedalling at the Automobile Club trials, again being ridden back to Coventry afterwards.
In July 1902 Perks went on to win gold in both the up to 1.75hp and 2.75hp classes at the Catford Cycling Club hill climbing competition up Westerham Hill in Kent. To silence doubters in the crowd who thought some form of cheating was afoot, he then removed the chain from his machine and rode up the hill again waving it in his hand, “to the astonishment of the thousands of people who lined the course.” On another demonstration run in 1902, a Singer tricycle fitted with a wicker basket to the rear proved capable of carrying five people, with a combined weight of 50 stone, up a 1-in-8 hill 300 yards long.
Also in July 1902 a correspondent from ‘Motor Cycling & Motoring’ rode from London to Oxford on the back of a Singer tandem driven by Duret, reporting that they covered a mile every 2 minutes 38 seconds on the flat and only had to touch the pedals on the very steepest of hills. “Even at the highest speeds not a solitary misfire could be detected, the carburetion keeps constant even on rough roads and no overheating whatever was apparent during the whole trip,” enthused the correspondent before concluding that: “the Singer Motor Tandem would seem to be an ideal machine for touring and there should be a fine future before it.” A Liverpool doctor writing to the magazine was also convinced of the benefits of the Singer, stating that it meant he could now do his rounds in one-fourth the time and save the cost of one horse and a heavy monthly cab bill!
Last and absolutely not least, they’ve got a Sugga. You can take your Battle Jitneys, your Mad Max Interceptors, your Landmasters. They actually built these things. Volvo actually built these things. Volvo. It even has the badge on the grille.
Looking like a Tonka toy on steroids, the Volvo TP21 Command Car has to be one of the most cartoonishly macho machines ever to leave the drawing board. Produced between 1953 and 1958, it was designed to roam the Cold War battlefields of Northern Europe and was packed with radio equipment from which its crew of five could direct the tanks and troops of the Swedish Army. Dramatically over-engineered in typical Swedish style, it was nicknamed ‘Sugga’ (sow or pig) by the troops and combined a shortened truck chassis with a modified pre-war Volvo taxi body. Power came from a rugged 3.7-litre straight-six petrol engine driving through a high and low ratio four-speed gearbox to give eight forward speeds. Allied to a sophisticated part-time four-wheel drive system with pneumatic differential-locks for both axles and huge ground clearance, it was the ultimate ‘go anywhere’ vehicle and remained in service for over thirty years.
Dating from 1954, this vehicle is number 98 of just 724 Suggas made and is one of only a handful in the UK. In the current ownership for the last 12 years, the vehicle has always been in regular use and is said to be extremely reliable and practical, being equally at home on the school run or clambering across the countryside on smart country shoots where it always manages to upstage even the latest 4x4s, making Land-Rovers seem like toys by comparison!
When first acquired it was still fitted with all its original radio equipment, crammed into a rear compartment sealed off by a division. While this provided a great talking point for military enthusiasts, it also rendered the vehicle very uncomfortable for passengers so the owner removed the radios and the division to create a completely open cabin which has been fully retrimmed inside. Features include a fabulous art-deco instrument panel, an opening roof panel enabling passengers to stand up in the rear, a heater well up to the demands of an Arctic winter and a manually-operated radiator blind for fast warm-ups.
