Invicta (car) - Early History

Early History

The company was founded by Noel Macklin, who had previously tried car making with the Eric-Campbell and Silver Hawk companies, with Oliver Lyle of the sugar family providing finance, with assembly taking place in Macklin's garage at his home at Fairmile Cottage on the main London to Portsmouth road in Cobham, Surrey. The cars were designed to combine flexibility, the ability to accelerate from virtual standstill in top gear, with sporting performance. With the assistance of William (Willie) Watson, his mechanic from pre-World War I racing days, a prototype was built on a Bayliss-Thomas frame with Coventry Simplex engine in the stables of Macklin's house on the western side of Cobham. The first production car, the 1925 2½ litre used a Meadows straight six, overhead-valve engine and four-speed gearbox in a chassis with semi elliptical springs all round cost from £595. Three different chassis lengths were available, 9 feet 4 inches (2.84 m), 9 feet 10 inches (3.00 m) and 10 feet (3.0 m) to cater for the customer's choice of bodywork. As demand grew a lot of the construction work went to Lenaerts and Dolphens in Barnes, London but final assembly and test remained at Fairmile.

The engine grew to 3 litres in 1926 and when production of the model finished in 1929 about 200 had been made. A larger engine, still by Meadows, was used in the William Watson designed 1928 4½ litre available in short SSC (118 inch) or long LC (126 inch) versions and also high Type A and low Type B chassis. The sporting low chassis was arranged by using underslung rear springs. About 500 were made up to 1934 which was quite a lot considering the high price. The long wheelbase NLC luxury model could cost up to £1800.

In 1930 the S-type was launched at the London Motor Show. Still using the 4½ litre Meadows engine but in a lower chassis this model was capable of reaching 100 mph (160 km/h)

In an attempt to widen the market appeal the 1½ litre straight-six overhead-cam Blackburne engined 12/45 L-type was announced in 1932. It was a large car with its 118-inch (3,000 mm) wheelbase and proved too heavy for the available power needing a 6:1 rear axle ratio. It was available with a preselector gearbox as an option and could be bought complete with coachwork by Carbodies. The supercharged 12/90 of 1933 increased the available power from 45 to 90 bhp (67 kW) but few were made and a proposed twin-cam 12/100 never got beyond a prototype.

Sporting success came with Invictas driven by Violette Cordery, who was Noel Macklin's sister-in-law, when she was twice awarded the Dewar Trophy, for reliability in 1926 driving 5,000 miles (8,000 km) at Montlhéry, and 1929 driving 30,000 miles (48,000 km) at Brooklands. Sammy Davis had a spectacular accident in an S-type at Brooklands in 1931. Donald Healey in 1930 gained a class win in the Monte Carlo Rally, and, starting from Stavanger, won the event outright the following year.