Motor cars The first car produced from the union was a fairly massive machine, a 5-litre Tax horsepower#Britain|. A smaller 18 hp appeared in 1922 and a 2-litre 14 hp was introduced in 1923. 1928 saw the company's first 15 hp six; 1929 saw the introduction of a 12 hp vehicle. This was a pioneering year for the marque, during which it first offered the
Wilson preselector gearbox as an optional extra; it became standard issue on all cars from 1933. In 1930 the company marketed four models, of 12, 15, 20, and 30 hp, the last costing £1450. The company's rather staid image was endorsed during the 1930s by the introduction of a range of six-cylinder cars with
ohv engines, though a
four-cylinder 12 hp was kept in production until 1936. In 1932 - or thereabouts, a line of special, rather more sporty designs was started which resulted in the Rally Tourer series. The aim was to help shake off the somewhat pedestrian image of what was in fact a rather advanced product. Of the 16 rally tourers built, many were used by the owners or senior directors, and were entered into various rallies, achieving some good results and making for good publicity. Only one of those 16 special cars is now known to exist: a 1933, Long-15 Rally Tourer which, according to the records, shared the same body as the 20 hp version (which had a slightly longer bonnet). In 1933, the 5-litre six-cylinder Siddeley Special was announced, featuring a
Hiduminium aluminium alloy engine; this model cost £950. Car production continued at a reduced rate throughout 1940, and a few were assembled in 1941. The week that
World War II ended in Europe, Armstrong Siddeley introduced its first post-war models; these were the
Lancaster four-door
saloon and the Hurricane
drophead coupe. The names of these models echoed the names of
aircraft produced by the
Hawker Siddeley Group (the name adopted by the company in 1935) during the war. These cars all used a 2-litre six-cylinder (16 hp) engines, increased to 2.3-litre (18 hp) engines in 1949. From 1949 to 1952 two commercial variants of the
18 hp Whitleys were produced, primarily for export. The Utility Coupé was a conventional
coupe utility style vehicle, while the Station Coupé was effectively a dual cab vehicle, although it still retained only two doors. However, it did have two rows of seating to accommodate up to four adults and the doors were larger to allow better access to the rear. From 1953 the company produced the Sapphire, with a 3.4-litre six-cylinder engine. In 1956, the model range was expanded with the addition of the 234 (a 2.3-litre four-cylinder) and the 236 (with the older 2.3-litre six-cylinder engine). The Sapphire 346 sported a bonnet mascot in the shape of a sphinx with namesake
Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire jet engines attached. The 234 and 236 Sapphires might have looked to some of marque's loyal customers like a radical departure from the traditional Armstrong Siddeley appearance. However, in truth, they were simply too conservative in a period of rapidly developing automotive design. If the "baby Sapphire" heralded the beginning of the end for Armstrong Siddeley, it was because Jaguar had launched the unitary-construction 2.4 saloon in 1955, which was quicker, significantly cheaper, and much better-looking than the 234 and 236. The last new model produced by Armstrong Siddeley was 1958's Star Sapphire, with a 4-litre engine, and
automatic transmission. The Armstrong Siddeley was a casualty of the 1960 merger with Bristol; the last car left the Coventry factory in 1960.
Armstrong Siddeley Truck • The Armstrong Siddeley Four Wheel Drive Vehicles
Model list Cars produced by Armstrong Siddeley had designations that came from the
tax horsepower rating of their engines. A feature of many of their later cars was the option of an electrically controlled pre-selector gearbox. Armstrong Siddeley 12.jpg|Twelve 1½-litre Armstrong Siddeley Long 15 1935.jpg|Fifteen 2-litre arm-sid.1939.16hp.arp.750pix.jpg|Sixteen 2¼-litre 1938 Armstrong Siddeley 17 saloon.jpg|Seventeen 2½-litre KV5824 Armstrong Siddeley.jpg|Thirty 5-litre Vintage Car - Armstrong Siddeley 234 Sapphire MFF 496 110612 Sandringham.jpg|Sapphire 2342.3-Litre 4-cylinder Armstrong Siddeley motif - Flickr - exfordy (1).jpg|Armstrong Siddeley's sphinx Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire 346 BW 1.jpg|Sapphire 3463.4-Litre 6-cylinder Classic Car Day - Trentham - 15 Feb 2009 - Flickr - 111 Emergency (43).jpg|Star Sapphire4-Litre 6-cylinder RAF Museum Cosford - DSC08648.JPG|Sapphire 200turbojet
Clubs Like many British cars of this era, there are active owners' clubs supporting their continued use in several countries, e.g. the UK, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands and Germany. Armstrong Siddeley Owners Club Ltd has members worldwide and many members of the ASCC in Australia are resident overseas. In the United Kingdom, ASOC publishes a monthly members magazine
Sphinx. In Australia, the Armstrong Siddeley Car Club publishes
Southern Sphinx six times a year. In the Netherlands, ASOC Dutch also publishes six times a year, and in New Zealand, Armstrong Siddeley Car Club in New Zealand Inc. publish
Sphinx-NZ monthly.
Aircraft engines 7
cylinder radial from the
Avro 618 Ten aircraft,
Southern Cloud Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, Armstrong Siddeley produced a range of low- and mid-power aircraft
radial engines, all named after
big cats. They also produced a tiny 2-cylinder engine called the
Ounce, another name for the
snow leopard, for ultralight aircraft. The company started work on their first
gas turbine engine in 1939, following the design pioneered at the
Royal Aircraft Establishment by
Alan Arnold Griffith. Known as the "ASX" for "Armstrong Siddeley eXperimental", the original pure-turbojet design was later adapted to drive a propeller, resulting in the "ASP". From then on, AS turbine engines were named after
snakes. The
Mamba and
Double Mamba were
turboprop engines, the latter being a complex piece of engineering with two side-by-side Mambas driving through a common gearbox, and could be found on the
Fairey Gannet. The
Python turboprop powered the
Westland Wyvern strike aircraft. Further development of the Mamba removed the
reduction gearbox to give the
Adder turbojet. Another pioneer in the production of the RAE engine design was
Metrovick, who started with a design known as the
Metrovick F.2. This engine never entered production, and Metrovick turned to a larger design, the Beryl, and then to an even larger design, the
Sapphire. Armstrong Siddeley later took over the Sapphire design, and it went on to be one of the most successful 2nd generation jet engines, competing with the better-known
Rolls-Royce Avon. The company went on to develop an engine – originally for unmanned
Jindivik target drones – called the
Viper. This product was further developed by Bristol Siddeley and, later, Rolls-Royce and was sold in great numbers over many years. A range of
rocket motors were also produced, including the
Snarler and
Stentor. The rocket development complemented that of Bristol, and Bristol Siddeley would become the leading British manufacturer of rocket engines for missiles.
Diesel engines In 1946 Armstrong Siddeley produced their first
diesel engines. They were medium-speed engines for industrial and agricultural use. Initially there was a single-cylinder engine producing at 900 rpm and a twin-cylinder version. Each cylinder had a capacity of 988 cm3 (60.2 cubic inches). The power output and speed was progressively increased. By the end of 1954 the single-cylinder engine was rated at at 1800 rpm and the twin-cylinder engine at the same speed. In 1955 the range was extended with the introduction of a 3-cylinder engine rated at . The engines were built at Armstrong Siddeley's factory at Walnut Street in
Leicester until that factory closed in August 1957. Production was transferred to the factory of Armstrong Siddeley (
Brockworth) Ltd in Gloucestershire and in 1958 to the factory of
Petters Limited at Staines, Middlesex. The engines built by Petters were designated AS1, AS2 and AS3 to distinguish them from that company's other products. Production ended in 1962 when Petters introduced a replacement range of lightweight small high-speed air-cooled diesel engines. In April 1958 the company obtained a licence to build the
Maybach MD series high-speed diesel engines. Several hundred were built by
Bristol Siddeley Engines Ltd after that company took over Armstrong Siddeley's manufacturing activities in 1959. ==See also==