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In 1918 AC Cars directors John Weller and John Portwine had decided to replace the French Fivet engine in their light car and they were designing a 1500cc 6 cylinder engine for this purpose. The engine (which was later to become the classic 2 litre AC engine) was costing them a fortune to develop and the offer of an off-the-peg replacement while the six was perfected was too good to miss. So the British Anzani 1496cc four cylinder side-valve 11.9hp motor was to be built at the Willesden factory and an order was placed by AC in 1919 for 2,000 of them. In recognition of this order AC Cars were given 2000 shares in Anzani and John Weller and fellow AC director Selwyn Francis Edge took up their places on the British Anzani board of directors.
| Many other manufacturers
took up the engine. Captain Donald Marendaz who had financed
his car making with the profits he made selling exotic second hand
cars from the Brixton Road premises he shared with the London Cab
Company and which also housed the concessionaires for Bugatti
and luxury US car maker Graham-Paige. The Marendaz Specials
were made from 1926 to 1932 and were sporty, good looking cars
using the Anzani 1496cc motor (though some were sleeved down to 1097cc)
and although they did not sell in great numbers they did excel in
competition. It is estimated that only 20-25 cars were made in Brixton
before he moved the factory to Maidenhead in 1932 (and was by then
using other manufacturers engines) until they ceased production in
1936. Other manufacturers using the motor included Crouch the Coventry based car maker. The marque had been made famous with the racing exploits of Stirling Moss’s father Alfred who regularly drove his Anzani powered cars with great success at the Brooklands race track. Their models 12/24 and 12/30 Sports and Super Sports made from 1924 to 1927 were well built and so reliable London agent Moss offered a one years free warranty on them! Deemster the forerunner to the Frazer Nash had used the engine in it’s 12hp model produced from 1919 to 1924 and likewise Whitlock the Cricklewood based manufacturer in it’s 1922 Coupé de luxe model. F.W. Bond the Yorkshire based company used it in their 1927 1½ litre Sports and likewise Lea Francis and the Putney based maker Palladium in their 1922 12hp model. |
Other events were taking place though and in 1923
Gustave Maclure resigned from British Anzani to set up his own company
(with fellow Anzani director Richard Simpkin) just around the corner from
his old employer in Willesden. He was to manufacture a new engine under
the Plus-Power Engine Company name and in less than a year
the new engine was ready. It came to the attention of Archie Frazer-Nash
who was on the look out for an engine for his cars and Maclure’s
Plus-Power (a 1500cc OHV) which was in many respects just a more sporting
version of his original design suited the dashing Frazer-Nash perfectly.
Events in the motor industry were overtaking Plus-Power however and independent
manufacturers were falling by the wayside with the effects of the cheaper
mass produced Morris and Austin cars. In less than a year Plus-Power were
calling in the receivers and Maclure was a much poorer man for his venture.
The company did not have limited liability and with debts rising the directors
decided to pull out quickly before the damage grew too large. They had
sold engines to only three companies and of these Frazer-Nash was by far
the biggest customer and it was to them that Maclure turned asking them
to buy his ailing company. Nash refused and meanwhile H. J. Aldington,
a fellow Frazer-Nash director, invited Nash to try a car powered by the
British Anzani and from then on British Anzani supplied Frazer-Nash
with their engines.
| In 1921 a special single seater 16 valve AC driven by Harry Hawker sped through the flying half mile at a record breaking 105mph and in 1922 J.A. Joyce became the first man to do a hundred miles in an hour (averaging 101.375mph). Replicas of the car with a standard Anzani engine were for sale to the public up to 1926 for £1,000. The same 16 valve engine was used in the Brooklands 200 Mile Race in 1923 and 1924 with Joyce finishing 3rd in 1923 and 4th in 1924. |
In January 1925 AC cars managing director
Mr S. F. Edge decided to manufacture their own version of the British
Anzani engine at the Aylesbury factory of the Cubitt Car Company
(in which he had a financial interest) and he immediately cancelled the
30 engines a month order from Anzani which caused a receiver to be appointed
in February 1925. Edge had had a team of engineers strip down an
Anzani engine to make patterns and they then redesigned the exterior slightly
to avoid direct comparison with the original. To add to the pain felt
by Anzani the managing director of Cubitt’s approached Gustave Maclure
to remedy some teething problems they had had with the new engine and
so Maclure ended up working on a plagiarised version of his own engine
design! By the end of 1925 Maclure had cured the faults he had found in
the Cubitt engine and production continued for another two years until
the four cylinder cars were withdrawn in 1927.
AC Sports pictured at Stonehenge in 1922
Anzani struggled on in receivership until November 1925 when British Anzani’s
newest director decided to take a hand. Charles Fox of Fox Pianos
had only joined the board in January 1925 and yet within a year had taken
over the company renaming it the British Vulpine Engine Company
and embarked on a programme of expansion. Gustave Maclure was invited
back once more and rejoined his old firm as works manager and stayed there
until 1927 when he left to go to Riley cars where he became works
manager. The new company was not to last long. By July 1926 it had itself
gone into liquidation forced into bankrupcy by some ill luck and poor
judgement on behalf of Charles Fox.
Morgan cars ordered their engines by the hundred thereby playing
one manufacturer off against the other as each new contract was bid for.
Because of the increasing keeness of the prices inevitably some quality
had been sacrificed and a problem developed with exhaust valves in the
Anzani/Vulpine engines. Morgan complained and Anzani provided replacement
valves - Morgan demanded more and Fox objected. Morgan cancelled their
order and Fox sued for breach of contract, and lost. The company was bankrupt
again and had lost a valuable customer into the bargain. Fortunately for
Anzani/Vulpine’s other big customer, Frazer Nash, there were a number
of engines already made and there was no immediate shortage for the Kingston-on-Thames
based company to worry about.
Archie Frazer-Nash was looking about for other suppliers though and wasn’t
particularly happy with what he’d found. Then a chance meeting with
Eric Burt in August 1926 changed everything. Eric Burt was a director
of Mowlems (as was his father) the international civil engineering
company and enjoyed the lifestyle of the young and rich. Nash had met
him at a motor racing event where Burt was competing with his Burt
Special Aston Martin/Anzani and they got to talking about their engines.
Nash thought the young man was just another keen garage proprietor/racer
and invited him to the factory for a chat but by the time he turned up
a week later Nash had realised who he was and an idea began to form.
 |
Eric Burt and his brother were persuaded by Nash to put up the bulk
of the money to resurrect the Anzani/Vulpine company. They renamed it
the British Anzani Engineering Company and with Eric Burt’s
wife Elizabeth as his nominee on the board of directors and with other
directors Archie Frazer-Nash and R.G.H Plunkett-Greene (the
financier of A.F.N.) the next phase of Anzani history began. The new company
began it’s life on February 18th 1927 still in the old Scrubbs Lane
factory but it wasn’t long before the first factory move came. The
lease on the Scrubbs Lane site expired at the end of that year and Burt
moved Anzani’s into an adjacent site of the Kingston-on-Thames factory
of A.F.N. Ltd. (the Frazer Nash company name). The new company
was further encouraged when Morgan relented and returned to Anzani with
more orders for engines for their three-wheelers.
The Fox programme of range expansion continued and several new innovations
were adopted. The 11.9 hp was adapted for marine use and marketed as an
inboard engine and was still sold in various states of tune for car use.
The V-twin range was expanded to incorporate three 1,000cc and 1,100cc
motorcycle engines (also sold as the aero engine) and two 1,100cc water
cooled cyclecar engines plus the 500cc single.
 Frazer Nash Falcon |
 Frazer Nash Ulster |
Whilst on his third period at Anzani Gustave Maclure had designed his
third engine and the new company decided to look again at this SOHC design.
It was of similar capacity to his predecessors but had hemipherical heads
and a chain driven overhead camshaft. Burt’s draughtsmen built Maclures
engine and used it in a test-bed racing car called the Slug (for
it's low slung appearance) and the engine proved very powerful.
| The ‘SA’ four cylinder
when first fitted to the Frazer Nash in 1925 developed 38 bhp @ 4000
rpm and was used in all the cars until 1927. The Super Sports in 1927
developed 47 bhp @ 4000 rpm and the HE (High Efficiency) developed
52 bhp @ 4500 rpm. A special engine developed in 1927 gave 52 bhp
@ 4500 rpm and had roller bearing big ends and special camshaft. This
engine was developed further to include a chain driven camshaft. The works race engines were fitted with Cozette No 8 and No 9 Superchargers blowing up to 10lbs/in, had roller bearing cranks, were dry sumped and had heads lapped direct onto the block and they developed 85 bhp @ 5000 rpm on petrol and 90 bhp on alcohol. |
 The 11.9 hp with Cozette supercharger |
 The R1 twin OHC |
Things changed dramatically again for Anzani’s in 1929. Archie
Frazer-Nash temporarily retired from the firm with ill health and
the new managing director H. J. Aldington decided to make some
major changes. Firstly he decided to use the Meadows 4 ED engine
in their cars only using the side valve in supercharged form for racing
engines - he also decided against incorporating Anzani into the business
thereby casting adrift what had become their specialist engineering arm.
The situation was made more awkward because Anzani and A.F.N shared stores
and drawing offices in the factory. Some benefit came Anzani’s way
in the fact that they no longer did subsidized work for AFN but the fact
remained they had lost by far their biggest customer. It is also widely
recognised that 1929 marked the end for the specialist independent manufacturers
of cars and engines. The surviving builders of cars and motorbikes now
built their own engines and the era of mass production had finally won
through. A decision was made to not look for new orders for engines although
they were still made to order and Burt did his best to help his company
through this difficult time by giving them contract work from Mowlems
and for a time they became builders of concrete mixers and pneumatic road
drills. The next traumatic change came when Aldington announced that the
company should move to a new site in London Road, Isleworth in Middlesex.
Archie Frazer-Nash |
H.J. Aldington |
In 1931 Frazer-Nash, now out of hospital, resigned from the company and with Plunkett-Greene already gone after Aldington took over in 1929 many of the old faces were no longer there. Significantly one new face to join was T.D. Ross from Austin.
Ross argued for the company to manufacture a new racing engine which would be sold in a detuned state to sports car manufacturers; an argument which flew in the face of the current industry thinking. The decision was agreed however and the R1 (the Ross 1) was put into development. It was a very powerful motor, producing over 100bhp through it twin Solex’s and twin overhead camshafts. Much of the internals of the new engine were based on Ross’s experience at Austin and he was later to comment that it was basically an Austin design and the tappets he said were pure Austin 7. The problem was there were no customers for the new engine until one day the young manufacturer Adrian Squire came to see Ross and his new engine. The deal was clinched when Ross agreed to cast the Squire name in the cam covers and thereby make his new car appear an all Squire Car Manufacturing Company product.
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The Squire Car Manufacturing Company was situated in Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire and run by ex-Bentley apprentice Adrian Squire. Between 1934-1936 these were the epitome of the 1930’s sports car. The 1½ litre R1 Anzani motor had twin OHC, a Roots supercharger and twin Solex carbs giving a 110bhp power rating and over 100mph performance. A four speed Wilson pre-selector gearbox and 15" hydraulic brakes in manganese alloy drums all in a Squire designed cruciform chassis made this this one of the most desirable cars of its era. Unfortunately its ‘no-expense-spared’ design meant it was indeed very expensive and only seven were known to have been built. Adrian Squire went on to work for Lagonda but sadly died in an air raid in 1940. |
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1934 Squire
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Ross made his second engine the R2, a redesign of the old V-twin, for a 500 engine order for the Bristol Tractor Company for a small tractor they were building and later he got a further order from Bristol for another 1,000 R2 engines. He was also involved in working on a new order from holiday camp entrepreneur Billy Butlin for their Dodgem Boats and generally things were looking up for Ross when in August 1933 he fell out with Burt and offered his resignation on a point of principle and to Ross’s amazement Burt accepted it! Ross left and joined the Army and Burt went back to his contract work.
In 1934 Aldington became a director of British Anzani after buying a large number of shares with a view to having BA make a new SOHC engine for Frazer Nash popularly known as the Gough. He had had Anzani’s immediately develop a supercharged racing version of the engine and although the manufacturing never actually did come their way the company had entered yet another new phase of it’s history.
In 1936 Aldington bought out Burt completely and the company became a fully integrated member of A.F.N. making a living doing special development work and race engines for Frazer Nash, engine refurbishments, spares for the old engines plus their perennial contract work and all was quiet - for the time being anyway...
A.F.N. at this time were developing their links with the BMW car company and finding it a very profitable business. This relationship was to become a defining feature of the company and the Anzani side of the business was left to fend for itself. The staffing level at this time is thought to have been around 25 people, far removed from the heady days of the AC contract in the early 1920’s when they employed over 100 people in the Willesden plant.
Among the directors though was a man who was to have a big influence on British Anzani for the next 30 years. This man was a motor boat and motor cycle racer, an ex-world record holder and an engine designer - his name was Charles Henry Harrison.
