1931 Invicta
The Invicta had a relatively short production life. Introduced in the 1920s these hand-built cars were made in Surrey, England until 1933. It would appear that Noel Maklin, who conceived the design, was very impressed with Bentley cars as the Invicta had a Bentley-like appearance in more ways than one. If you compared the front-end styling and even the use of rivetted bonnet panels there was a strong similarity between the two makes.
By 1930 there were two versions of the 4.5 Invicta available. These were the high-chassis A-type and the much lowered charismatic S-type sports car. Both of these models carried price tags similar to that of similarly-styled Bentley models.
In the original models a Coventry-Climax engine was used, which was bought-in like most of the other components, but shortly after introduction a more rugged six-cylinder, overhead valve engine fitted with two horizontal SU carburettors and developing 86 kW was purchased from Henry Meadows of Wolverhampton.
This power unit, which came in a variety of sizes including the 4.5-litre size, was also supplied to Lagonda and other vehicle manufactures. An engine of this type was a good choice as it had loads of torque, as did other similar engines of this era, since it gave the car lots of appeal to those who could afford it. With a top speed approaching 150 km/h it met most enthusiasts needs.
Invictas had a few drawbacks: the half-elliptical front and rear suspension which was standard in all models as they all employed the same chassis design gave a rock-hard ride, the drum brakes which were operated by a rod system frequently failed to perform adequately when the car was travelling at high speed.
Possibly due to these deficiencies as well as the prices being asked the Invicta soon found buyers were becoming rather shy. To sustain the business Macklin first introduced a much smaller-engined car. This proved to be a disaster so he switched to making a cheaper type of car, the American-based Railton.
Invicta died through lack of custom. Of the 500 or so 4.5-litre Invictas made only 77 were the smart-looking S-type sports cars.
