historyofcoventrycars

Singer

Singer & Company Ltd.
54a Canterbury Street
Hillfields
Coventry
Warwickshire

1905-1916;1919-1960+

The Singer Company was formed in 1874 and built bicycles, tricycles and motorcycles.

George Singer's cycle business built their first cars at Canterbury Street, Coventry in 1905 and by 1927 they owned five factories scattered throughout Coventry. Previously they had made a three-cylinder car under licence from Lea-Francis.

Before the First World War there was a range of vehicles from an 1100 cc 10 to a four-litre 25 hp. The Light Cars were more popular and established Singer as a manufacturer. After the war production was concentrated on the pre-war 10 hp model and large cars were never tried again.

During the 1920's a large expansion programme began with the purchase of the Calcott premises in Coventry and the Sparkbrook Manufacturing Company in Birmingham. The Aster premises in Wembley were acquired for use as a London Service base.

The Managing Director William E Bullock bought a building in 1927 some 15 miles (24 km) outside the city at Small Heath. This six-storey building had been built by the Birmingham Small Arms Company for arms production and was not really suited for car production.

28,000 cars were produced in 1929, placing Singer third behind Morris and Austin. By 1935 Singer recorded a £200,000 loss and their market share had slumped in an expanding, but competitive, market. The Rootes Group and Ford were also squeezing Singer out.

1934 Singer Nine sports.
Singer 1½-Litre Le Mans 2-Seater Sports 1934
Singer Nine Open Sports 1939
Singer Nine Open Roadster 1950
Singer SM1500 1948-54.
A 1960 Singer Gazelle Convertible.
An example of a Singer in use as a wedding car.Singer was an automobile company founded in 1905 in Coventry, England. It was acquired by the Rootes Group of the United Kingdom in 1956. The British Singer company had no connection with the Singer company of Mount Vernon, New York, USA, who made luxury cars from 1915 to 1920.

History
Singer started life as one of the many bicycle makers in Coventry. In 1901 they moved into motor tricycles and bicycles. Motorcycle manufacture would continue until the outbreak of war in 1914. In 1905 they made their first four wheel car which had a 3 cylinder 1400 cc engine and was made under licence from Lea-Francis. The first Singer designed car was the 4 cylinder 2.4 litre 12/14 of 1906. The engine was bought in from Aster. For 1907 the Lea-Francis design was dropped and a range of two, three and four cylinder models using White and Poppe engines launched. The Aster engined models were dropped in 1909 and a new range of larger cars introduced. All cars were now White and Poppe powered. In 1911 the first big seller appeared with the 1100cc Ten with Singer's own engine. The use of their own power plants spread through the range until by the outbreak of the First World War all models except the low volume 3.3 litre 20hp were so equipped.

With peace the Ten continued with a redesign in 1923 including a new overhead valve engine. Six cylinder models were introduced in 1922. In 1927 the Ten engine grew to 1300 cc and a new light car the 850 cc overhead cam (ohc) engine, the big selling Junior was announced. By 1928 Singer was Britain's third largest car maker after Austin and Morris. The range continued in a very complex manner using developments of the ohc Junior engine first with the Nine, the 14/6 and the sporty 1 1/2 litre in 1933. The Nine became the Bantam in 1935.

After World War II initially the pre war Nine, Ten and Twelve were re-introduced with little change but in 1948 the all new SM1500 with independent front suspension but still using a chassis was announced. It was however expensive at £799 and failed to sell well as Singer's rivals also got back into full production. The car was restyled to become the Hunter in 1954 which was also available with a twin overhead cam version of the engine few of which were made.

By 1956 the company was in financial difficulties and Rootes Brothers who had handled Singer sales since before World War 1 bought the company which spelled the end for independent designs. The next car, the Gazelle, was a badge engineered Hillman Minx variant which retained the Singer ohc engine for the I and II versions but this too went in 1958 with the IIA. The Vogue which ran alongside the gazelle from 1961 was a rebadged Hillman Super Minx with more luxurious trim.

The last car to carry the Singer name was an upmarket version of the rear engined Hillman Imp called the Chamois. With the take over of Rootes by Chrysler in 1967, many of the brands were to vanish and the Singer name disappeared forever in 1970.

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