THE YEAR THE KING WAS BORN – 75 FACTS ABOUT MOTORING IN 1948

As the 6^th May is the Coronation Day and 14^th November is the 75^th birthday of King Charles III, here are 75 facts about motoring in 1948 -

• 1948 was the year of the first London Motor Show since 1938, attracting some 562,954 visitors.
• The undoubted star of Stand 143 was the Jaguar XK120, which Browns Lane had kept secret until the show’s opening.
• With a top speed of over 120 mph, the XK120 was the fastest production car in the world.
• The XK120’s home market price was £1,263 8s 11d but Jaguar reserved 80% of production for overseas.
• William Lyons intended the XK120 as a test-bed for Jaguar’s new 3,442cc engine, but the response at Earls Court resulted in it entering production.
• Those first XK120s had an aluminium body over an ash frame.
• The Jaguar stand also introduced visitors to the Mk. V saloon – “a brilliant successor to a long line of forebears”.
• The 1948 show also allowed visitors to marvel at the first post-war Aston Martin to be offered on sale to the public – the ‘2-Litre Sports 2-4-seater’.
• Motor Sport described the star of Stand 138 as the car “about which everyone is talking, remembering its convincing race victory at Spa”.
• Sadly, a basic price of £2,332 meant the AM was completely out of reach for most Britons.
• Fortunately, Stand 163 was host to the more affordable new Morris Minor MM, boasting rack & pinion steering and independent front suspension.
• Lord Nuffield was not keen on the Minor’s styling by Alec Issigonis, comparing it unfavourably with “a poached egg”.
• The cost of a Minor was a very reasonable £358 10s 7d, for both the saloon and the tourer, and the top speed was 62 mph.
• The Minor was the entry level model in a new five car range from the Nuffield Group: the Morris Oxford MO and Six MS and the Wolseley 4/50 and 6/80 on Stand 151.
• Nuffield envisaged the Oxford as their best-seller but it was the Minor that became the first British car to exceed a million units in 1960.
• Morris proudly stated the Minor was “New from radiator badge to rear bumper”and the side-valve engine was its only familiar aspect.
• Issigonis envisaged the Minor and the Oxford to be powered by flat four engines but company politics dictated otherwise.
• The Six MS was apparently “smooth as silk” and an “aristocrat in the big-car class”.
• As for the Wolseley 6/80, it became indelibly associated with Scotland Yard; the London Metropolitan police were still using tyhem in 1961, seven years after production ended.
• Nuffield described the new models as “‘Gracefully modern, unmistakably Wolseley”.
• Moving to Stand 166, Alvis showcased the distinctive TB14 at Earls Court, although production commenced in 1950.
• The sales copy claimed, “its performance is such that it will attract the Sportsman who is in search of a combination of effortless speed and graceful lines”.
• The TA14’s £1,275 19s 6d price tag was surely fair for a car that featured a door-mounted cocktail cabinet.
• For the more sober-minded motorist, Stand 157 featured the latest Humber Hawk Mk. III with its rather appealing ‘full-width’ bodywork.
• According to Humber’s Rootes Group parent company, the Hawk’s steering column gear lever meant there was “no temptation to take your eyes off the road when change”.
• On Stand 154, the Sunbeam-Talbot 80 and 90 were Rootes’ other new offerings in 1948.
• The price of the 1.2-litre 80 was £888 16s 1d while the 1.9-litre 90 cost £953.
• Rootes proclaimed the latest STs featured “Streamstyle” bodywork, an “Opticurve” windscreen and a “Synchromatic” column gear-change.
• Meanwhile, a highlight of the Austin display on Stand 144 was the Austin A90 Atlantic convertible with its hydraulically operated roof and windows.
• Austin described the Atlantic as a “car of distinction that will bring an added zest that will bring an added zest to business or pleasure-motoring”.
• Longbridge designed the A90 with US motorists in mind but its 6-litre “Big Four” engine was not ideal for American roads and the Atlantic cost $3,975, compared with $2,206 for the eight-cylinder Pontiac Chieftain convertible.
• The latest 2.1-litre A70 Hampshire was rather more accessible to British motorists at £648 11s 8d - “knowledgeable motorists have greeted it with enthusiasm”.
• The A70’s colour choices were the very sensible “Pueblo Brown”, black or beige.
• Over on Stand 165 , Ford highlighted the advantages of their latest Anglia E494A and Prefect E493A.
• Ford, somewhat ambitiously, boasted the Anglia was ideal for “Faster Travel Through Heavy Traffic”.
• Singer’s latest model, the SM1500 appeared on Stand 145, featuring contemporary ‘slab-sided’ bodywork and a 1.5-litre chain driven SOHC engine.
• The publicity stated the SM1500 offered the proud owner ‘‘Dignity, style and perfect balance” for £799.
• For the GP or solicitor, Stand 161 presented the eminently respectable Rover P3-seires Sixty and Seventy-Five.
• However, there were rumours that Rover was planning a radical new model with Studebaker-inspired bodywork.
• On Stand 162 Vauxhall intruded their first post-war models at the 1948 show; the Wyvern and Velox L-Series.
• As befitting a flagship model, the Velox featured a new 2,275cc six-cylinder engine, leather upholstery, folding rear armrest and cream-painted wheels.
• Best of all, Vauxhall owners could impress their neighbours by specifying an optional “scintillating metallichrome” paint finish.
• On Stand 100 Hillman’s new Minx Phase III certainly looked highly contemporary but its 1185cc engine was reassuringly conventional.
• One advertised modestly claimed “There was never a car that made friends as quickly as the Minx”.
• 1948 was the year the Bristol 401 made its bow and showgoers could marvel at its exquisite ‘Superleggera’ bodywork on Stand 142.
• Alas, you would need to have considerable financial resources before calling GROsvenor 4141 to arrange a 401 test drive.
• For traditionally-minded driver, the Triumph Roadster was now powered by the 2,088cc engine from the Standard Vanguard engine.
• Beyond Earls Court, Rover’s Land-Rover made its bow on the 30^th April 1948 at the Amsterdam Motor Show.
• Rover described the L-R as a vehicle “For The Farmer, The Countryman And General Industrial Use”.
• Commercial Motor raved “Four-wheel Drive, Power Available at Three Auxiliary Points, and an Engine of Unusual Design, Form Outstanding Features of a New Rover Product” while the options included a centre power take-off “for driving an air compressor for tree spraying”.
• For the well-heeled, the Lagonda 2.6-Litre was the marque’s first car since the purchase by David Brown in the following year.
• For the economy-minded, there was the Bond Minicar, although the 1948 London Motor Show did not feature three-wheelers.
• The Bond was powered by a 125-cc Villiers two-stroke engine and the rear wheels were devoid of suspension.
• The Preston firm made a virtue of the Minicar’s lack of standard equipment; even the windscreen wiper was hand-operated.
• In 1948 drivers of a three-wheeler who held only a motorcycle license were legally obliged to blank off the reverse gear; fortunately, the Bond lacked this decadent fitting.
• By contrast the latest Frazer Nash was for the sporting chap or chappess with its 120 bhp Bristol 1,971cc engine and cut-away doors.
• The Austin FX3 taxi made its bow in 1948 with three doors and a luggage platform alongside the driver. Power was from the A70 Hampshire’s 2,199cc engine.
• Austin designed the FX3’s coachwork , and production was via Carbodies of Coventry.
• The FX3 had to comply with the Public Carriage Office’s ‘Conditions of Fitness’, including a maximum turning circle of twenty-five feet.
• It was the FX3 that established the tradition of black London taxis. Previous cabs were available in a range of shades but the new Austin’s standard colour was noir and many operators were reluctant to pay extra for another finish.
• Crossing the Channel, the 1948 Paris Motor Show hosted the latest Citroën – the Deux Chevaux, aka the 2CV, powered by a 375cc engine.
• Pierre Boulanger, the company’s managing director, envisaged a car that was “an umbrella on wheels” capable of carrying “two peasants and 50kg of potatoes at 60kmh using no more than three litres of fuel every 100km”.
• In addition, Monsieur Boulanger, insisted the 2CV need to be “capable of running on the worst of roads and of being driven by a debutante”. Plus, famously, it had to carry a crate of eggs over a ploughed field.
• The 2CV’s ‘boot lid’ was a roll of fabric, the full-length sunroof facilitated transportation of bales of hay, the colour choice was any Citroën shade of grey and the speedometer drove the windscreen wipers.
• The price of the Deux Chevaux was 185,000 Francs, equivalent to just £230 - £71 less than the Renault
• Autocar was not entirely taken with the 2CV, describing it as “Simplified to the point of crudity, it seems almost needlessly ugly, but it is full of original ideas planned to cut weight and cost and increase production”.
• At the opposite end of the Citroën line-up was the post-war incarnation of the 15/6 Traction Avant, with a 2,866cc six-cylinder engine.
• 1948 was also the year that Peugeot commenced production the 203, its first post-war new model and its first monocoque-bodied car.
• On the 8^th June 1948, the Austrian government officially approved a hand-built aluminium-bodied two-seater sports car devised by Ferry Porsche and Erwin Komenda.
• The ‘Porsche 356/1’ was introduced to the motoring press at the 1948 European Grand Prix in Switzerland.
• In Australia, Monday the 29^th November 1948 was the day that the Prime Minister Ben Chifley, unveiled the first ever Holden car – the 48-215.
• Holden extras included a second sun visor, a venetian blind for the rear screen and “Coolaride Cushions for the seats”.
• Back in Blighty, some models, such as the MG YT, Riley RMC Roadster and Drophead Coupé were for “Export Only”.
• Some marques from 1948 that are no longer with us: Austin, Daimler., Hillman, Humber, Jowett, Lanchester, Morris, Riley, Singer, Standard, Sunbeam-Talbot, Triumph, Wolseley
• And, finally, some terms unfamiliar to a 1948 driver – “Zebra Crossing” (1951), “Motorway” (1958), “MOT Test (1960), Pelican Crossing (1969). But that is another story…