Vintage Metal

Collectors’ Book Review:

The Singer Story by Kevin Atkinson

S inger was one of Britain’s leading marques in the between the wars years, and there are many fine old Singers owned by proud collectors and competing in historic motor sport, but very few books have been written on the history of Singer. Kevin Atkinson’s The Singer Story is probably the only comprehensive history of the marque, and it is a fascinating read. Like many other car manufacturers, Singer started out building bicycles and was a highly respected manufacturer of “ordinary” bicycles, what we know as penny-farthings. Cycle manufacture continued until 1928. The next step forward was to motorcycles then, in 1904, to motor cars. The first Singer cars were designed by Alex Craig and had an unusual underfloor engine. From 1907 Singer used bought in engines, initially from White and Poppe, and the Craig cars quietly forgotten.

In 1909 the company failed but was reconstructed and continued in business. Singer was successful, both as a company and in competition, running cars at Brooklands and in the popular trials of the time. Records set by Singer cars at Brooklands were beaten only by models with much larger engines, usually purpose built racing models, while Singer

used production engines with minor modifications. The First World War provided a great commercial opportunity for Singer. The company supplied many 10 hp cars and vans to the war office and also manufactured munitions for the war effort. Motorcycle manufacture ceased in 1915 and was never resumed. At the end of the war the company was in a strong financial position and was able to acquire the Coventry Premier company when that company failed. Singer didn’t want the Coventry Premier products, but needed the factory space. Nevertheless, badge-engineered Singers were sold as Coventry Premiers for some years. Talk about British motor racing in the 1920s and 1930s and the names of Austin and MG tend to predominate, but Singer was right in there with extremely competitive small cars. Apart from successes in racing both at Brooklands and in

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