All you need to know about Riley
Born: 1899
Nationality: British
What was to become a very respected marque in the early years of motoring came out of a bicycle company bought by master weaver William Riley in 1890. His five sons were interested in engines and they produced a powered tricycle in 1899. Three of them, Victor, Percy and Allan set up their own Riley Engine Company in 1902. The first four-wheeled car was produced in the same year.
The family was innovative in engineering terms and early patents included the mechanically-operated inlet valve and the first detachable road wheel. The radiator grille was a V-shape style, reflecting the brothers' interest in V-configuration engines.
The original two-seater base car was supplemented by a four-seater larger model with a 2-litre V-twin engine that gave up to 18hp, and by 1908 the company also had another two-seater 10hp model. A four-cylinder 3-litre model, the '17hp' was launched in 1914, and was to be a mainstay until the early 1920s.
After the first World War, Riley launched an 11 hp model that had in the diamond logo the slogan "As old as the industry, as modern as the hour". This car became the 11-40hp in 1923 and was available with two engine choices.
By 1928 the 12hp had its own range of body types - the Lulworth, the Midworth, the Grangeworth, the Chatsworth and the Wentworth coupé. At the end of the year, the 12hp engine was replaced by a 6-cylinder 14hp unit and variants included Biarritz, Stelvio, Deauville and Special Tourer. In 1929 the 14/6 light saloon was a major success.
The 14/6 was improved in 1931 and a variant was renamed the Alpine. The same year came the WD, a civilian version of a Riley 9 Tourer which had been produced for the British War Office. The model names continued to multiply and in 1932 they included the Gamecock Sports, the Ascot Coupé, the Kestrel, the Falcon, the Lynx, the Linock, the March Special, the Trinity Tourer, the Winchester and the Edinburgh. All of these were built around two basic engines - the 9 and the 14/6. Many of them still had fabric-covered bodies, but by 1934 steel bodies had taken over the whole Riley range.
In 1934, a two-seater sports tourer, the Imp, replaced the Brooklands. A year later there were two new engines, the 12/4 and the 5/6, and by 1936 the company had no fewer than 23 models on its catalogue.
But, like many individual car makers of the time, financial troubles were looming and in 1938 the receivers were called in. Lord Nuffield bought it and amalgamated it into his Morris/MG, Wolseley and Riley conglomerate, the Nuffield Organisation. Immediately the plethora of models was trimmed to just two, the Kestrel Saloon and the Lynx Tourer.
After the second World War, the RM saloons revived the style status of the Riley marque, with four-door bodywork and flowing wings. The last "true" Rileys were the RME and the RMF in the early 50s, but they didn't sell well, and from then on - apart from the Riley 1.5 of 1957, the Riley logo was only to be found as "badge-engineering" on Austins, Wolseleys and Minis. The Riley Kestrel variant of the Austin/Morris 1300 ceased production in 1969.
The Riley name is currently owned by BMW, which acquired it with Rover in 1994 and retained it along with Triumph and Austin-Healey when it sold off the main Rover elements subsequently.
Best Car: Aficionados will say the 1948 Riley Tourer.
Worst Car: The 4/72 of the '50s which was really a humble Austin Cambridge.
Weirdest Car: The 1904 Tricar (pictured)