Vauxhall Prince Henry

Vauxhall Prince Henry at a glance

Development and production history

Vauxhall began in 1857, when the Scottish marine engineer Alexander Wilson founded a company at Wandsworth Road in Vauxhall, London, building pumps and marine engines. The firm built its first car in 1903, a five-horsepower single-cylinder model steered by a tiller, with two forward gears and no reverse; wheel steering and a reverse gear followed in 1904.

To expand, the company moved most of its production to Luton in 1905. In 1906 the 22-year-old Laurence Pomeroy joined as an assistant draughtsman. In the winter of 1907–1908 he designed an engine for the RAC and Scottish Reliability Trial of 1908, while the chief engineer F. W. Hodges was on holiday; the cars did so well that Pomeroy took over as chief designer, and the 1908 trial car went into production as the A-type.

The 1910 Prince Henry Trial was a long-distance event in Germany named after Prince Henry of Prussia. For it Vauxhall prepared three special cars based on the A-type, with a streamlined, rounded rear body and a matching radiator and bonnet. According to a contemporary account, two of the three earned full marks for reliability, and all three reached about 65 mph (105 km/h) in the speed test.

The cars did not win the event outright, but they performed well, and the replicas sold so quickly that they became known as Prince Henry Vauxhalls. One of the trial cars also won the Brooklands speed trials and its class's fuel-economy award in the RAC 2,000-mile trial, after which Pomeroy was promoted to works manager.

The production car was offered from 1911 under the code C-10 and shown at the 1911 Olympia Motor Show. In 1913 the engine grew from 3.0 to 4.0 litres, and the car became the C-type. Production at Luton continued until 1915, although the infobox of English Wikipedia ends it in 1914.

Design and engineering

The Prince Henry was a front-engined, rear-wheel-drive car with a four-speed sliding-pinion gearbox and a live rear axle. The 1911 cars have a wheelbase of 117 in (2,972 mm) and a length of about 159 in (4,039 mm). The 1913 cars have 120 in (3,048 mm) and about 162 in (4,115 mm), depending on the body. Kerb weight is about 1,250 kg (2,756 lb).

The body of the trial cars was shaped for speed, with a rounded rear and a radiator and bonnet designed to match. Cars built in 1914 have fluted bonnet panels that fade out a short distance behind the radiator.

Engine and drivetrain

The original trial engine produced about 30 kW (40 bhp) before it was tuned to about 45 kW (60 bhp) for the trial cars. German Wikipedia gives 44 kW (60 PS) at 2,800 rpm for the 3.0-litre engine and 63 kW (86 PS) at 3,300 rpm for the 4.0-litre; the English figures are used in the table. Our power converter translates bhp and PS into kW.

Vauxhall Prince Henry specifications

From Prince Henry to 30-98 and D-type

The Prince Henry chassis carried two important successors. In 1913 the car dealer and competitor Joseph Higginson asked Vauxhall for a faster car. Pomeroy bored out and lengthened the stroke of the Prince Henry's side-valve engine, and Higginson won the Shelsley Walsh hill climb on 7 June 1913 in the new car, setting a hill record. This was the first 30-98, built from 1913 to 1927 and later reported as "the first and perhaps the best British sports car". Only 13 were made before the war.

During the First World War Vauxhall built large numbers of the D-type, a Prince Henry chassis with a derated engine, as staff cars for British forces. Pomeroy left for the United States in 1919 and was replaced by C. E. King. On 16 November 1925 General Motors bought Vauxhall for US$2.5 million (1925). At that time, according to English Wikipedia, the company was making only seventeen cars a week, and the purchase was unpopular with senior GM executives. The American group's own history is told in our history of General Motors.

The Prince Henry in numbers

From 1911 to 1913 the engine grew by 30%, from 3,054 to 3,969 cc, and power by 25%, from 45 to 56 kW. With about 1,250 kg, the later car had about 22 kg per kilowatt. At £580 (1911), the replica sold after the 1910 trial cost about half of what Vauxhall asked for a bare 30-98 chassis after the war (£1,125 in 1919). Prices of the two periods are not directly comparable, though.

The later 30-98 itself shows how the idea grew: after only 13 cars before the war, 274 were built with the E engine and 313 with the OE engine, about 600 in all. Production numbers for the Prince Henry itself are not recorded in the sources, but the nine surviving cars counted by German Wikipedia show how rare it is today.

Which Prince Henry to look for

• For the original concept: an early 3.0-litre C-10 of 1911–1912.
• For performance: a 4.0-litre C-type of 1913–1915.
• For the classic Vauxhall look: a 1914 car with fluted bonnet panels.
• For history: a car with documented trial or competition use.
• For the next step: a post-war 30-98 on the same chassis, priced from £950 for a bare chassis in 1921 and 1924.

Surviving cars can have long, documented histories: English Wikipedia follows a 1914 car owned from new by W. T. Badgery, bought by L. E. W. Pomeroy in 1946 and later owned by Reg Long. Today's Vauxhall models are in the Vauxhall catalogue, and more early cars in classic cars.

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