Invicta 4.5-Litre A-Type Fixed Head Coupe

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Noel Macklin was a true adventurer. Born in Western Australia in 1886, his father was a prominent barrister, the family moving to England when he was 25.

A sportsman through and through, he pursued a career as a professional Jockey, tried his hand at Brooklands racing a Mercedes and became a member of the England Ice-Hockey team. A Captain in the Royal Horse Artillery, he had a distinguished WW1 but was badly wounded in France and invalided home in 1915 after which he joined the Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve and served with the Dover Patrol.

When the war was over, he decided to start making cars, his first effort arriving in 1919 in the form of the Eric-Campbell light car. When this venture faltered a year later, he produced a new model named the Silver Hawk, a project that also hit the rocks early on, but featured an attractive square radiator, the design of which was used to good effect in his next, and much more successful enterprise in 1925 – the Invicta. 

It had always been in his mind to produce a car which required the minimum of gear changes. The Invicta achieved this and much more. Their six initial prototypes used a two-litre Coventry-Simplex engine and gearbox in a chassis made for them by Bayliss-Thomas. Alas these first cars were left out on a freezing winters night and all froze solid, damaging their engines beyond repair and so it was back to the drawing board once more.

As befits such a man, setbacks only fuelled Macklin's determination to succeed and he then made the inspired decision to use the excellent 2,692cc six-cylinder Meadows engine, which when married to a Moss or ENV gearbox resulted in his first automotive commercial success. An enlarged 3-litre continued to catch the imagination of the sporting driver, no doubt boosted by a series of extraordinary endurance records achieved in an Invicta by Macklin’s sister-in-law, Violette Cordery. These included London to Edinburgh in 1st gear (yes, really), London to Monte Carlo in 3rd gear, 100 miles around central London in top gear and 30,000 miles in 30,000 minutes with her younger sister Evelyn as co-driver! 

Macklin subsequently took full advantage of Meadow’s new 4,467cc six-cylinder engine in the 4 ½-litre model. Offered in three versions, the NLC model was produced between 1928 and 1930 followed by the 'A' type (as on offer here) which lasted until 1934. From 1931 the glamorous low-chassis ‘S’ type was offered, its rakish bodywork and low stance setting the design template for most sports cars of the early 1930s. Sadly the depression began to bite and production had all but ceased by late 1933. In 1934 Macklin reinvented himself yet again with a new car – the straight-eight Hudson-powered Railton.

This lovely 4 1/2-litre Invicta 'A' type left the factory destined for coachbuilders Lancefield where it was fitted with elegant, DHC coachwork. Sadly nothing is known of the intervening years, until July 1984 when it was purchased from the Henry Ellard of Willenhall collection sale. Any paperwork that existed prior to that time was unfortunately lost, the car passing around within the trade before being purchased by the vendor in 1987 from David Howard. It was complete, nicely original but rather neglected and its new owner decided that it needed a full chassis up restoration.

Once stripped, it was found that one chassis dumb-iron was ½” longer than the other – a common manufacturing fault with these high chassis cars by all accounts. This was rectified by cutting and welding with a high-nickel content rod and all was as it should be. The road springs were reset and rebushed and the sliding trunnions were modified to improve lubrication.

The front axle was checked and corrected for straightness and oversize kingpins fitted. The rear axle was stripped and checked and found to be in excellent condition. Modern lip-seals replaced the old felt hub seals and the brakes were relined and new clevis pins fitted throughout.

The gearbox was then stripped and found to be in fine fettle and as with the rear axle, the felt seals were replaced with modern lip-seals. The clutch was relined and fitted with new springs and the output shaft from the steering box was reground and fitted with a new bronze bush.

The engine was completely stripped and rebored. New pistons, valves, springs and guides were fitted as well as new rocker shafts and bushes. The oil delivery system to the valve-train was improved. The crank was reground and new white-metal bearings fitted throughout. Up front a new sprocket was fitted to the crank and a modern lip-seal fitted too. All ball races were replaced and the water pump was rebuilt with a new carbon face seal.

The vendor then dealt with the ancilliaries, rebuilding the starter, dynamo, distributor, magneto, carburettors and autovac (new tank) to as new condition regardless of cost. He even designed and had specially cast a modern oil filter housing which mirrored the original as well as a special thermostat housing.

Once the rolling chassis was completed, attention turned to the Lancefield DHC bodywork. This was found to be in sound condition with the exception of some rot around the scuttle which was duly replaced. The large doors were fitted with adjustable torsion tubes to add strength and keep their bottom edges in line with the body and the window winders repositioned to make them more accessible to the driver.

At some point, the roof-line of the DHC body had been lowered by about 2”, making the car look very purposeful. This had involved removing 2” from the windscreen and side windows and also dispensing with the folding roof mechanism. The decision was made to keep its current roof position and rebuild the roof as a fixed-head, retaining the pram-irons and hinged ‘B’ posts. Bidders are advised that as a consequence of this, the roof does not fold down.

Specialist trimmer John Andrews carried out a full retrim in top quality hide, the exterior of the car being resprayed in blue over black wings and a set of six new wheels added which completed the project.

Since its comprehensive restoration, this fine specimen has covered some 20,000 miles. The vendor, a retired Chartered Mechanical Engineer, now finds it a bit too heavy to use as he would like and is spending his workshop time making the most fabulous time-pieces from scratch. The quality of any restoration can be gauged by the attention to the smallest detail and it would be hard to imagine a car which has been more carefully or thoughtfully restored than this.