Pictures from the Heritage Archives

Following on from the car styling ideas we considered last week we have in the Heritage collection of factory negatives, a selection of pictures showing the in- house development and design departments final ideas for the all new Armstrong Siddeley car.

New Armstrong Siddeley car style in clay dated 19.11.1959

Development of clay model dated 11.1.1960

note- Sadly this negative suffered badly from poor storage conditions and despite extensive cleaning is not up to our usual standard.

It does allow us a peek into the world of the modeller and interestingly shows a couple of tools and the miniature windscreen for later application.

Finished model of proposed styling dated 13.1.1960

As we have seen, very soon funding would cease in favour of national aeronautical interests.

This seems a sad way to bring to an end, after forty one years, the production of innovative quality cars, evidenced by the number and variety which remain today. In most cases these hardy vehicles have survived multiple ownership, often in the hands of those of modest means. They provided reliable family transport despite minimal maintenance until the lucky ones fell into the hands of enthusiastic collectors.

However the car production lines at Parkside remained in place and surprisingly would not remain idle. Next week we will find out how this came about.