Lot 261: 1913 NAPIER 40HP DOUBLE-DECK OMNIBUS

Not registered
Engine: four cylinder 4½" x 6" bore & stroke, 6,255cc, vertical bi-bloc, L-head, water-cooled, with oil and water pumps, magneto ignition; Gearbox: 4-speed & reverse with gate change, single-disc clutch, shaft drive to overhead worm gear back axle; Suspension: front and rear, semi-elliptic leaf springs; Brakes: rear wheel and transmission brakes. Cast-steel wheels, single to front, twin at rear, all with solid-rubber tyres. Right hand drive.

The success of Napier as a motorcar manufacturer was the responsibility of two individuals: Montague Napier and Selwyn Francis Edge. The former was the head of the precision engineering firm of D. Napier & Son of Lambeth, South London, which had been in business since 1808. In 1900 Napier made an agreement with Edge that granted this ebullient figure the exclusive rights to sell the firm's output of motorcars. These Edge promoted by publicity stunts and participation in competitions of every sort including motor racing and his achievements, including winning the 1902 Gordon Bennett race, brought a surge in demand for Napiers, met from a large new factory at Acton, West London. The introduction to the 1904 model range of the first six-cylinder motorcar to enter series production established Napier at the forefront of the British motor industry for several years to come.

As other firms challenged Napier's supremacy as a maker of luxury motorcars diversification became necessary and the manufacture of 'business vehicles', as Napier called them, began in 1908. By 1910 production of two-cylinder taxi-cab chassis comfortably exceeded the output of private cars and there were other light commercial vehicles in the model range. Napier dispensed with the services of Edge in 1912 and in the summer of 1913 a 3½-ton capacity commercial chassis was unveiled. The journal Motor Traction referred to this new Napier as 'a worm-driven model built to withstand rough usage' whilst The Commercial Motor observed: 'all its machines have a margin for strength which is sufficient to compensate for the mishandling by inexperienced drivers and owners to which almost every commercial motor is subjected in everyday service. To this may be attributed the name for reliability and freedom from breakdown which this maker's products deservedly possess.' And further: 'Users will, no doubt, appreciate the clean design and accessibility which obtain throughout the whole construction of this machine.'

Even without the Napier name cast into the valve-chest cover-plates the engine would still be recognisable as the product of the Acton factory with its tidy overall design, in-line drive of the water pump and magneto, and the oil-pump neatly tucked in at the back of the crankcase. Examination of the massive construction of the mechanical components, particularly the gearbox and back axle, explains why the rolling chassis weighed in at 2½ tons.

Unfortunately the background to this vehicle is not known and the Napier Works Records do not give delivery dates for the commercial vehicles, so the precise date of this example cannot be confirmed. However, the records do give the Chassis and Engine numbers, and the 931 stamped alongside the latter refers to its batch/order number. During the Great War Napier made some 2000 commercial vehicles, including lorries of this type, but production of these was severely restricted from 1915 onwards when the Acton works became a 'controlled establishment' and Government direction focussed attention on the manufacture of aero-engines and components.

It is understood that the double-deck bus body that this chassis carries, possibly incorporating some original elements, was built by that multi-talented craftsman the late John Mitchell, best known for his creation of the six original cars needed for the film Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the making of a number of period-style open-topped buses for Disneyland.

Very few Napier commercial chassis survive, and when restoration of this example is completed it should add considerably to the historic commercial vehicle scene.