1930 Invicta 4.5 Litre Drophead Coupe With Dicky

Lot details
Registration No: UN-REG
Chassis No: NLC374
Mot Expiry: None

Noel Campbell Macklin started the Invicta Car Company in 1925 and although it became one of Britain's classic sports cars his original aim was to build a car in which changing gears would become virtually unnecessary. Production continued until 1933 in Cobham whereupon it moved to Chelsea until the outbreak of war with its last four years being spent back in Surrey at Virginia Water.
Noel installed a two litre, six-cylinder Coventry Simplex engine together with a four-speed gearbox, again by Coventry Simplex, in a Bayliss-Thomas chassis and initially six prototypes were made and performed very satisfactorily. The press launch showed that it could go from a standing start in top gear up the steep Guildford High Street but unfortunately all six engines were ruined when they were left without antifreeze during a cold spell and so he had to start all over again. In 1926 Noel's young sister-in-law, the 25 year old Violet Cordery, started her series of long distance journeys which included taking a team to Monza where they captured World records for 10,000 and 15,000 miles and then in another outing covered 5,000 miles at Brooklands at an average speed of more than 70 mph. They won the Dewar Trophy for Invicta, which was presented by the Royal Automobile Club, and in 1929 she won it for the second time with a Brooklands' run of 30,000 miles in 30,000 minutes.
Quite a lady and simply one of the best people available at promoting the marque.
In the summer of 1928 the 4467cc Meadows unit was introduced and was used exclusively by Invicta until the end of 1933 when Lagonda took the engine over. The unit was installed in three Invicta models: the NLC from 1928 to 1930; the 'A' from 1930 to 1934 and the 'S' from 1931 to 1935 and of course the first two have become to be known as 'high chassis' models.
The rare & stunning example we have for you today from this high quality manufacturer dates from 1930 and is fitted with a truly lovely two-seater drophead coupe body with dickey seat, which was made by Mayfair of London. It is one of the highly important NLC models, which were built with everything duplicated as in aircraft production, and is in just absolutely wonderful condition throughout.
David Howard, who is now retired, living in France and nowadays contributes to 'The Automobile', has been a dealer for many years and originally bought this car from the Ellard collection. Mr. Harry Ellard was a fanatical collector of the Invicta and Lagonda marques as he was a great friend of Meadows himself and all the cars were used for a short time and then stored at the back of his factory in Wolverhampton. When he died the collection was sold by Collins, Bigwood and Bewlay in 1984 and in all cases the cars were lovely and in highly original condition with mileages that were absolutely genuine and this example has even now, we believe, only completed a mere 21000 miles from new.
David sold this car on to the present owner, a Norwegian, who has owned it ever since and had work completed on it but without spoiling its originality. The colour is the original Nitro Brown on the aluminium coachwork but unfortunately he has had white wall tyres fitted, which although may not be to everyones taste, can of course be replaced.
During the last eight years the present owner has not had the opportunity to use the car due to work commitments so it has been in a local museum where it has been started regularly. It was driven over to our offices from Norway and is in simply wonderful condition throughout and we have a copy of the original logbook in the history file which suggests that its original registration number was GH 6732 which should be able to be rescued.
A rare and highly attractive vehicle from a quality manufacturer.