Castle Motor

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Castle Three from 1921
Castle Three from 1922
Castle Three emblem

The Castle Motor Company was a British manufacturer of automobiles that produced at the Castle Mill Works on New Road in Kidderminster, Worchestershire . The company was originally an auto repair shop, founded in 1906 by the brothers Stanley and Laughton Goodwin , made ammunition during World War I and entered the auto business in the post-war boom.

description

From 1919 to 1922 the company manufactured a three-wheeled compact car under the name Castle Three . It aimed at the market above the cycle cars and had a water-cooled four-cylinder engine. Initially, side-controlled in-line engines from Dorman with 1094 cm³ displacement were used, then they switched to the Belgian 1207 cm³ engines from the Peters brand . They were interlocked with the gears, which were designed either as two-stage planetary gears or three-speed spur gears. The individual rear wheel was driven by a cardan shaft or helical spur gears.

The open, two-seater structure with a mother-in-law seat had a nickel-plated radiator and electrical lighting. The chassis consisted of quarter-elliptical leaf springs at the front and semi-elliptical leaf springs at the rear. Unlike other small cars, the Castle Three had wooden-spoke wheels instead of wire-spoke wheels.

The new car was exhibited at the 1919 London Motor Show and the company received 2,300 orders during the exhibition. However, not all of these orders were confirmed and so finally 350 copies were built. Two of them have survived to this day. The vehicle was too heavy for the cycle car class.

A prototype of a four-wheeled vehicle was also created, which was to be marketed as the Castle Four . But it didn't come to that. The company closed its doors in 1922 and the factory was sold to a carpet manufacturer.

literature

  • Nick Baldwin: A – Z of Cars of the 1920s. Herridge & Sons, Beaworthy 2010, ISBN 978-1-906133-24-5 . (English)

Web links

Commons : Castle Motor  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b N. Baldwin: AZ of Cars of the 1920s. Bay View Books, Devon 1994, ISBN 1-870979-53-2 .
  2. ^ N. Georgano: Beaulieu Encyclopedia of the Automobile. HMSO, London 2000, ISBN 1-57958-293-1 .