Thomas Startin Jnr.

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Thomas Startin Jnr.
legal form Limited Company
founding 1840
resolution 1994
Reason for dissolution takeover
Seat Birmingham , UK
Branch Body shop

Austin 7 Van
Hearse Daimler-Majestic-Major-Basis
Built according to MacNeillie & Sons' Startin construction: Rover 800 Regency

Thomas Startin Jnr. Ltd. (short: Startin ) was a British manufacturer of automobile bodies . In the 20th century, the company focused on building funeral vehicles . In addition, car bodies were also created.

Company history

Thomas Startin Jnr. Ltd. was founded in Birmingham in 1840 . The company belonged to the founder's family for almost 150 years. It was not until 1987 that one of the previous managers took over the majority of the shares.

Commercial vehicles and one-offs

In the first decades after it was founded, Startin mainly produced carriages . The manufacture of automobile bodies began in the early 20th century. Individual bodies were made for cars, including at least one limousine on the chassis of the Rolls-Royce 20/25 (1931); However, since the 1920s at the latest, the focus of activity has been on the construction of commercial vehicle bodies. From 1923 until the early 1930s, Startin built the delivery van versions of the Austin Seven on behalf of the factory . At this time, Startin also took over a works agency for the Austin Motor Company .

Hearse vehicles and limousines

After the Second World War , Startin concentrated on building hearses. Together with competitors Woodall Nicholson and Eagle Specialist Vehicles , Startin became one of the market leaders in Great Britain. It was based on various series vehicles such as the Austin FL2 , which Startin converted in small series in the 1960s, or the American Ford Galaxie . However, Startin mainly worked with chassis from the Daimler Motor Company . The chassis came from the representative vehicles Daimler Majestic Major or DR450 and - from 1969 - DS420 . The company purchased ready-to-drive DS420 chassis from the factory and installed stand-alone superstructures designed by Ken Bilson that consisted of hand-made sheet metal. Initially, Startin's DS420 hearse had a high rear end; in the 1970s, low-line models with a flatter roof were introduced. Startin built a total of more than 300 hearses on DS420 chassis. The last of was delivered in 1994, two years after Jaguar stopped producing the original vehicle.

At that time, however, the company's main business was already converting the Rover 800 . Startin made funeral vehicles and elongated limousines with three rows of seats and initially four doors, which were sold as Rover Regency. With the introduction of the second series of the Rover 800, Startin switched to an even longer version with six doors. In many cases, the company delivered pairs of coincident designed hearse and limousines ( matching pairs ) to the funeral home.

Sold to MacNeillie & Son

In the mid-1990s, Startin sold the body shop to competitor MacNeillie & Son in Walsall , who also continued to manufacture the Rover Regency according to Startin's design plans, so that in the end more than 300 Regency was created across all series. The Startin Group, which has since moved to Redditch , Worcestershire , has only been a car dealer since then.

literature

  • Brian Long: Daimler & Lanchester. A Century of Motor History , Longford International Publications, 1995, ISBN 1899154019
  • Nick Walker: A – Z of British Coachbuilders 1919–1960 . Shebbear 2007 (Herridge & Sons Ltd.) ISBN 978-0-9549981-6-5 .

Web links

Commons : Startin  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Nick Walker: A – Z of British Coachbuilders 1919–1960 . Shebbear 2007 (Herridge & Sons Ltd.) ISBN 978-0-9549981-6-5 , p. 173.
  2. ↑ Images of the car on the website www.coachbuild.com (accessed on January 22, 2020).
  3. ^ Graham Baldock: Identifying Austin Sevens from their factory Initials . Austin Seven Clubs' Association publication, 2018, p. 11.
  4. ↑ Overview of Austin FL2 or FX4 conversions on the website www.aronline.co.uk (accessed on January 22, 2020).
  5. ↑ Illustration of a Ford Galaxie converted by Startin into a hearse (accessed on January 22, 2020).
  6. ^ Brian Long: Daimler & Lanchester. A Century of Motor History , Longford International Publications, 1995, ISBN 1899154019 , p. 294.
  7. ↑ a b James Taylor: Rover 800 Series: The Complete Story . The Crowood Press, 2016, ISBN 9781785002250 .
  8. ↑ a b Thomas Startin on the website www.aronline.co.uk (accessed on January 22, 2020).