Streamline Cars Ltd
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Streamline Cars Ltd was the company responsible for making the Burney car designed by Dennis Burney. Sir
Dennistoun Burney Sir Charles Dennistoun Burney, 2nd Baronet (28 December 1888 – 11 November 1968, in Bermuda) was an English aeronautical engineer, private inventor and Conservative Party politician.''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' Oxford: OUP. ...
rose to fame as an
airship An airship, dirigible balloon or dirigible is a type of aerostat (lighter-than-air) aircraft that can navigate through the air flying powered aircraft, under its own power. Aerostats use buoyancy from a lifting gas that is less dense than the ...
designer, best known for his work at
Howden Howden () is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It lies in the Vale of York to the north of the M62 motorway, M62, on the A614 road about south-east of York and north of Goole, ...
on the
R100 His Majesty's Airship R100 was a privately designed and built British rigid airship made as part of a two-ship competition to develop a commercial airship service for use on British Empire routes as part of the Imperial Airship Scheme. The o ...
for
Vickers Vickers was a British engineering company that existed from 1828 until 1999. It was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by Edward Vickers and his father-in-law, and soon became famous for casting church bells. The company went public in 18 ...
. Starting in 1927, thirteen cars were made at
Maidenhead Maidenhead is a market town in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in the county of Berkshire, England. It lies on the southwestern bank of the River Thames, which at this point forms the border with Buckinghamshire. In the 2021 Census, ...
. Each was different, as they were intended as showcases for his
patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an sufficiency of disclosure, enabling discl ...
s rather than for serious production.


Engine and running gear

The cars incorporated such features as
independent suspension Independent suspension is any automobile suspension system that allows each wheel on the same axle to move vertically (i.e. reacting to a bump on the road) independently of the others. This is contrasted with a beam axle or deDion axle system in ...
,
hydraulic brake A hydraulic brake is an arrangement of braking mechanism which uses brake fluid, typically containing glycol ethers or diethylene glycol, to transfer pressure from the controlling mechanism to the braking mechanism. History During 1904, Frederic ...
s, a heater and all seating within the
wheelbase In both road and rail vehicles, the wheelbase is the horizontal distance between the centers of the front and rear wheels. For road vehicles with more than two axles (e.g. some trucks), the wheelbase is the distance between the steering (front ...
. Ignition and other controls operated through flexible cables encased in copper tubing, which followed contemporary aircraft industry practice. The cars were rear-engined with twin radiators. Shows cut-away view of car. The first car used an
Alvis Alvis is a given name and a surname (close to the uncommon Scottish surname Alves). Alvis may also refer to: *Alvi, a Muslim community in South Asia, who claims descent from the fourth Rashidun caliph, Ali ibn Abi Talib *Alvis Car and Engineering ...
front-wheel-drive chassis effectively turned back-to-front but adapted so the new front wheels steered. Later cars used
Beverley Beverley is a market town and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It is located north-west of Hull city centre. At the 2021 census the built-up area of the town had a population of 30,930, and the smaller civil parish had ...
straight 8, Lycoming and
Armstrong Siddeley Armstrong Siddeley was a British engineering group that operated during the first half of the 20th century. It was formed in 1919 and is best known for the production of luxury vehicles and aircraft engines. The company was created following t ...
engines.


Body

The streamlined bodywork is very long at just under . The spare wheel was carried inside one of the rear doors which must have put an enormous strain on the hinges and door pillar. The equivalent space in the opposite door was occupied either by a second spare wheel or a cocktail cabinet. The car's unusual aerodynamic design was eye catching, with very little front overhang, but a long rear overhang (containing the engine). The underside was also covered in sheet metal to enhance aerodynamic efficiency. The Streamline pointed to the future in terms of space efficiency, featuring a seven-seat interior and, even by the standards of the time, excellent headroom, which seems to have been a particular concern for the designer.


Commercial

Each car was priced at around £1,500. A blue one was bought by the
Prince of Wales Prince of Wales (, ; ) is a title traditionally given to the male heir apparent to the History of the English monarchy, English, and later, the British throne. The title originated with the Welsh rulers of Kingdom of Gwynedd, Gwynedd who, from ...
late in 1930, and another crossed the
Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second largest of the world's five oceanic divisions, with an area of about . It covers approximately 17% of Earth's surface and about 24% of its water surface area. During the Age of Discovery, it was known for se ...
to be exhibited at the
Detroit Car Show The Detroit Auto Show, formerly known as the North American International Auto Show (NAIAS), is an annual auto show held in Detroit, Michigan. Hosted at Huntington Place (formerly Cobo Center) since 1965, it is among the largest auto shows in ...
. In total, 12 Streamlines were built between 1929 and 1931, but none appears to have survived."Inventor and Streamlined Car With Rear Engine Will Sail From England Tomorrow." This will be the ninth one built; the Prince of Wales bought the fifth one.
Crossley Motors Crossley Motors was an English motor vehicle manufacturer based in Manchester, England. It produced approximately 19,000 cars from 1904 until 1938, 5,500 buses from 1926 until 1958, and 21,000 goods and military vehicles from 1914 to ...
took out a licence to build the Streamline, producing a further 25 vehicles, of which two survive. The Straight eight Beverley-Barnes engines in the earlier cars proved to be unreliable, and in the final three cars were replaced by US-built 6-cylinder Lycoming or UK-built
Armstrong Siddeley Armstrong Siddeley was a British engineering group that operated during the first half of the 20th century. It was formed in 1919 and is best known for the production of luxury vehicles and aircraft engines. The company was created following t ...
units. Streamline Cars finally closed in 1936.


Driving impressions

A contemporary report commended the lack of mechanical noise from the driver's seat and the excellence of the ride. The car's considerable weight – 38 cwt or about 1900 kg on the 1930 model – may have been one cause of the clutch-slip reported at 76 mph (about 122 km/h) which was close to the car's claimed maximum. The engine was mounted wholly behind the rear axle, and the car was therefore alarmingly unstable in wet or windy weather. A remarkable turning circle of was achieved in spite of the car's length. No two Streamlines were identical and the version tested was "only" 18 ft 7 in (approximately 5.6 meters) long with a 12 ft 5 in (3.8 m) wheelbase which made it unwieldy in restricted spaces. It was longer than the longest available
Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: * Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles * Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...
and only about £350 cheaper.


Aftermath

Some of the ideas (including the location of the spare wheel) were used by
Crossley Motors Crossley Motors was an English motor vehicle manufacturer based in Manchester, England. It produced approximately 19,000 cars from 1904 until 1938, 5,500 buses from 1926 until 1958, and 21,000 goods and military vehicles from 1914 to ...
in their "Streamline" but this also was not a production success. The Maidenhead factory was also used for car production by Marendaz and GWK.


See also

*
List of car manufacturers of the United Kingdom :''This list is incomplete. You can help by adding correctly sourced information about other manufacturers.'' Major current marques Current manufacturers ;A *AC Cars, AC (1908–present) *Action Automotive (2004–present) *Aeon Spo ...
* Streamliner#Automobiles for overview of early aerodynamic automobiles ;Early aerodynamic cars, chronologically: *
Rumpler Tropfenwagen The Rumpler Tropfenwagen ("Rumpler drop car", named after its raindrop shape) was a car developed by Austrian engineer Edmund Rumpler. The Tropfenwagen Aerodynamics Rumpler, born in Vienna, was known as a designer of aircraft when at the 1921 Ber ...
(1921), first aerodynamic "teardrop" car to be designed and serially produced (about 100 units built) *Persu car (1922-23), designed by Romanian engineer
Aurel Persu Aurel Persu (26 December 1890 – 5 May 1977) was a Romanian engineer and pioneer car designer, the first to place the wheels inside the body of the car as part of his attempt to reach the perfect aerodynamic shape for automobiles.
, who improved on the Tropfenwagen by placing the wheels inside the car body *
Dymaxion car The Dymaxion car was designed by American inventor Buckminster Fuller during the Great Depression and featured prominently at Chicago's 1933/1934 World's Fair. Fuller built three experimental prototypes with naval architect Starling Burgess ...
, 1933 US "teardrop" car *
Tatra T77 The Tatra 77 (T77) is one of the first serial-produced, truly aerodynamically-designed automobiles, produced by Czechoslovak company Tatra from 1934 to 1938. It was developed by Hans Ledwinka and Paul Jaray, the Zeppelin aerodynamic engineer. L ...
(1934), claimed to be the first truly serial-produced aerodynamically-designed automobile *
Chrysler Airflow The Chrysler Airflow is a full-size car produced by Chrysler from 1934 to 1937. The Airflow was the first full-size American production car to use streamlining as a basis for building a sleeker automobile, one less susceptible to air resistance. ...
(1934-37) streamlined car


References

Citations Bibliography *


Further reading

*Nield, Dr. Bernard. ''The Burney Streamline Car''. Howden: Howden Civic Society, 2008. . * * *Nield, Dr. Bernard. ''The Burney Streamline Car''. Howden: Howden Civic Society, 2008. {{ISBN, 978-0-9557145-0-4.


External links


"Streamline Auto Can Almost Fly", December 1930, Popular Science

"Cover", December 1930, Popular Science
art work of Burney car
"Aircraft Lines Add to Auto's Speed and Power" ''Popular Mechanics'', December 1930
Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of England Streamliner cars Companies based in Maidenhead