About Singer
Singer was an automobile company founded in 1905 in Coventry, England. It was acquired by the Rootes Group of the United Kingdom in 1956. The British Singer company had no connection with the Singer company of Mount Vernon, New York, USA who made luxury cars from 1915 to 1920.
History
Singer started life as one of the many bicycle makers in Coventry. In 1901 they moved into motor tricycles and bicycles. Motorcycle manufacture would continue until the outbreak of war in 1914. In 1905 they made their first four wheel car which had a 3 cylinder 1400 cc engine and was made under licence from Lea-Francis. The first Singer designed car was the 4 cylinder 2.4 litre 12/14 of 1906. The engine was bought in from Aster. For 1907 the Lea-Francis design was dropped and a range of two, three and four cylinder models using White and Poppe engines launched. The Aster engined models were dropped in 1909 and a new range of larger cars introduced. All cars were now White and Poppe powered. In 1911 the first big seller appeared with the 1100cc Ten with Singer's own engine. The use of their own power plants spread through the range until by the outbreak of the First World War all models except the low volume 3.3 litre 20hp were so equipped.
With peace the Ten continued with a redesign in 1923 including a new overhead valve engine. Six cylinder models were introduced in 1922. In 1927 the Ten engine grew to 1300 cc and a new light car the 850 cc overhead cam (ohc) engine, the big selling Junior was announced. By 1928 Singer was Britain's third largest car maker after Austin and Morris. The range continued in a very complex manner using developments of the ohc Junior engine first with the Nine, the 14/6 and the sporty 1 1/2 litre in 1933. The Nine became the Bantam in 1935.
After the Second World War initially the pre war Nine, Ten and Twelve were re-introduced with little change but in 1948 the all new SM1500 with independent front suspension but still using a chassis was announced. It was however expensive at £799 and failed to sell well as Singer's rivals also got back into full production. The car was restyled to become the Hunter in 1954 which was also available with a twin overhead cam version of the engine few of which were made.
