All you need to know about the Wolseley.
Born: 1895 Nationality: British
This marque has an Irish connection - the name came from Frederick York Wolseley, who left Ireland in 1887 and set up the Wolseley Sheep Shearing Machine Company in Sydney. He moved to London and in 1895 his manager Herbert Austin designed his first car, a one-seat tricycle. His next one, a two-seater, didn't sell. People wanted four-seaters, so in 1899 Austin came up with a 4-seater which became the firm's first production model - it won its class in the 1900 Thousand Miles Trial.
On Wolseley's death, the enterprise was taken over by Vickers Engineering and machine-gun maker Hiram Maxim. It was reformed as the Wolseley Tool and Motor Car Company, and in 1905 Austin left to set up his own company. One JD Siddeley replaced him as a director - he would become better known as part of the Armstrong-Siddeley brand.
In this period, the company made motor sleds for Scott's Antarctic expedition and in 1912 something called the Gyrocar, a unique gyro-balanced two-wheel working concept. By this time Wolseley was Britain's largest manufacturer - it made cars, double-deck buses, taxis, lorries and boat engines.
During the first World War, the company made aero engines, lorries, artillery shells and guns. After the war it resumed making luxury cars for buyers all over the world, but the economic climate was wrong for expensive cars and in 1926 the firm collapsed.
Both General Motors and Herbert Austin himself tried to buy the company, mainly for its six-cylinder OHC engine technology; the winning bid came from William Morris who acquired Wolseley in 1927 and added it to what would become the biggest British multi-marque operation. Variants of the Wolseley engine were used in a range of four-, six- and eight-cylinder cars in the Morris stable.
In 1930 the first Wolseley Hornet was produced, and two years later came the trademark illuminated radiator badge which lasted until the brand ceased production.
After the second World War, during which the firm made ammunition, machine-gun carriers and Horsa gliders, pre-war designs were adapted for the austere times and the badge-engineering for which Morris Lord Nuffield became famous became more the norm. The Wolseley 8 typified the trend, being an upmarket version of the Morris Series E with a Wolseley front and different interior.
In 1948, the monocoque 4/50 and 6/80 derivatives of the Morris Oxford MO provided buyers with 4- and 5-cylinder options. The 6/80 became quite visible also in its police car version. In the early 1950s more sleek designs appeared - first the 4/44 in 1952 and then the 6/90 in 1954 which shared its body with the Riley Pathfinder. The 4/44 was replaced in 1956 by the 15/50.
In 1957, the Wolseley 1500 was introduced, sharing a relatively small body with the Riley 1500, the same body having been originally conceived as a replacement for the Morris Minor. The 1500 was considered a sporty-performance saloon in its time.
At the end of the 1950s, new Pininfarina-designed BMC A95 cars included the Wolseley 15/60 as the marque's offering in a set that included MG, Riley, Morris and Austin models. In 1959 the 6/99, built on a similar-looking but larger body series than the A95 one, was introduced as a prestige line-up that included Austin and Vanden Plas models.
Two years afterwards, the Hornet name was revived as a luxury version of the Austin Mini. The 15/60 became the 16/60 also in 1961.
In 1965, a Wolseley variant of the 1962 BMC 1100/1300 range was introduced to replace the long-serving 1500. And in 1967 came a Wolseley 18/85, a version of the "Giant Land Crab" Austin 1800, "the Maxi". The last of the "big Farina" 6/99 - by now the 6/110 Mk II - was rolled off the lines in 1968.
Only two other Wolseley names appeared in the first half of the 1970s - the 2.2-litre Wolseley Six which replaced the 18/85, and the "Wedge" Wolseley 18/22 that was later subsumed into the BMC Princess in 1975, ending the Wolseley marque.
Best Car: Arguably the 6/99 and its successors.
Worst Car: In modern times, the "Wedge" - it was plasticky and a little weird to drive.
Weirdest Car: A toss-up between the Gyrocar and the gas-powered landaulet of 1917 that used the Lyons-Spencer Concertina Gas Container to get around petrol scarcity.