Vintage Car Drawings

[dav19390]

My grandfather worked at the Wolseley Car Factory in Washwood Heath in the early part of the last century and my father worked there also between the two world wars. My father was a coachbuilder and, I believe, so was my grandfather.
After my father died, amongst his effects, I found about 10 line drawings of very old cars. I have attached scans of 4 of them.
They are all in black and white on thin card and look as though they were line drawings done for a catalogue. I am guessing that they must be Wolseley cars.
I have no idea of their age, other than to say the card is yellowing and would appear to be contemporary with the cars depicted.
I wonder whether someone may be able to throw some light on their significance, if any. Clearly my father must have held them in some sentimental value as he kept them for at least 60 years - he left the Wolseley in 1939 to build Spitfire aircraft Castle Bromwich.

 

[OtherHalf]

the company originated from the wolseley sheep shearing company if you have a look at this link there are a couple of early models one of them might have been "The Royal" from an early drawing maybe ? https://wapedia.mobi/en/Wolseley_Motor_Company#1.there is also alink on the forum https://forum.birminghamhistory.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4169&referrerid=5994:)

 

[Dave89]

the company originated from the wolseley sheep shearing company if you have a look at this link there are a couple of early models one of them might have been "The Royal" from an early drawing maybe ? https://wapedia.mobi/en/Wolseley_Motor_Company#1.there is also alink on the forum https://forum.birminghamhistory.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4169&referrerid=5994:)

Hi there,

Does anyone know what finally happened to the Wolseley
2 wheeled car(really) which was, I believe buried for some
years at the Drews Lane works?

Kind regards

Dave

 

[Lloyd]

Hi there,

Does anyone know what finally happened to the Wolseley
2 wheeled car(really) which was, I believe buried for some
years at the Drews Lane works?

Kind regards

Dave

Sadly this unique two-wheeled "Gyrocar" was disposed of twice - once by burial in the works yard, then later retrieved and (the chassis at least) restored - but then broken up for scrap in 1948.

https://www.dself.dsl.pipex.com/MUSEUM/TRANSPORT/gyrocars/schilovs.htm and
https://notorc.blogspot.com/2007/02/count-peter-schilovsky-forgotten-genius.html explains all

 

[OtherHalf]

thanks for the links lloyd I had no idea of that particular vehicle at all what a disaster to lose something so unique:crying:

 

[Dave89]

Sadly this unique two-wheeled "Gyrocar" was disposed of twice - once by burial in the works yard, then later retrieved and (the chassis at least) restored - but then broken up for scrap in 1948.

https://www.dself.dsl.pipex.com/MUSEUM/TRANSPORT/gyrocars/schilovs.htm and
https://notorc.blogspot.com/2007/02/count-peter-schilovsky-forgotten-genius.html explains all

Hi Lloyd,

Many thanks for the info, I remember the car from an old book I bought
secondhand about Wolseleys, and which would have predated 1948, but
did mention the burial of the car at Drews Lane. The link you have kindly provided shows much more information, - many thanks again.

Kind regards

Dave

 

[Two]

Schilovski Gyrocar c1913 built at Wolseley

The Schilovski Gyrocar as previously mentioned in this thread.
In 1912 the Russian Count Peter P Schilovski, a lawyer and member of the Russian royal family, visited the Wolseley Tool and Motorcar Company, and laid before their engineers plans for a two-wheeled gyroscopically-stabilised car. At that time Wolseley were a sizable manufacturer producing ordinary cars, double-decker buses, taxicabs, lorries and powerboat engines.
The Wolseley men were clearly impressed, as the job was accepted, and work began immediately, under the supervision of A W Dring, the Chief Experimental Engineer. The chassis took a year to build, which seems impressively fast given the amount of experimentation that must have been needed. The Count was a frequent visitor during this period to the Adderley Park works in Birmingham.
At the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, The Count returned to Russia. Wolseley were fully occupied in war work, and the Gyrocar was not uppermost in their minds; it lay abandoned in a corner of the factory.
The Wolseley directors not unaturally assumed that the Count had been a casualty of either the war or the Russian Revolution. Wanting to get it out of the way, but not wishing to dispose of it completely, they hit upon the extraordinary solution of burying it. This is not normally considered an appropriate method for the long-term storage of motor vehicles.
In 1938 it was decided to exhume the Gyrocar. It looks as though it was interred upside down. It was restored at considerable expense and put on display in the company museum.