The Brough Superior Austin Four was a limited-production
motorcycle
A motorcycle (motorbike, bike, or trike (if three-wheeled)) is a two or three-wheeled motor vehicle steered by a handlebar. Motorcycle design varies greatly to suit a range of different purposes: long-distance travel, commuting, cruising ...
designed and manufactured by
Brough Superior
Brough Superior ( ) motorcycles, sidecars, and motor cars were made by George Brough in his Brough Superior works on Haydn Road in Nottingham, England, from 1919 to 1940. The motorcycles were dubbed the "Rolls-Royce of Motorcycles" by H. D. ...
of
Nottingham
Nottingham ( , locally ) is a city and unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east of Sheffield and north-east of Birmingham. Nottingham has links to the legend of Robi ...
, UK in 1932.
It was listed in the 1932 Brough Superior catalogue as the 'Straight Four' but it was commonly known as the Brough Superior Austin Four, or BS4, or '3-wheeled Brough'.
The machine is unique in its design, being powered by a modified
Austin 7
The Austin 7 is an economy car that was produced from 1923 until 1939 in the United Kingdom by Austin. It was nicknamed the "Baby Austin" and was at that time one of the most popular cars produced for the British market and sold well abroad. ...
automobile engine and gearbox unit, from which a driveshaft emerges on the centre-line of the motor. Rather than design a new gearbox, George Brough had the inspiration to keep the central driveshaft, and use a pair of close-couple rear wheels driven by a central final drive box. This 3-wheeled design was legally considered a motorcycle as the wheel centres were within 24".
[Brough Superior: the Rolls-Royce of Motorcycles, Clark, 1964. Goose&Sons Publishers Ltd, ] The Brough Superior-Austin Four created a sensation when revealed at the 1931 Olympia Motorcycle Show.
Development
George Brough considered the four-cylinder engine ideal for a motorcycle, given its smooth running and potential for greater horsepower than a single or twin-cylinder engine of the same capacity. Brough Superior had already revealed two prototype 4-cylinder machines before 1932, using an air-cooled sidevalve V-4 built in-house (1927), and an air-cooled inline sidevalve 4 developed by Motosacoche (1928).
While these prototypes were never built in series, they generated tremendous attention at shows and in the press . In 1930, George Brough considered using an engine already in production, in this case the well-developed Austin 4-cylinder sidevalve, water-cooled motor of 747cc. Brough increased the
engine displacement
Engine displacement is the measure of the cylinder volume swept by all of the pistons of a piston engine, excluding the combustion chambers. It is commonly used as an expression of an engine's size, and by extension as a loose indicator of the ...
by 50 cc to 797 cc and added a light alloy 'sports' cylinder head for more horsepower. George Brough claimed a significant increase in the Austin's power output, but, as ''
The Motor Cycle
''The Motor Cycle'' was one of the first British magazines about motorcycles. Launched by Iliffe and Sons Ltd in 1903, its blue cover led to it being called "The Blue 'un" to help distinguish it from its rival publication ''Motor Cycling'', wh ...
'' magazine observed, this was a luxury motorcycle intended for use with a sidecar, not a sports machine.
Power output was actually quite low, and the performance was inhibited by the use of standard Austin rear-axle ratios. The brisk acceleration with a heavy sidecar fitted would, however, more than compensate for lack of top speed.
On sale from March 1932, the Brough Superior Four had been in development for 18 months and brought much needed publicity to the Brough works as the Depression struck the motorcycle industry worldwide. Despite the attention, however, only ten examples were actually built.
Initially designed for use with a sidecar, the Austin engine was from a well-proven Austin 7 design, which was a side-valve with a low-pressure oiling system. George Brough chose to use also the standard Austin 7 three-speed gearbox, complete with reverse, driving a prop shaft to a crown wheel and pinion mounted in a specially cast housing.
The twin rear wheels would possibly have been expected to make it difficult to handle, but Hubert Chantrey successfully completed the
Land's End
Land's End ( kw, Penn an Wlas or ''Pedn an Wlas'') is a headland and tourist and holiday complex in western Cornwall, England, on the Penwith peninsula about west-south-west of Penzance at the western end of the A30 road. To the east of it is ...
Trial on a solo version. Chantry pointed out that it really was a luxury motorcycle, as it had cost George Brough over £1,000 to develop (which equates to over £50,000 today.) The Brough Superior Four was actually sold for £188 - cheaper than the
Brough Superior SS100
The Brough Superior SS 100 is a motorcycle which was designed and built by George Brough in Nottingham, England in 1924. Although every bike was designed to meet specific customer requirements—even the handlebars were individually shaped—s ...
.
Engine cooling was achieved with a pair of purpose-built radiators fixed either side of the front frame downtube. The Brough Superior-Austin Four's greatest success was the publicity generated by the introduction and imaginative marketing of such an unusual motorcycle.
Surviving examples
![Autostadt Wolfsburg - motorrad ikonen - Brough Superior Four 1932 1 - Flickr - KlausNahr](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/Autostadt_Wolfsburg_-_motorrad_ikonen_-_Brough_Superior_Four_1932_1_-_Flickr_-_KlausNahr.jpg)
Of the ten Brough Superior Austin Fours built, (eight in 1932 and one in both 1933 and 1934), a total of nine have survived to this day.
Of these, two are in the US, three are owned by UK enthusiasts, two are in Germany, and one is known to have been scrapped in
Anglesey
Anglesey (; cy, (Ynys) Môn ) is an island off the north-west coast of Wales. It forms a principal area known as the Isle of Anglesey, that includes Holy Island across the narrow Cymyran Strait and some islets and skerries. Anglesey island ...
,
Wales
Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...
.
One is at the Southward Car Museum in
Otaihanga
Otaihanga is on the Kapiti Coast of New Zealand's North Island. It is just north of Paraparaumu on the south bank of the Waikanae River and is roughly 55 km north of New Zealand's capital city, Wellington. Its name is Māori for "the pla ...
on New Zealand's North Island,. Recently the ninth surviving model has been discovered in the collection of the late Frank Vague near
Bodmin, Cornwall.
Brough Superior Austin Four in the UK Motorcycle Museum
The Brough Superior Austin Four in the
National Motorcycle Museum (UK)
The National Motorcycle Museum occupies an site in Bickenhill, Solihull, England and holds the world's largest collection of British motorcycles. In addition to over 850 motorcycles, which cover a century of motorcycle manufacture, the museum h ...
is actually a replica of the motorcycle that was scrapped in Wales. Built by enthusiast Albert Wallis, who started with a few spare parts including a rear bevel box casting, and a pair of original radiators, it was completed with a standard Austin 7 engine and gearbox.
See also
*
List of motorized trikes
List of motorized trikes is a list of motorized tricycles also called trikes, and sometimes considered cars. There are three typical configurations: motorized bicycle with sidecar; two wheels in the rear, one in the front (aka trike); and two in ...
*
Cyclecars
A cyclecar was a type of small, lightweight and inexpensive car manufactured in Europe and the United States between 1910 and the early 1920s. The purpose of cyclecars was to fill a gap in the market between the motorcycle and the car. A key ...
References
{{reflist, 30em
External links
Austin Seven Powered Motorcycles an Overview by Titch Allen
Austin Four
Motorcycles introduced in the 1930s
Tricycle motorcycles