Eric William Neale (26 September 1910 – 1997) was a British car designer.

Biography

Born in

Halesowen Halesowen ( ) is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley, in the county of West Midlands, England. Historically an exclave of Shropshire and, from 1844, in Worcestershire, the town is around from Birmingham city centre, and from ...

, Worcestershire and educated at Halesowen Grammar School. He served as an apprentice designer at

Mulliners Mulliners Limited of Birmingham was a British coachbuilding business in Bordesley Green, with factories in Bordesley Green and Cherrywood Roads. It made standard bodies for specialist car manufacturers. In the 19th century there were family ties w ...

in Birmingham. In 1929 he left Mulliners to join Samuel Holbrook Limited in

Coventry Coventry ( or ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its ...

who made bodies for

Alvis Alvis may refer to: *Alvis Car and Engineering Company, British luxury car and military vehicle manufacturer which later became Alvis plc * Alvis plc (formerly United Scientific Holdings plc), a defence contractor which acquired Alvis Cars and bec ...

Triumph The Roman triumph (Latin triumphus) was a celebration for a victorious military commander in ancient Rome. For later imitations, in life or in art, see Trionfo. Numerous later uses of the term, up to the present, are derived directly or indirectl ...

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 ...

. After only two years he moved on to join

Singer Singing is the act of creating musical sounds with the voice. A person who sings is called a singer, artist or vocalist (in jazz and/or popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without ...

in Birmingham as a body designer, and later to Daimler where he worked on Lanchester and Daimler saloons. In the late 1930s Neale moved to

Austin Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas, as well as the seat and largest city of Travis County, with portions extending into Hays and Williamson counties. Incorporated on December 27, 1839, it is the 11th-most-populous city ...

and then to Wolseley. During

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Neale served in the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

. After the war Neale went back to Wolseley and then in 1946 moved to Jensen. Neale resigned from Jensen in 1966 following Jensen's decision to drop his P66 design in favour of the Touring design for the new

Jensen Interceptor The Jensen Interceptor is a grand touring car which was hand-built at the Kelvin Way Factory in West Bromwich, near Birmingham in England, by Jensen Motors between 1966 and 1976. The Interceptor name had been used previously by Jensen for the ...

although he played an important role in amending the Italian Interceptor design so as to improve its appearance and make it suitable for production. His reputation as a stylist was somewhat negatively affected for many years by the headlamp design for the C-V8, however he was too loyal to his former employer to reveal that the teardrop-shaped headlamp covers of his original design had been removed prior to production by Richard Jensen, thereby leading to the controversial appearance of the production cars. Eric Neale died in 1997.

Some of his cars

Singer Nine The Singer Nine is a car which was produced by Singer Motors Limited from February 1933 to 1937, and then again from 1939 until 1949 as a Roadster only. It was offered as a new economy model, replacing the earlier Singer Junior series. The "Ni ...

* Austin A40 Sports (1951–1953) *

(1950) *

Jensen 541 The Jensen 541 is an automobile which was produced by Jensen Motors from 1954 to 1959. It was first exhibited at the London Motor Show in October 1953, and production started in 1954. The 541 used fibreglass bodywork mounted on a steel chassis ...

* Jensen C-V8 1962–1966 * Jensen P66 *

(1966–1976) co-stylist

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Neale, Eric 1910 births People from Halesowen British automobile designers 1997 deaths Date of death missing Place of birth missing Place of death missing