Streamline Cars Ltd was the company responsible for making the Burney car designed by Dennis Burney. Sir

Dennistoun Burney Sir Charles Dennistoun Burney, 2nd Baronet (28 December 1888 – 11 November 1968, in Bermuda) was an English aeronautical engineer, private inventor and Conservative Party politician.''Oxford Dictionary of National Biography'' Oxford: OUP. Ear ...

rose to fame as an

airship An airship or dirigible balloon is a type of aerostat or lighter-than-air aircraft that can navigate through the air under its own power. Aerostats gain their lift from a lifting gas that is less dense than the surrounding air. In early ...

designer, best known for his work at

Howden Howden () is a market and minster town and civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It lies in the Vale of York to the north of the M62, on the A614 road about south-east of York and north of Goole, which lies across the Ri ...

on the

R100 His Majesty's Airship R100 was a privately designed and built British rigid airship made as part of a two-ship competition to develop a commercial airship service for use on British Empire routes as part of the Imperial Airship Scheme. The ot ...

for

Vickers Vickers was a British engineering company that existed from 1828 until 1999. It was formed in Sheffield as a steel foundry by Edward Vickers and his father-in-law, and soon became famous for casting church bells. The company went public in 18 ...

. Starting in 1927, thirteen cars were made at

Maidenhead Maidenhead is a market town in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead in the county of Berkshire, England, on the southwestern bank of the River Thames. It had an estimated population of 70,374 and forms part of the border with southern Bu ...

. Each was different, as they were intended as showcases for his

patent A patent is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the legal right to exclude others from making, using, or selling an invention for a limited period of time in exchange for publishing an enabling disclosure of the invention."A p ...

s rather than for serious production.

Engine and running gear

The cars incorporated such features as

independent suspension Independent suspension is any automobile suspension system that allows each wheel on the same axle to move vertically (i.e. reacting to a bump on the road) independently of the others. This is contrasted with a beam axle or deDion axle system in w ...

hydraulic brake A hydraulic brake is an arrangement of braking mechanism which uses brake fluid, typically containing glycol ethers or diethylene glycol, to transfer pressure from the controlling mechanism to the braking mechanism. History During 1904, Frederick ...

s, a heater and all seating within the

wheelbase In both road and rail vehicles, the wheelbase is the horizontal distance between the centers of the front and rear wheels. For road vehicles with more than two axles (e.g. some trucks), the wheelbase is the distance between the steering (front ...

. Ignition and other controls operated through flexible cables encased in copper tubing, which followed contemporary aircraft industry practice. The cars were rear-engined with twin radiators. Shows cut-away view of car. The first car used an

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 ...

front-wheel-drive chassis effectively turned back-to-front but adapted so the new front wheels steered. Later cars used

Beverley Beverley is a market town, market and minster (church), minster town and a civil parishes in England, civil parish in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England, of which it is the county town. The town centre is located south-east of York's centre ...

straight 8, Lycoming 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 ...

engines.

Body

The streamlined bodywork is very long at just under . The spare wheel was carried inside one of the rear doors which must have put an enormous strain on the hinges and door pillar. The equivalent space in the opposite door was occupied either by a second spare wheel or a cocktail cabinet. The car's unusual aerodynamic design was eye catching, with very little front overhang, but a long rear overhang (containing the engine). The underside was also covered in sheet metal to enhance aerodynamic efficiency. The Streamline pointed to the future in terms of space efficiency, featuring a seven-seat interior and, even by the standards of the time, excellent headroom, which seems to have been a particular concern for

the designer ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

Commercial

Each car was priced at around £1,500. A blue one was bought by the

Prince of Wales Prince of Wales ( cy, Tywysog Cymru, ; la, Princeps Cambriae/Walliae) is a title traditionally given to the heir apparent to the English and later British throne. Prior to the conquest by Edward I in the 13th century, it was used by the rulers ...

late in 1930, and another crossed the

Atlantic The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's five oceans, with an area of about . It covers approximately 20% of Earth's surface and about 29% of its water surface area. It is known to separate the " Old World" of Africa, Europe an ...

to be exhibited at the Detroit Car Show. In total, 12 Streamlines were built between 1929 and 1931, but none appears to have survived."Inventor and Streamlined Car With Rear Engine Will Sail From England Tomorrow." This will be the ninth one built; the Prince of Wales bought the fifth one.

Crossley Motors Crossley Motors was an English motor vehicle manufacturer based in Manchester, England. It produced approximately 19,000 cars from 1904 until 1938, 5,500 buses from 1926 until 1958, and 21,000 goods and military vehicles from 1914 to ...

took out a licence to build the Streamline, producing a further 25 vehicles, of which two survive. The

Straight eight The straight-eight engine (also referred to as an inline-eight engine; abbreviated I8 or L8) is a piston engine with eight cylinders arranged in a straight line along the crankshaft. The number of cylinders and perfect primary and secondary engi ...

Beverley-Barnes engines in the earlier cars proved to be unreliable, and in the final three cars were replaced by US-built 6-cylinder Lycoming or UK-built

units. Streamline Cars finally closed in 1936.

Driving impressions

A contemporary report commended the lack of mechanical noise from the driver's seat and the excellence of the ride. The car's considerable weight – 38 cwt or about 1900 kg on the 1930 model – may have been one cause of the clutch-slip reported at 76 mph (about 122 km/h) which was close to the car's claimed maximum. The engine was mounted wholly behind the rear axle, and the car was therefore alarmingly unstable in wet or windy weather. A remarkable turning circle of was achieved in spite of the car's length. No two Streamlines were identical and the version tested was "only" 18 ft 7 in (approximately 5.6 meters) long with a 12 ft 5 in (3.8 m) wheelbase which made it unwieldy in restricted spaces. It was longer than the longest available

Rolls-Royce Rolls-Royce (always hyphenated) may refer to: * Rolls-Royce Limited, a British manufacturer of cars and later aero engines, founded in 1906, now defunct Automobiles * Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, the current car manufacturing company incorporated in ...

and only about £350 cheaper.

Aftermath

Some of the ideas (including the location of the spare wheel) were used by

in their "Streamline" but this also was not a production success. The Maidenhead factory was also used for car production by

Marendaz Marendaz Special cars were made in Brixton Road, London SW9, England from 1926 to 1932 and in Maidenhead, Berkshire, England from 1932 to 1936. DMK (Donald Marcus Kelway) Marendaz served as an apprentice at Siddeley-Deasy before the first Wor ...

and GWK.

References

Citations Bibliography *

External links

"Streamline Auto Can Almost Fly", December 1930, Popular Science

"Cover", December 1930, Popular Science
art work of Burney car
"Aircraft Lines Add to Auto's Speed and Power" ''Popular Mechanics'', December 1930
Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of England Streamliner cars Companies based in Maidenhead