| From the front it looks like any other early 1950s Armstrong Siddeley ... graceful, stylish and British to it's bootstraps. Yet, the image hides quite an un-British, decidedly colonial secret. This is a ute – or as Armstrong Siddeley called it, a Station Coupe.
Calling it a coupe implies that it has more than just front seats. And it has. Open out the typical Armstrong Siddeley suicide doors and there, attached the rear of the turret, is a basic bench seat. Remind you of anything? Many of today's one tonne utes have a similar format, including Ford Ranger super cab and Toyota HiLux extra cab and it is also known by some makers as a `king cab.'
The Armstrong Siddeley Station Coupe was one of two commercial body shapes produced by the company in 1949. The other was a traditional utility – called a Utility Coupe – which had a longer tray and a single bench seat. With the bigger cab size the Station Coupe has a shorter tray. The two utes were variants of Armstrong Siddeley's 18 hp cars from the same era.
The Station Coupe has significance to Australia in that around 60 per cent of the total run came down under. They were sold through Stokoe Motors in Melbourne and Buckle Motors in Sydney, both were leading Australian Armstrong Siddeley dealers. The timing of the development of the ute by Armstrong Siddeley is interesting. It was in the post-war era when Australia, like the rest of the world, was trying to return to normality. It was also the era when Australia was still riding `on the sheeps back.'
We were still a farming nation and the humble utility was a vital part of the fabric of rural Australia. The first Holden ute appeared in 1948 as part of the launch of the 48-215 or FX model. Ford though, invented the coupe utility, with its 1934 model, inspired by a letter from a farmer's wife. Like the Armstrong Siddeley the Holden was a six cylinder and had a single bench seat. There were two gearboxes offered, a four speed manual and four speed pre-selector on the column, as featured in this car. The Armstrong Siddeley Station Coupe offered space for five passengers.
That a prestige brand like Armstrong Siddeley would produce a ute is in itself interesting. In today's terms it would be like Mercedes, BMW or Audi bringing a ute to market. No doubt, by the Australian sales figures of the Station Coupe, Armstrong Siddeley identified a market opportunity in Australia and New Zealand for this type of vehicle.
During WW2 Armstrong Siddeley turned it's expertise to aircraft production and was responsible for the manufacture of Hurricane, Lancaster and Typhoon aircraft. In a sales-savvy move these were the names they selected for the three new car models to be released in 1946. These were powered by a 16 hp, 2.0 litre engine. It was this powerplant that was developed into the 2.3 litre, 18 hp engine that powered the new 1949 model cars, including the two new commercial models, the utility coupe and station coupe.
Armstrong Siddeley Motors Limited started in 1919 when two companies merged – Sir W.G. Armstrong Whitworth and Co., and Siddeley Deasy Motor Car Co., Ltd. A 30 hp car was the first to carry the Armstrong Siddeley name when production got underway in 1919. There are two hallmarks of Armstrong Siddeley vehicle, both apparent on our 1950 Armstrong Siddeley Station Coupe. The first is the sloping V-shape grille and secondly, the Sphinx bonnet emblem.
The bonnet emblem is said to have come in Armstrong Siddeley's early days when a journalist described the car as being `as silent and inscrutable as the Sphinx.' That description caught the imagination of Col. J.D. Siddeley, who commissioned an artist to draw copies of the Sphinx from the base of Cleopatra's Needle in London. That image became Armstrong Siddeley's trade mark image and bonnet emblem.
We took these images of the Armstrong Siddeley Station Coupe at the July 2010 RACQ Motorfest in Brisbane.
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