Page 156 - Paddock Life Issue 13 ADRENALINE

Please allow me to introduce you to “Shark” a 1932 4.5 Litre S-Type INVICTA, with open tourer coachwork by Vanden Plas. A car which
achieved a lot in its life and still is.
Amongst the racing successes of this particular car was winning The Coppa Di Monza cup in 1962. It is a rare beast indeed as they rarely become available for sale. Although seventy seven are said to have been made, historians are happy with “Around fifty” so we are privileged at Paddock-Life to spend some time swimming with such a graceful beast.
The origins of the Invicta company go back to 1924. Like The Bentley company it remained in existence for only twelve years, and again like Bentley only produced cars for ten of those twelve years, with some seven cars being assembled from spares by the company’s service depot in Flood Street, Chelsea between 1934 and 1936 after the works production had ceased. Both the Invicta and the Bentley were designed by men with a personal background of motoring competition and their cars were produced to the highest standard- the best- with price a secondary consideration. This factor probably contributed to the failure of both firms to weather the storms of the financial depression of the early and mid-1930s.
Captain Noel Macklin (later Sir) founded the company with Oliver Lyle of the sugar family providing the finance. Assembly took place in Macklin’s garage at his home ‘Fairmile’ cottage on the main London to Portsmouth road in Cobham, Surrey. Macklin had previously tried making cars with Eric-Campbell & Co in the early twenties and with the Silver Hawk car afterwards. Macklin wanted his Invicta cars designed to combine flexibility, the ability to accelerate from virtual standstill in top gear, with sporting performance. With the assistance of his mechanic from his pre WW I racing days William ‘Willie” Watson, a prototype was built in the stables of his house in west Cobham.
The first 4.5 litre car was seen at the London Motor Show of 1928-at Olympia-to be followed in 1929 by the most expensive Invicta ever produced the 4.5 litre Type N.L.C.
The instruments, finish, controls and fittings of this car were modelled on, and made to, Rolls-Royce standards. The chassis of the Type N.L.C. at £1’050 (Invicta never built bodies on their cars) cost only £50.00 less than that of the contemporary 20/25 hp Rolls-Royce, at a time when Rolls-Royce were considering marketing a low priced car to meet the market for the prevailing financial times ahead.
For the N.L.C. the future was bleak. It was an expensive car launched at precisely the wrong time. The same year the stock markets of America crumbled into ruin, with repercussions felt all over Europe, people thought hard before buying a new car which in saloon form cost £1,800.00.
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