Faulkner Motor Company, established 1958, began in, and loyally remains in, Bradford, Yorkshire in England. Operating out of a private garage, Keith Faulkner- the CEO, Dave Sutcliffe - the engineer, and Robert Marshall - a mechanical drafter, designed and constructed the Faulkner Riviera. The first Iterations of the car suffered from structural reliability issues and it was not officially released until 1959 when the group deemed the car reliable enough to sell. The car featured at a number of smaller motor shows and received mostly poor response due to several flaws and oversights. In the spring of 1960 the company received a large investment from Douglas Thornton, a young entrepreneur who joined the team. The company used the additional finances to resolve many of the faults that had plagued the previous models and to improve the quality of the product. The finished result was dubbed the ‘Royale’ model and released to the public in the Summer of 1960. Later that year, the company purchased and moved to a new factory and office.
