Huxley & Williams Cars - On Indefinite Hiatus

[OHV]

Huxley & Williams Cars

The folks at Huxley and Williams got their start in the automotive universe as a small auto repair business with a humble motorsport team on the side. At first the H&W team used modified examples of vehicles purchased from well-established manufacturers. As time passed, the team used their experience to make increasingly extensive modifications to their vehicles. After several years of contributing to the war effort, in 1945 Huxley & Williams built their first ever in-house chassis for their first post-war race. While H&W still relied on other manufacturers for engines, gearboxes, and a variety of other parts, their independently developed chassis marked the beginning of their journey towards becoming a full-fledged, independent manufacturer.

The H&W team began to take their craft very seriously during the final years of the 40s. Every one on the
team worked hard at building their cars and fixing customer vehicles while working various second, or
even third jobs to rake in the funds necessary to take their team to the next level. With a few decades of
experience under their belts the team began to find success in their local racing scene and worked their
way up into the lower levels of the global motorsport scene in the early 50s. However, the team soon
found themselves hurting for cash compared to the wealthier teams they were now encountering. In 1955,
taking inspiration from brands such as Lotus Cars, the Huxley and Williams team went on hiatus from
racing and focused their efforts on developing a streetable performance car to raise funds for their
motorsport efforts. Huxley and Williams Cars was born.

1957 Huxley and Williams Stalwart Mk1

After two years in development, Huxley and Williams’ first ever limited production road car became available for purchase. The Stalwart Mk1 was designed to be a relatively simple, light weight, performance-oriented coupe with no unnecssary bells and whistles. The Mk1 is powered by a 1.4 liter pushrod straight 4. The 1412A as its called is a very simple, and actually quite tame powerplant. It features a bottom-heavy torque curve and is equipped a simple single barrel, single carb set up that runs on regular leaded fuel. The intent with the 1412A was to provide a reliable, easy to work on engine that was cheaply manufactured and maintained. This engine also allows the Stalwart to handle driving through town quite well if necessary unlike higher-strung engines. If the 1412A isn’t enough for the customer, there is more than enough room in the engine bay to accomodate a much larger power unit; although, at the time of the Stalwart Mk1’s launch Huxley and Williams did not provide any other engines.

The Stalwart’s chassis consists of a steel space frame wrapped in fiber glass panels equipped with double wishbones on the front wheels and a coil spring live axle in the rear. The Huxley and Williams team optimize the suspension for performance; although, they don’t go too crazy and there is still room for improvement with the factory set up performance-wise. The car bears 185mms of sports compound rubber and drum brakes on all four wheels. Throw in a 4 speed floor-mounted manual
transmission and you have a complete Huxley and Williams Stalwart Mk1. The Stalwart drives fairly easily for a car of its ilk and exhibits impressive agility for its era while consuming fuel at a reasonable rate of 25.4 miles per gallon. While it holds its own against cars of a higher price in the corners, a lot was
sacrificied in the name of performance. In addition to the lack of power compared to other sports car of the day, the interior is about as bare bones as one could get. Inside the Stalwart’s puny cabin you will find two minimalist bucket seats, a simplistic dash featuring instrument gauges that looked like they were pulled out of a military aircraft, a simple-as-can-be steering wheel , a shifter, a handbrake, and a whole lot of bare fiber glass. Floor mats are offered as one of the only options. Of course, you don’t buy one of these things for comfy Sunday drives, you buy it to have fun on windy country roads
or to take it to the track. Just don’t push things too hard out there. The car doesn’t feature any safety
equipment in order to save a few extra pounds. While it certainly isn’t for everyone, the Huxley and
Williams Stalwart Mk1 is an incredible car for customers wanting an agile weekend or track car that also serves as a solid platform for a racing machine.

[DeusExMackia]

Excellent back story and a very nice car! I look forward to more posts.

[OHV]

Thanks for taking a look. I appreciate it.

[OHV]

First sales, the Stalwart’s place in the market, and plans for the future

While the brand hadn’t gotten off to a bad start, the team was in a different place in the market than they had anticipated. Throughout the development of the Stalwart Mk1 they figured they would be able to sell the car for a fairly low price compared to other sports cars on the market, but in reality they just couldn’t compete with the prices of larger manufacturers. Huxley and Williams only had a small auto repair garage to get their work done in. Everything had to be built using much simpler means than what big names such as Ford had access to, and each employee had to be adequately compensated for all the hours they put in making chassis and fiber glass panels by hand, among other things. Finally, the nature of limited production automobiles necessitated a quite hefty mark up. The Stalwart had no chance of competing against the likes of the Austin-Healey Spite. The car still managed to sell quite well, and was often compared favorably to the first generation Lotus Seven. While the Stalwart was harder to come by, it offered comparable performance in a more street-worthy package. Unlike the Seven, the Stalwart featured a closed top and a proper, albeit rather small, trunk. One could haul some tools and racing gear plus a passenger on the way to the track in a Stalwart, something you would have difficulty doing in a Lotus Seven.

After dedicating a year to cranking out cars and making several additions to the workshop, including doubling the size of their garage, the Huxley and Williams team tackled the project of designing their next model. The next Huxley and Williams vehicle was intended to expand the appeal of their brand without stepping too far outside of their niche. Over the course of 2 years the team worked hard at developing a more comfortable and accessible example of Huxley and Williams performance.

1960 Huxley and Williams Dolomite Coupe

The idea behind the Dolomite Coupe was to create a Huxley and Williams that could reasonably be daily driven. While still a sports car, it had its weaknesses in the performance department compared to the H&W team’s last offering. The Dolomite didn’t stand a chance against its older sibling in the corners, and rather than forgiving its driver’s mistakes with manageable understeer like the Stalwart did, it punishes them with a snap of oversteer. It also fails to get stopped as quickly owing to an additional 200 pounds or so compared to the Stalwart. However, the Dolomite could beat its older brother in a straight line, and those extra 200 pounds are there for a good reason.

Certain aspects of the Dolomite attempt to bring a car like an Aston Martin or a Ferrari to mind, in fact it gets its name from the Dolomites located in Italy in an attempt to piggyback off of the image of much more prestigious Italian automobiles. There are a few design choices of note here. The grill, for example, is very similar to the one featured on the Stalwart, and its shape is repeated at the rear of the car in the form of a badge that has an odd, vertically-mounted trunk handle integrated into the center. The Dolomite is a little more chrome-intensive than its more spartan counterpart, but Huxley and Williams couldn’t go too crazy in that regard. They didn’t want to spend all day putting fixtures on Dolomite bodies once this thing entered production. The interior of the Dolomite was quite a shock to those who had been inside a Stalwart before. There were comfortable seats! Made out of leather! No bare fiber glass! A glovebox! Even a radio, albeit a simple one with only a single speaker. While the interior wasn’t the fanciest out there by a long shot, it was an incredible step up from the Stalwart. The car also featured the typical safety equipment of the day, so one had seat belts to go with their fancy leather seats inside of a Dolomite.

So, it’s got a different body, an exterior that’s been prettied up a little, and a pretty nice interior, what else is going on with it? Well, the car is made out of a steel space frame chassis and fiber glass panels, like the Stalwart. Also like the Stalwart, it features a 4 speed manual transmission, drum brakes on all four wheels, double wishbone suspension up front, and a coil spring live axle in the rear. It also shares the same tire compound as the Stalwart, although it is down by 40mm in terms of tire width and a few inches in wheel diameter compared to its older brother. To move the extra weight of the swankier interior, and to grant the Dolomite some extra pep in a straight line, Huxley and Williams dropped a 1816cc 4 cylinder under the hood. There really isn’t much to say about the engine compared to the Stalwart’s 1412A. It’s bigger, it’s tuned a bit differently, and it has a more performance-oriented exhaust manifold than the 1412A. That’s about it. It makes more power, of course, and that’s why the Dolomite manages not only keep up, but pass the Stalwart on a long enough straight. The car manages a little north of 20 miles per gallon with this engine.

Dolomite Coupes were made to order with a cap on orders situated well below 100. If you were left wanting a more practical car after driving a Stalwart Mk1, and if you were quick enough to place an order, you could get your hands on a Huxley and Williams you could take for a long drive without feeling like you were locked in a prison cell. But, if the Dolomite wasn’t what you were after, Huxley and Williams still had good news for you. Starting in 1960, Stalwart Mk1s were available for order in kit form. Huxley and Williams hoped to boost production and sales well into the triple digits by selling kits along with turnkey examples of the Stalwart. It was possible to order a Stalwart with the 1816A from 1960 onwards, although one would pay a massive markup to do so as the Huxley and Williams team weren’t too keen on it.

[OHV]

This brand is a bit too niche for me at the moment. I want to branch out and try other things without just writing in “HEY, THIS BRAND HAS ACCESS TO ALL OF THESE THINGS NOW,” or without drastically altering the brand’s image and goals. I’d also like to revisit the 50s with a brand capable of producing monocoque chassis cars. This brand is going to go dormant for a little bit, but I may start up another brand in the future. I’ll likely revisit this brand once the 60s mid engined mods are compatible with the current stable build.