1942 - The Stuart Motor Group was originally founded as Stuart Motor Parts (S.M.P.) in Melbourne, Australia in 1942. The companies original operation was set up for the importation and wholesaling of military vehicle components to supply the Australian and U.S. armed forces operating in the Pacific during the latter part of WWII.
1943 - It wasn’t long at all before the company started to have difficulty getting access to parts and had to find a way to adapt. Luckily, raw material supply in Australia was improving drastically at the same time so Stuart Motor Parts invested in a number of milling machines and installed a casting facility and began making their own parts under licence.
1945 - With the outbreak of peace the demand for components for military vehicle components plummeted. Strangely, this wasn’t something S.M.P. had planned for and it almost bankrupted the company until in late 1945 two of the companies suppliers (one supplier of raw material and one supplier of machinery) each purchased a 25% share in the company, injecting some much needed funds and giving S.M.P. a second wind. Management set about turning the company into a low turnover, high margin manufacturing facility, leaving the automotive industry for a short while and focussing on building specialized components for other local industries.
1948 - In 1948, after almost 3 years absence from the automotive parts industry, management at S.M.P. began running an advertisement across Australian news papers warning readers to “Expect something big from Stuart”. This was one of the first time such a cryptic advertisement campaign had been used in Australia and it had everyone talking about what it could mean. Remembering that at this point Stuart was not a well known company and most that did know of it knew it as S.M.P.
1949 - In early 1949 S.M.P. officially changed their name to “Stuart” and less than a month later released the “Omen”, an in house designed car with obvious Morris style influences. See below for details on the original Omen. The Omen was not initially a success however it was profitable, a fact that encouraged Stuart management to continue pushing towards their goal of becoming a new, world class car manufacturer.
1951 - Stuart released the “Beta”, a down engined “Omen” with a cheaper interior and narrower tyres. The aim was to try to move into the large market for small, cheap cars like the Morris Minor and the VW Beetle. Unfortunately the Beta had a number of inherent flaws that prevented it from becoming successful and it was discontinued only 2 years later.
1953 - Struggling to compete with the immensely popular Holden, who’s larger car had completely dominated the local market since it release, and lacking the funds to develop a larger model to compete (largely due to the failure of the “Beta”) the decision was made to roll back output and focus on lower turnover, higher margin vehicles. To this end the Beta was discontinued, as was the base Omen, the Blue 77 and Blue 116 discontinuing production at the same time. In their place Stuart released the Series 2 Omen which consisted of a 2 door and a better equipped, higher priced model, known as the “Omen C” and “Omen Prodigy” respectively as well as the “Omen S”, all powered by the Blue 125. The Series 2 received some minor updates to improve finish quality and simplify production, which allowed the Prodigy to go to market only costing £50 more than what the S had been sold for in the previous year while the new S and C were both offered for less.
This strategy worked well for Stuart, even though overall sales dropped by around 40%, car sales immediately became profitable for the first time since the release of the “Beta” and profits continued to rise throughout the lifetime of the Series 2.
1957 - This year saw the long overdue update to the Omen line-up as well as the adoption of the two letter model code scheme used by both Holden and Ford. The new Omen would be coded “DB” while the previous models would unofficially be known as DZ and DA (The Beta was never given a model code, officially or otherwise). The DB Omen was again be offered in C, S and Prodigy options but the car it self underwent quite a few changes. The new chassis was based off the old but was lengthened up to an 86" wheelbase, otherwise the bodywork was all completely new and almost had no resemblance to the previous model. The Blue 125 was carried over with some small modifications to improve it reliability and overall performance, pushing it’s output up by 3hp up to 102hp. Unfortunately, the increase in weight caused by the increased size was more than the increase in power and the DB was slower than its predecessor.
The DB remained profitable throughout it’s life however its reduced performance over the previous model saw both sales and overall profits fall until the release of the more powerful DE model in 1960.
1960 - In an effort to boost their sporty image again and regain some lost market share Stuart released the DE model in 1960. This was a facelifted version of the DB fitted with the new White 131 motor producing 106hp along with a fairly noticeable improvement in torque. The new model was widely praised by critics and the general public alike, many journalists not only praising the improved performance when compared to the DB but also improved economy and improved engine smoothness and responsiveness. It would also become known as one of the most reliable vehicles of its time.
The DE did a lot to regain the sales lost by the DB and even manage to hold a slightly higher market share than the Series 2 (DA) achieved at its peak. It would be replaced in 1962 by the mostly brand new DF Omen.
1962 - In 1962 Stuart released a nearly all new Omen, the DF model. The new model was again quite a lot larger than the outgoing model and was intended to be released with a newly revised (again) engine to help compensate for the gain in weight. It became apparent fairly early during the DF’s development that the new engine wouldn’t be ready in time so the engineers decided to focus on making the best car they could with the White 131 engine and chose to use an all new 4 speed gear box to help the engine cope.
1964 - Finally the new engine was ready for release. To launch it Stuart released the updated DG Omen. The new engine had some reliability issues due to its complicated new cylinder head but this didn’t stop it from receiving massive acclaim, nor did it stop it from setting all new sales records.
In 1999 during the companies celebration of their 50 year anniversary of making cars it was revealed that almost immediately after the launch of the DG model, a group of engineers were tasked with designing an all new V8 engine planned for release in the next model Omen. A small amount of information was released on the engine during the celebrations, it was to have a larger 3 1/4" bore and a shorter 3 1/8" stroke giving it a total displacement of 207 CID, almost 50% bigger than the most recent of Stuarts in-line 6’s (but much smaller than the American sourced V8’s that would be used in it’s Ford and Holden competitors). It would have still used an OHV valve train, taking advantage of some of what was learned during the development of the Orange motor, however it was to only have 2 valve per cylinder rather than 3 in an effort to reduce it’s cost. It is claimed that the Orange 143 was going to be carried over to the next model unchanged and the new V8 would be used to power a new, higher performance version of the Omen. The program was dropped before any casts were made however. After hearing the level of praise heaped on the advanced multi-valve head used on the Orange 143 it was decided that continuing with this modern technology was the best course for Stuart but it would be too expensive to use on a V8. To this end, attention was redirected back to the Orange 143 and the development of a highly tuned performance version to fill the role originally intended for the V8.
1967 - This year saw the culmination of a number of major Stuart projects. Firstly, the release of the DI Omen, this was a further update to the third generation chassis (introduced with the DF) with many improvements to materials and interior fittings as well as vast improvements to fit and finish thanks to updates in factory tooling. It was also fitted with an enhanced and updated motor named the “Orange 143-2” which fixed many of the problems the first version of the Orange 143 had with it’s high tech, multi-valve head allowing it to produce another 7hp.
1967 also saw the launch of a brand new facility in Liverpool, England which would allow Stuart to make its first car sales outside of Australia. The UK was chosen as the first export market because of the strong ties it had with Australia, this and the fact that cars drove on the same side of the road in both countries greatly simplified the process of making the cars meet the design requirements for sale in both countries. To minimize the effect of freight on the final cost per unit the cars were shipped mostly dissembled, with only part that required specialist skills or machines (like engines, gearboxes etc) pre-assembled. They were then pieced together at the facility in Liverpool and distributed to a small network of dealerships throughout the UK.
The launch of the DI Omen and the opening of the Liverpool facility were planned to be simultaneous, with the DI’s launch date in Australia being postponed by three months to allow shipping and assembly in Liverpool. Ultimately, teething problems in the Liverpool facility caused the UK launch of the DI Omen to happen 2 weeks later than it’s Australian launch.
Later in the same year saw the third major launch. The DI Omen 2X, a high performance version of the Omen with almost no external differences to the DI Omen C (it was never released in a 4 door variant) but quite a few changed under the skin, including an all new 5 speed gear box, independent rear suspension, a highly tuned “Orange 143-2X” engine, a much more spartan interior to reduce weight and many other smaller modifications intended to push the cars performance as far possible.
1968 - The initial plan was to commence development of the fourth generation Omen for release in 1970 but after the release of the DI Stuart decided that their flagship was still so far ahead of it’s contemporaries that they could stave off the new generation for at least another year or two by releasing one more update on the third generation. While the bulk of the design staff were tasked with researching ways to make the fourth generation Omen as big an improvement over the third generation as possible, a small design team was redirected back to one last update of the third.
The DJ Omen was released simultaneously in Australia and the UK in November 1968 and was a very minor update on the DI, no 2X version of the DJ was ever developed but small numbers of DI 2X’s we still produced during the DJ’s lifetime. The S, C and Prodigy models of the DJ came with virtually identical trim to the DI models with a few components replaced by more reliable options or, in a few cases, by components that could be more easily sourced in the UK in order to reduce the cost of exporting to that market.
In place of the 2X Stuart released the “DJ Omen Augur”, an attempt to try and keep up with the ever increasing size of the Holden Kingswood and Ford Falcon and even the Toyota Crown. The Omen Augur was very similar to the Omen Prodigy and was fitted with all of the same internal equipment. The primary difference was that the Omen Augur was lengthened, it gained 5" of wheel base, all of which was between the A and C pillars. The Augur was also fitted with the Orange 157, which was simply an Orange 143-2 bored out to 3 1/16" and stroked out to 3 9/16". The engine had new larger pistons, shorter piston rods and a new crank shaft but otherwise used all identical parts to the 143-2, it produced only a fraction more power. The main aim here was simply to bridge some of the size gap between Stuarts engines and those used by its larger competition even though the 143-2 was notably more powerful than the largest of the 200+ CID engines it competed against.
The Omen Augur struggles in the Australian market against the cars it was supposed to compete against. It was smaller with a much smaller engine and had no V8 option. It was howerver, surprisingly successful in the UK when it became the first ever Stuart model sell more models in the UK than in Australia (by only 2 units).
By the end of 1969, Stuart had started to offer the S, C and Prodigy models with an optional upgrade to the Orange 157 motor as well as an optional upgrade to the 5 speed gearbox from the 2X. This was done both because many customers had been asking for it (indeed, it was becoming increasingly common to purchase the pistons, rods and crank and “upgrade” 143-2’s to 157’s) but also in an attempt to pay for the development cost of the 157 which had thus far failed to justify the money spent on it. Stuart would also later reveal that this was something of a test to see if their vehicles would sell in multiple engine options or if the bulk of their customers would simply buy the cheapest, or the most powerful option.
Note: None of the DJ models will be shown at this stage. Either because they aren’t different enough to the DI models already shown, or in the case of the new Augur, the is no suitable model in the game to represent it.
