Armstrong SiddeleyHurricane

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Origins

The Hurricane was the drophead of Armstrong Siddeley's aircraft-named post-war family, launched alongside the Lancaster in 1945 with the same 2-litre — later 2.3-litre — six and the choice of the marque's beloved pre-selector gearbox. Its three-position hood allowed the fashionable coupé-de-ville stance, and the long-bonneted body had a restrained glamour quite different from the sports cars of the day; this was open motoring for the bank manager, not the club racer. Together with the rarer Typhoon fixed-head it gave the sphinx badge a touch of dash while the company rebuilt civilian production in a factory lately full of bombers. Around 2,600 were made to 1953. Survivors trade on the name's poetry as much as the engineering — a Hurricane on the road still turns RAF-remembering heads.