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Origins
Armstrong Siddeley announced its post-war range within weeks of VE Day, naming the cars for the aircraft the parent Hawker Siddeley group had just stopped building: the Lancaster saloon led, joined by the Hurricane drophead and Typhoon coupé. The Lancaster itself was a dignified six-cylinder car — 2 litres, then 2.3 — with a pre-selector gearbox available and coachwork of sober, well-made elegance aimed at the professional classes returning to civilian life. The sphinx mascot promised silence and the cars largely delivered it. They were expensive to build and never numerous, but they re-established the Coventry marque's identity for the fifties, leading toward the grander Sapphire. As a piece of naming alone — a luxury saloon called after a heavy bomber, without irony — the Lancaster is perfectly of its moment.
Armstrong Siddeley Landaulette 2309cc manufactured 1951 · Charles01 · CC BY-SA 3.0
