Armstrong Siddeley’s forgotten involvement in the Alpine
Igreatly enjoyed your buying guide on Sunbeam Alpines ( CCW, 7 April).
It’s a little-known fact that Alpines were developed from the Rootes design drawings by Armstrong Siddeley and produced under contract to Rootes by Armstrong Siddeley in its car plant at Parkside, Coventry. I was told by a retired AS factory worker that they were known in the factory as the RAS, the Rootes Armstrong Siddeley, but never seen (or known) as an Armstrong Siddeley.
The same man said that the first production batch was started and a few completed cars were outside when it was noticed that one had a flat front tyre. He was sent out with a trolley jack and a new wheel to change this. When he jacked the car up the windscreen popped out and sat on the bonnet. Production was halted and all made in that first morning were disposed of.
The Alpine had never been a good fit with the Husky floor pan as conceived by Rootes. Before production resumed Armstrong Siddeley re-designed and
considerably reinforced the floor pan and underpinnings. So Alpines don’t quite sit on a Husky floor pan as popularly believed, but on a redesigned stronger base designed by Armstrong Siddeley.
Rootes took production in-house around the Series III cars, but, again anecdotally, I was told that production returned to AS after Rootes had difficulties with their production cars.
The Alpine has been muchoverlooked for many years, but the outstanding quality has perhaps been overlooked, too.
I’ve included a shot of Alpines being made at Parkside. Do please keep up the good work on CCW!
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