Mr Alistair Hacking, driving a 1902 Arrol-Johnston at the Finish of the 2018 London to Brighton Veteran Car Run
Arrol-Johnston (later known as Arrol-Aster) was an early Scottish manufacturer of automobiles, which operated from 1895 to 1931 and produced the first automobile manufactured in Britain. The company also developed the world's first "off-road" vehicle for the Egyptian government, and another designed to travel on ice and snow for Ernest Shackleton's Nimrod Expedition to the South Pole. In 1895 Johnston formed a joint venture with Sir William Arrol MP, an engineer of the Forth Bridge to form the Mo-Car Syndicate Limited, which was to produce his car. Sir William was Chairman and Johnston was Managing Director, and the Syndicate included a Mr. Archibald Coats with a Mr P M Coats of Paisley, and a Mr. John Millar also of Paisley,while Norman Fulton was Works Manager. Sir William's main interest in the business was as the financial backer. The first Arrol-Johnston car was a six-seater "Dogcart" (a vehicle with two transverse seats placed back to back), which went into production at a factory at Camlachie, in the East End of Glasgow. The Dogcart was a wood-bodied vehicle powered by a 10 hp 2 cylinder opposed piston engine mounted beneath the floor, which was started by pulling on a rope. The vehicle boasted chain final drive and its high-wheeled, solid-tyred, horse-carriage type of body was retained well into the 1900s. The brakes were arranged in the form of shoes which could be pressed on the back of the solid rear tyres, and the suspension comprised full elliptic leaf springs at the front, and half-elliptics at the rear. Transmission and brake control levers were mounted close to the driver's right hand. The company's Camlachie premises were destroyed by fire in 1901, and production was moved to Paisley. In 1902 William Beardmore took the largest single shareholding in the company, creating a captive customer for his iron and steel components. He later became Chairman when A-J (as it was widely known) became a public company.
Size: 5338px × 3709px
Location: Madeira Drive, Brighton, Sussex
Photo credit: © John Gaffen / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: 2, 12, 1902, 2018, alistair, arrol, arrol-johnston, automobile, brighton, car, cylinders, dogcart, drive, finish, hacking, hp, london, madeira, manufacturer, mo-car, mp, run, scottish, sir, spectators, sussex, syndicate, veteran, william
