The Wolseley Super-Six is a Hunk of the 1930s British Motor Industry

foreign cam we're stepping even further out of my traditional comfort zone because a few weeks ago we looked at a little Wolseley tent a car that very much bridged the gap between the interwar and post-war British Motor Industries as car ownership was beginning to open up and class barriers were just about starting to loosen but today we're going much further than that back to a proper 1930s motor car with proper 1930s pretensions a lovely Wolseley Super Six although we have recently seen a Wolseley of this kind of era let's start again with a fresh round of context because the likelihood is that the majority of you lovely lot watching won't even remember a Wolseley so what does that light up radiator badge mean the Wolseley sheepshaming machine company was founded by Frederick Wolseley in 1887 and that title shouldn't surprise you as most of the early car manufacturers started out in life doing something completely different but what will surprise you is the geography because this symbol of middle class Britain is actually Australian and was based in Sydney enter a man named Herbert Austin I'm sure you're familiar as a teenager Austin went off to Australia in search of engineering work and wound up supplying parts to Worsley but in 1889 Wesley moved to England and Austin came home too becoming manager of the Wolseley company within a decade Austin had branched woolsley out and they'd started dipping their toes in car production but with the two sides of the business doing very different things the decision was made to split it into two one doing ship shearing and one producing cars despite them dominating the British Market by 1905 Austin had very nearly managed to bankrupt the car company so he left to set up his own operations from scratch meanwhile Wolseley was sold to the sidley motor company and they continued to grow exporting cars or selling knockdown kits to every corner of the globe but the tide again began to turn and by 1927 Wolseley was saved from receivership by another figure you also might have heard of William Morris within a decade Wolseley became a full-blown subsidiary of Morris and even with a hard-earned reputation for producing high-class Quality Cars wolseleys became essentially badge engineered Maurices fast forward a few more decades and Maurice decided to merge with its biggest competitor and form the British Motor Corporation so it's here we say hello again to Austin after 47 years Austin and Woolsey were the same company and Wolseley continued to be used as an upmarket name for run-of-the-mill Austin and Morris cars until 1975 when the name was killed off for the sake of rationalization the final car to Bear the name was the top model of the 1822 series the car we all know better as the princess with all that history out of the way we return to abdication era Britain where the country was a wholly different place Wolseley was one of the leaders in the early days of Motoring and with that came a preconceived Market segment Britain was and still is obsessed with class so that's the easiest lens through which to see what I mean before motoring was affordable for the masses it was the plaything of the middle class and the aristocracy they were used by services there weren't many cars on the road and so a Wolseley had to fit in to that world a Woolsey was a very very respectable car driven by the middle class Professionals of pre and interwar Britain the doctors the lawyers the law enforcement of that era and while a Wolseley was never a massively high-end car it was a market leader and the Super Six sat at the Pinnacle of that kind of Market despite Morris's purchase of Wolseley it wasn't initially a part of his nuffield group where Morris Motors was held instead it was privately owned by the man and over the following years he steadied the ship readying it for transfer to nuffield in 1935. within only a few months a new range of woolsies were launched all sharing their major componentry with contemporary morrises bringing us to the car we have before us a series 2 Wolseley 16 horsepower and with that nomenclature you'd expect there to have been a series one that preceded it but there wasn't that name was given to all wolseleys of the period purely to align them with the equivalent morrises at their launch in October 1935. and these really reinstated wolseley's position of strength in this big cast segment as due to finances in the Years prior they'd concentrated more on the smaller stuff but they recognize the need for a car like this not just to secure a future reputation for Wolseley but also to act as a Halo model for the whole nuffield group and part of nuffield this really is because alongside the Morris component Tree in series 2 labeling the heritage is very clear in just the styling although it's very easy just to brush off the styling of all these interwar cars as being very similar there are a number of nuffield trademarks that carried over directly into the wallsleys starting from the front the raking of the grill is just as it was on a Morris the horizontal vents for the engine are very similar to those on a Morris the relationship between the angle of the windscreen and the Leading Edge of the front doors is just as it was on a Morris the wheel arches are just as swoopy as they'd be on a Morris and the design of the boot is just as it was on a Morris for the sake of clarity take a look at this Austin 16 from the same era unlike the Northfield cars they're much more upright with a narrow Grille vertical vents dainty wheel arches and a more squared off body morrissey's and wolseleys were inherently swoopy and this suits the character of the Wolseley down to the ground because it gives it presence with the big grill and all-encompassing arches but this isn't to say it's merely a re-badged Morris either the wasley first of all has a different grill with totally different detailing throughout the rest of the side profile with the bigger but more dignified Vents and the additional swage line that runs down to turn back on itself and follow the wheel Arch down to the running board to name just a couple it's a car with big presents and one that isn't afraid of its status but it doesn't flaunt it especially in the black paintwork of this example it's just rather handsome and very elegant although the series 2 cars were only in production for two years they produced seven body styles with a variety of saloon Coupe and limousine shapes being made available all from Factory from 1937 they were replaced by the mildly revised Series 3 super sixes and with that change came a different style unique compared to any morrises but a little more upright and dare I say stodgy than these series twos but despite appearing old Grand and elderly there are some real niceties hiding beneath because the Super Six was all new and with that came a range of overhead valve straight sixes and a full speed gearbox now that all sounds really really normal today but in the 1930s that was something to shout about and Wolseley always had these kind of features even using an overhead camshaft engine for a number of years but with Morris's Overlord and finances always being an issue they had Terrain in the spending somewhat but still an overhead valve engine was very nice thing to have in the day as most cars were still using side valve engines as well as three-speed gearboxes there were three flavors of super six on offer the 16 horsepower we have here as well as a 21 horsepower and a 25 horsepower but that doesn't mean this one produces 16 horsepower as we'd understand it today if you aren't familiar with cars of this vintage that figure is the tax horsepower rating so in the UK the formula was based on the bore and the number of cylinders to progressively tax larger engine cars so this sat in the 16 horsepower category but produces around 63 modern brake horsepower from its 2.1 liter straight six with horizontally mounted carburetor Dash spots which isn't something I've ever seen before the 21 and 25 had a different block to the 16 a 2.9 and 3.5 liters respectively making either 86 or 100 brake horsepower and any of those figures are pretty decent for 1935 but because of the way they produced their power and torque the Colossal weight of the thing as well as the tastes of the period the gearing is incredibly low however an 80 mile an hour top speed is illegal today I should expect the 60s have a separate chassis and have leaf springs all around and that's all pretty standard for the era but what they also have is a bit of a marketing Ploy by Wolseley in elevating the perception of their suspension above the competition because this is obviously tuned for comfort and leaf springs do have a tendency to allow quite a lot of Bounce and Pitch so these have what they called phased suspension in layman's terms what that means is that they finally tuned the spring rates and the softness of these shock absorbers and the springs in order to reduce bouncing pitch as much as possible the super sixes then were incredibly British in their approach to both design and Engineering because while it's handsome and elegant it is frighteningly middle class and to go with it is a bit of genuinely interesting engineering when we had a gander over at the Wolseley 10 we saw a car that straddled two eras but this big fella is very much in a totally different era of Motoring and more importantly marketing because what interests and amazes me is the quality of the language used in the adverts this is Europe's Most Sumptuous car and a silent witness that in the hands of British Craftsmen a 25 horsepower Town Carriage can be made a thing of shapely elegance and life Grace without the loss of an inch of space or a decimal point of performance for bulk is not Beauty it is the ransom paid to unbalanced design that's worth a round of applause all on its own and regardless of how wasteful big wings and running boards are when seen from today's perspective that last line I will definitely be stealing and it's a topic of grandeur that takes us towards accommodation because as I've alluded to wolseleys were respectable cars for dignified and professional folk and even an on-paper deference towards the engineering of Morris wasn't going to bring down the tone of a Wolseley well not yet anyway foreign to avoid getting the getting my muddy shoes on the running boards and but we're in suicide doors again they still feel so unusual to me anyway despite the era and despite the fact that the car is of course very basic by our standards the craftsmanship here is a bit of a work of art because there's nothing like a heater fan in here but instead the design is so very carefully considered and the materials are brilliant so we've got this brilliant fabric headlining in all the wood and all that kind of stuff and we've got the nice leather upholstery as well the brown Fitness black on black car um but the central instrument binacle for example has this brilliantly fine art deco design to it it's absolutely fabulous to look at and while is completely obscured by this little ottoman tray up here and by the steering wheel the speedometer is square in shape and it's all the numbers are very very finely crafted onto the fascia it's just so so nicely designed it's not like they have just decided to buy in an instrument and just stick it on this says woolsly inside it and it's all very you know it's all very coherent with the rest of the dashboard it's just a bit of a work of art and also it's huge in here and it's a big old car anyway and you know no car of this area is going to be as practical as it could be just with the way they're crafted the way they're designed but in spite of that there is loads and loads of leg room up here and the Stacks and stacks of Headroom here as well in fact we even have an opening roof so that can become all the Headroom in the world if you so wish and just like the 10 a few weeks ago we also have an opening screen but as Captain of this wonderful old car you really do feel like a captain because you can see out in front of you the winged W on the Bonnet really long Bonnet you can see one of the headlamp bowls as well and you have this huge huge steering wheel in front of you in fact I don't think I've ever seen a steering wheel any bigger than this this is genuinely huge but of course big heavy car about one and a half tons and of course definitely no power steering so you kind of need this um but all the controls are quite oddly placed actually even in this area you'd usually find a lot of controls in a car to be placed not necessarily the way you'd expect them to be but them to be laid out very nicely on the dashboard but while this car of course has had a life and things are not quite way to expect so for example we have the key here next to you on the face you as you'd expect the headlamp switch around it as was very common for the period and then above it we have the starter but the choke is in front of you on this separate panel um so that's a little bit unusual we expect it maybe to be in that instrument panel but there is of course as is you know necessary in an old British cars a big huge shelf in front of you and we have little dinky wipers on the bottom of the screen and also I don't quite know how it opens I'm going to guess one of the switches here actuates it um or a pool lever somewhere maybe that one I don't know I'm not going to try too hard because of course it's not my car but there is a vent in the top of the Scuttle panel which will allow obviously fresh air into circulate but we do have wind-up windows how cool is that for car from 1936 but yeah it's just a lovely lovely place to be a huge it feels even though this is a standard Saloon it feels like a limousine it feels so very Regal all right again try not to dirty the outside of the car but in the back I think is where the main attraction is and I'm gonna have to try to stay in frame here but this yeah this is seriously palatial that's the most leg room I've ever had most knee room I've ever had in a car ever and yet you sit here way behind the window line as I've said in a number of videos this is a thing that I love about all cars it just feels so much nicer sat in the back of an elderly vehicle because you have this great view sideways out out of the car got this little grab handles as well which are made out of rope which is brilliant that's lovely and again we have wind-up Windows back here as well yeah and I think this is where the main attraction is because back here you feel like you're in the lap of luxury um there's nothing massively to speak of but all the trimming is so very very nice and you sit in such a reclined position back here it's absolutely tremendous you even have a nice arm rest on both sides of you and you have a little cubby hole as well which yeah I thought they'd be judging by the look of certain things that are kind of artifacts um in a car I thought there'd be something like this and there is there is a replica I'm guessing is that going to focus properly probably not that's a ration book from the war um yeah how fantastic is that yeah not non-filled out meat eggs fats cheese bacon and sugar how brilliant is that absolutely fantastic there's two of them actually so yeah you have your little cubby hole and you do actually also have you probably won't be able to see this but you do have pop out windows right at the back so I suppose the ventilation in here despite having no face level ventilation is going to be pretty good with the opening at the front and the four wind down Windows and the pop-outs at the back I could just say sitting here this is lovely but of course it is the 1930s and what do people in the 1930s do more than anything else they smoke this car has had a cigar light of retrofitted to it at least I can't imagine by the way that looks that it's original and but I have noticed that in the back here um on the edges of the armrests there are there's little this was a little bit stiff but there are these little pull out ashtrays and again this I'm discovering stuff with you here I believe this to be pre-decimal currency supremely awkward to get out of the cup holder but yeah there you go there is a shilling it's Elizabeth I secondary Shilling so I don't know what year 1962. um so you know 25 odd years um younger than the car but there is a shilling if you don't know how pre-decimal currency worked you had 20 shillings to the pound and within a shilling you had 12 old Pence and so it was 250 Pence to the pound and today of course we don't have Shillings and it's 100 Pence of the pound because sense eventually prevailed the late 1930s shock horror weren't a great time to be building cars consumer production ended in 1940 as the factory turned over to the war effort but wallsley was battered by the war with fires due to bombing and demand collapsing afterwards with huge taxes and a decimated economy to blame but with no Consumer Car effort being made during that period the 25 horsepower Series 3 Super 6 did survive through to 1948. but by that point this whole style was totally out of date because it had just seen its course its replacement the Wolseley 680 was a totally different style of car much lower sleeker and curvaceous with a very clearly Morris based design due to the era in which these cars lived and their age nowadays very few survived most have led very turbulent lives and have their own story to tell only 65 super sixes are known to survive by the Wolseley register and only three of these 16 horsepower series 2s are believed to be in roadworthy condition three one day I'll do a video on how a car like this survives and how they see out their lives now as 86 year old relics but with that to come thank you very much for watching if you enjoyed the video then please do click like And subscribe to Twin Cam as well I'm forever indebted to my wonderful patreon supporters so if you'd like to support me that way then please do follow the link in the description and I'll have more videos coming along soon

Channel: Twin-Cam

Views: 74,162

Keywords: Cars, Autos, Motor, Twin-Cam, Twin Cam, Vehicle, Vehicles, Motoring, Wolseley, British Car, Classic Car, Vintage Car, 1930s Cars, Classic Cars, British Cars, Vintage, Vintage Cars, Classic, 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, Inter-War, British Motor Industry, Wolseley 16, Wolseley 21, Wolseley 25, Wolseley Super Six, Series II Wolseley, Series 2 Wolseley, Series 3 Wolseley, Series III Wolseley, Morris, Morris 16, Morris Motors, Nuffield Group, William Morris, Morris Oxford

Id: xkoqCLK8bWo

Length: 21min 59sec (1319 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 08 2023