My grandfather, whose tall tales often appear in this blog, was briefly the owner of one of the larger Singer motorcars, nothing like so cute and chummy looking as the illustration below.
SINGER ROADSTER
Artwork by Peter McKercher - click image for more data
My grandfather's Singer was a late 1920s saloon and seemed comfortable and well mannered, at least at first. Being a young man at the time with wife and son to impress, he decided to set forth on a trip from Norwich to Holt. He made that choice because there were then a number of features along that road that made it ideal for testing the performance of a new vehicle: A long section of straight road, some nice winding bits with tight bends and the steepest hill in Norfolk apart from Kett's and Gas Hills in Norwich.
The advantage of the hill on the Edgefield approach to Holt was that there was a good downhill run, then a thrilling humpback bridge to test the suspension (not to mention the alimentary stability of the passengers) then the hill itself, a long straight climb of almost eighty feet. Yes, I know, but this is Norfolk!
The Singer car company had always managed to promise more than it could deliver. They named their 9hp (850cc) small sports tourer the "Le Mans" when it stood no chance of success, or even qualifying for entry in such a race (eventually they did get there but only by designing a larger car with a 1.5 litre engine. They finished 7th and 8th in 1934.) The saloon bought by my grandfather seemed fine on the straight, not too bad on the bends, fairly well damped on the bridge, but abysmal on the hill.
Too much bodywork, or too little engine, was the verdict. They did get to the town of Holt but only after discovering that reverse gear had a lower ratio than first, which brought them to the summit, but wrong end first. It must have been very tempting to have flipped off the handbrake, coasted back down the hill and gone home. I suspect it was only an urgent need to sample Holt's excellent collection of teashops, that kept them on course.
Previous blog repeated for new readers.
