Invicta

Black Prince

Invicta

Black Prince

In 1946 a new company appeared using the name Invicta Cars and they produced the Invicta Black Prince. The company was based in Virginia Water in Surrey, and the Black Prince was designed by William Watson, who had previously worked for the pre-war Invicta car company and had also been responsible for designing the very successful S type for Noel Macklin.

The post-war Black Prince also used a Meadows engine, a 3 litre, twin overhead camshaft unit, with three SU carburettors. The suspension was independent front and rear using torsion bars, and controlled by hydraulic dampers. However, instead of a conventional gearbox, it utilised a Brockhouse Hydro-Kinetic Turbo Transmitter, offering an infinite variety of ratios, making it Britain’s first car with fully automatic transmission.

The luxury car was very advanced and extremely complex, but sadly proved to be too expensive in those early post-war years to be successful, and the company closed in 1950, having only made a small handful of cars.

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ENGINE

Water-cooled six cylinders of 81mm bore by 97mm stroke, 2998cc. RAC rating of 25HP. 120 BHP @ 5000RPM.

Designed and produced for the car by Henry Meadows.

Aluminium cylinder block with wet cylinder liners supporting hardened crankshaft on seven main bearings. Aluminium cylinder head with two, chain driven, overhead camshafts operating inclined valves in hemispherical combustion chambers.

Two 10mm sparking plugs per cylinder fed from two distributors. Auxiliary drives were mounted at the front of engine. Starting was by a Dynostart unit fitted at the front of power unit. Lubrication was by two oil pumps drawing from a 2 ½ gallon sump and a full-flow filter.

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CARBURETTORS

Triple 1 ½ inch SU carburettors were mounted on a special manifold incorporating dust filters and separate starting carburettors. Supplied by 2 SU pumps from a 15 gallon rear tank.

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COOLING

By centrifugal pump and fan with water temperature controlled by thermostatically operated radiator shutters

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TRANSMISSION

Brockhouse Hydro-Kinetic Turbo Transmitter mounted at the rear of the engine incorporating an electrically actuated reverse gear. Drive to the chassis mounted hypoid differential unit was by open propeller shaft and short torque tube.

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CHASSIS

Welded box section with cruciform centre section. 4 built-in hydraulic jacks and a Luvax ‘One Shot’ lubrication system.

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SUSPENSION AND AXLES

Independent on all four wheels. Front wheels were sprung by longitudinal torsion bars and stub axles slide and pivot on fixed king-pins. Rear suspension was by torsion bars.

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BRAKES

Girling 12 inch diameter drums all around, hydraulically operated. Twin leading-shoes at front. Inboard at rear.

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STEERING

Rack and pinion for the prototype then Bishop Cam for production cars.

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ELECTRICAL EQUIPMENT

12/24 volt system with built-in mains operated trickle charger and engine heater. Built-in radio.

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DIMENSIONS

Overall length 16 feet, Overall width 5 feet 10 inches, Height 5 feet 2 inches, Wheelbase 10 feet. Track 4 feet 7 inches front, 4 feet 8 inches rear, Tyre size 6.00 x 16

It is thought that 16 cars were completed with another 15 chassis and a total of 24 engines.