This lovely four/five seat motor car was built by the Vulcan Motor and Engineering Company Limited of Southport in Lancashire which, for the benefit overseas readers, is in the north-west of England. The company is generally well known for commercial vehicles though according to Georgano's invaluable Encyclopaedia they had been experimenting with private cars since the late 1890s. They introduced a single cylinder car in 1902 and continued to develop a range of two, four and six cylinder cars in the first part of the 20th cantury.
This particular example has a powerful 22.4 hp 4 cylinder engine with an advanced layout incorporating twin camshafts, a crossflow head and two spark plugs per cylinder. The engine is mated to a very pleasant to use three speed and reverse gearbox. The starting procedure is very straightforward and after a couple of turns with the starting handle to prime the cylinders you switch on the ignition and the engine fires on the next pull. The car is is very pleasant to drive with surprisingly precise and light steering for a relatively large vehicle and I am happy to report that the brakes are also well up to the job required of them. It is clearly a well engineered machine which was built to a very high standard and it definitely gives the impression that it will just keep on going for as long as you want it to. Apart from being really nice to drive the thing you cannot help but like about about this car, apart from its very striking appearance, is its amazing originality as it has lots of lovely period details and features which are so often missing from cars of this age. It also has a level of patina that simply cannot exist in a restored car. In summary it is a very rare, very original and very interesting high quality Edwardian tourer which will suit those who are more interested in using rather their cars rather than winning prizes for polishing them!