From the archives of Bob Montgomery, motoring historian
THE SILVER STREAM: The story of the Silver Stream is another one of those "might-have-beens" that litter Irish Motoring History. It began when an Irish railway engineer, Philip Somerville Large, retired to his native Kilcullen in 1906 from a post in India with the Indian State Railway, and formed a company to manufacture a large quality car which he named the Silver Stream.
In Ireland, Somerville Large had purchased a 16/24 hp De Dietrich car to which he soon began to want to carry out improvements. Instead of doing so, he decided to build his own car, and began to search for suitable manufactured components with which to form the basis of his design. His attention to detail was outstanding and he was particularly intent on his design being suitable for Irish road conditions. A modified MAB chassis -manufactured by Malicet et Blin - was finally selected and fitted with a Gnome six-cylinder engine of 3,065 cc.
Somerville Large designed the body himself and the completed chassis was shipped to the coachbuilder, Salmons, at Newport Pagnell in March 1909.
The final result was a design of outstanding beauty and superb quality.
Happily, the Silver Stream has survived to the present time and is today the centre-piece of the Museum of Irish Transport at Killarney.
For reasons unknown, only one Silver Stream was ever built and the project to manufacture the car was abandoned. The cost of manufacture is often given as the reason for this, but research in recent years seems to suggest that the Silver Stream would have been comparable in cost with other established luxury cars of the day.
What is certain, however, if production had taken place as originally planned, is that the Silver Stream, with its superb attention to detail, would have been an Irish world beater. Instead, the Silver Steam, is yet another, if rather beautiful, Irish "might-have-been".
MINI-MINORACULOUS! The pending proliferation of new versions of the "new" Mini made me recently think back to the original design to bear that name. Initially it was produced in two badge-engineered versions - the Austin 7, soon re-named the Austin Mini, and the Morris Mini Minor, which also soon became simply the Morris Mini. In 1960, both versions could be had for the sum of £459.10s (De Luxe model, including heater, chromium plated grille and carpets!).
Described by the advertising copywriters "MiniMinoraculous", they apparently felt the need to also say "Yes, she's a real car, bless her, and she's all car! No wonder the nicest people are making her one of the family". Seems to me it's not just cars that have improved!
THE THINGS THEY SAY: Thumbing through some 1960s car magazines I came across the following gems:
"Most of the half million cars sold every year in these islands still go to private individuals and there is not much sign so far of the status of the car declining. But many car hire people look forward to the day when car-owners will be fewer than cow-owners." (The Observer). Mmmmm
Then there is the following
"The wise ones are saying that Alex Issigonis is the first designer to lay out cars for people who use them rather than those who only look at them." (South Australian Motor).
Never thought of that