From the archives of Bob Montgomery, motoring historian.
IRELAND'S FIRST FAVOURITE: In the early days of Irish motoring, two makes dominated sales to Irish motorists. These were the Daimler and the Argyll. Of the two, the Argyll probably had the edge in numbers and was certainly the favourite of Irish motorists.
The early Argyll was built by the Hozier Engineering Company of Bridgeton, Glasgow and the first production model of 1899 was designed by Alex Govan and was based on the contemporary Renault. It was a voiturette or light car with a single-cylinder 2 ¾ hp engine with shaft drive and a tubular chassis. In 1901 a larger 5 hp engine was introduced and a year later this was increased to 8 hp. Its most unusual feature was its four forward speeds - then almost unheard of - in so small a car.
It was this Argyll voiturette which proved so popular with many of Ireland's first motorists, no doubt partly because it soon acquired a reputation as a rugged vehicle which could take the wear and tear of poor Irish roads. Its reign in Ireland was, however, short-lived, as two and four-cylinder cars grew in reliability. Argyll introduced its own two and four-cylinder models from 1903 on, and these also proved popular with Irish motorists, but never to the same extent as the original single-cylinder Argyll.
By 1904 Argyll's business was booming, and it had become Scotland's leading make. Argylls proved successful in trials and in record-breaking and these successes did much to build the marque's reputation. The early death of Govan in 1907 was a major blow to the company, and a move to a pretentious new factory at Alexandria, Glasgow, did little to help the company's long-term finances.
However, Argyll continued to prosper in the short-term and by then were the fifth largest motor manufacturer in Britain. But the Alexandria factory was designed for manufacture on a scale Argyll could never hope to attain and allied to expensive litigation over patents, undermined the company's financial position.
In 1914 the ownership of the company changed hands, and following war work during the years of the first World War, car production was revived on a small scale in 1920. Despite new models, the company's finances went quickly downhill and all production soon ceased.
THE FIRST MOTORWAY: As we contemplate an ever-growing network of motorways in Ireland, it's interesting to reflect on the world' first motorway, completed some 82 years ago at Avus in Germany. The Avus Autobahn ran for a distance of 6¼ miles from Grunewald to the suburb of Wannsee, and was officially opened on September 10th 1921.
It had first been mooted as early as 1909, and was almost complete when the outbreak of the first World War brought building to a halt. The project had been started by Karl Friedrich Fritsch, a noted motor racing enthusiast, who planned that the Autobhan should also find use as a race and test track, with the result that it was designed with a spectacular banked loop at either end to enable high speeds to be maintained.
Following the cessation of hostilities, work on the Autobhan began again. When finally finished it had two carriageways 26ft wide with a tarred surface and a central reservation also 26ft wide, which was planted with grass; no fewer than 10 ferro-concrete flyovers crossed the completed motorway.
The Avus Autobhan is still in use today as a public road and occasionally as a manufacturer's test-track. Motor racing, which took place regularly there until recent times, has now ended on amenity grounds.
The first inter-city motorway was built between Milan and Varese, opening in March 1923 while the first motorway constructed outside Germany or Italy was built in the US. This was the 15 ½-mile Bronx River Parkway which opened in 1925.