Swallow

Commentary
On Tuesday 3rd November 1953, Sir John Black, deputy chairman and managing director of the Standard Motor Company, was badly injured in an accident outside the entrance to the firm’s factory in Coventry.

That morning, he had reportedly asked Ken Richardson, the company’s development driver, to take him out for a trial run in a new sports car that used the engine and a number of mechanical parts from the recently launched Triumph TR2.  As they drove along Banner Lane, a works’ Standard pick-up truck turned across their path to enter the factory, and in the collision that followed, the new car was completely written off.  Both men (and the truck driver) were detained in hospital.  Three weeks’ later, after 20 years of servce, Sir John resigned from his post.  Although his injuries were cited as the main reason for this, he had been facing considerable criticism from his fellow directors over his increasingly capricious management style, and it said that some of the board had already begun to demand his resignation.

The car that Ken Richardson was driving was the first production Swallow Doretti; a brand-new sports car made by the Walsall-based Swallow Coachwork Company, whose origins lay in the motorcycle sidecar business established in Blackpool in 1922 by William Walmsley and William Lyons. 

The two young men's stylish, streamlined sidecars sold well and, in 1927, they began also making special bodies for cars.  The first of these was based on the Austin Seven, followed by designs using Standard, Fiat and Wolseley chassis.  Reflecting this, the company’s name was changed in 1928 to the Swallow Sidecar and Coach Building Company.  Three years later, Swallow produced the first of its S.S. cars - an elegant low-line saloon, using a Standard 16hp engine.

Over the next four years, numerous revisions and developments were made to the original design, together with the introduction of two further models: the S.S.2, a small sports car based on the Standard “Little Nine” chassis, and the S.S.90, a much more advanced (and faster) two-seater, using Standard’s 20hp, 2.6-litre engine.

In 1935, the Jaguar model name was introduced, and S.S. Cars became a public company.  The original firm, still owned by William Lyons, was renamed the Swallow Coachbuilding Co. (1935) Ltd.  Despite the success of the S.S. marque, Swallow sidecars remained in production; in fact, in February 1937, The Motor reported that 500 sidecar bodies were being built every week.

In March 1945, shortly before the end of the Second World War, the S.S. name was formally changed to Jaguar Cars, and by the end of the year Swallow Coachbuilding had been sold to the Helliwell Group.  J H Helliwell had begun trading around 1888, making fire fenders, at the Tunnel Foundry in Dudley, Staffordshire.  In the early 1930s, they branched out into folded metalwork, leading to the manufacture of car windscreen frames, and later aircraft cockpit windows and cabin tops.  In 1937, the company applied to Walsall Corporation for permission to build a factory on the town’s new aerodrome and, by February 1939, the works were near completion.

During the Second World War, Helliwell’s were largely engaged in aircraft maintenance and repair. It was probably in this context that Helliwell’s managing director, Eric Sanders, met Frank Rainbow, an industrial engineer and designer at the Bristol Aeroplane Company, who had the idea of producing a light scooter, not dissimilar to the Welbike, a small, folding motorcycle produced during the Second World War for the Allied armed forces. 

Launched towards the end of 1946, the 122cc Swallow Gadabout, as it was known, was Britain’s first post-War scooter; designed in Walsall, it was manufactured in Helliwell’s other factory, at Treforest, near Pontypridd, in south Wales.  Although initially hampered by its out-dated engine and a shortage of materials, the Gadabout sold reasonably well, but it could not match the lighter and faster Italian Lambrettas and Vespas that were becoming increasingly popular in Britain.

In 1950, Helliwell’s were acquired by Tube Investments Ltd (T.I), a British engineering company specialising in the manufacture and manipulation of metal tubing.  By the end of 1951, production of the Gadabout had ceased, although the manufacture of sidecars in Walsall continued for at least another three years.

The final piece in the Swallow Doretti jigsaw comes from the United States and a motoring accessory firm by the name of Cal Specialities Inc.  It was started by Californian engineer, Arthur Andersen and his daughter Dorothy Deen, who shared an enthusiasm for British sports cars, but were unable to find the kind of aftermarket accessories that they wanted. Arthur Andersen’s main line of work was in thinwall tubing, and so the manufacture and sale of badge bars, luggage racks and aluminium valve covers etc., to fit the likes of an M.G, was not a major transition. The company’s products were marketed under the name Doretti; a corruption of Dorothy’s name, chosen to convey an image of the exciting world of, ironically, Italian sports cars.

It was almost certainly in the context of his main business that Arthur Andersen met Eric Sanders, Helliwell’s managing director in early 1952, when the idea of developing a new sports car for America was first mooted.  Online discussions on the Triumph TR Register suggest that the initial outline was drawn up by Dorothy, and then handed to Frank Rainbow for detailed design and technical development prior to production, who was reportedly given just nine months to design and develop the new car. 

It is not entirely clear exactly how Standard-Triumph and Sir John Black became involved in the project, other than perhaps through their historic connection with S.S Cars but, by October 1953, it was being reported that Swallow had developed five prototype cars, with their engines and a number of other components supplied by the Standard Motor Company. 

In January 1954, the Doretti made its first public appearance in California – with small numbers, as far as can be ascertained, being built for export to America.  Nine months later, the new sports car was formally announced in Britain at the 1954 London Motor Show.  With a chassis made from Reynolds 531 tubing, the Doretti had a TR2 engine, running gear and suspension, with aluminium body panels, fixed to a mild steel inner skin.  Although having a more luxurious interior and longer wheelbase than the Triumph, the new car was marginally the lighter of the two vehicles.  With an overdrive fitted as standard, and a maximum speed of 106 mph, the Doretti was fractionally slower than the TR2, although this was offset for many by a higher level of comfort.

Road tests published at the time, contained few criticisms of the car.  Those that did, tended to focus mainly on the driving position and the siting of the rev counter immediately in front of the passenger – as fitted to cars destined for the North American market.  The only other significant drawback of the Doretti was probably its price: £1,102 on its launch, compared with £787 for the TR2. 

Motorsport described the Doretti as “a smart, nicely finished, lively two-seater”.  Autocar summed it up as “a high speed roadster”.  The Motor was the most complimentary, stating that the Doretti “not only holds its own” in the field of high-performance sports cars, “but also looks well …is quite moderately priced … and may be regarded as a remarkable achievement.”

From early 1954, a total of 276 cars were made and sold, on both sides of the Atlantic; sufficient, it seems, for Swallow to begin work on a Mark II ‘Sabre’ prototype.  Although the company was advertising for new staff in December 1954, less than two months later, in February 1955, the Walsall Observer reported that Doretti production “had been cut considerably” over the previous two months after sales “had not been quite up to expectations”. 

In fact this was something of an understatement.  It is generally held that Doretti production ceased in February or March 1955, after concerns were expressed by the Jaguar Chairman, Sir William Lyons, that one of his primary suppliers, ie T.I, was building a sports car to rival Jaguar’s own (significantly more powerful and expensive) XK140, suggesting that T.I should decide whether to continue making sports cars or risk losing Jaguar’s contract for the supply of bumpers, door locks, and other parts.  It appears that without any formal, public statement, production of the Swallow Doretti was abruptly halted.

The Walsall factory continued to produce sidecars until October 1956 when the Swallow Coachbuilding Company (1935) was sold to Watsonian, another long-established sidecar manufacturer.

Further details
• Ahead of Time: the story of transport built in Walsall, Robert Cordon Champ, Walsall Local History Centre, 1993.
• The Swallow Doretti Car and Owners’ website, https://www.doretti.co.uk/intro.htm