How to start the 1901 Wolseley 10hp tonneau

See one of our Workshop Technicians at the British Motor Museum talk us through the start up procedure for the 1901 Wolseley 10hp tonneau. In 1901 Wolseley signalled its move into serious car production by changing its name from the Wolseley Sheep Shearing Machine Company to the Wolseley Tool & Motor Car Company. The firm was now controlled by the large engineering combine Vickers. In 1901 a plant was set up at Adderley Park in Birmingham and Wolseley delivered 327 cars in that year and was one of the biggest and most important British producers. At the outbreak of war in 1914 they were market leaders and delivered at the rate of 3,000 vehicles a year. The 10 hp tonneau figured in the firm’s first catalogue, issued in May 1901. Choices included solid or pneumatic tyres and a sprag brake was also available to prevent it from running backwards on hills. The car was fitted with a horizontal twin-cylinder engine, which was Austin’s hallmark, as he distrusted the performance and lubrication abilities of engines with vertical cylinders. He didn’t change his mind about this until he set up his own company. This particular 10hp has a body constructed by the Manchester coachbuilders, Anne Cowburn. The company had been a horse carriage builder and harness manufacturer since 1779 and continued to build horse carriage and motor car bodies until WW1.