Armstrong Siddeley Lancaster History

Armstrong Siddeley announced its all-new post-war range in May 1945, only days after VE Day in Europe — making it one of the very first British manufacturers to reveal a new peacetime car. The Lancaster was the four-door saloon of that range, named after the Avro Lancaster heavy bomber whose Merlin engines were closely associated with Armstrong Siddeley's sister companies in the Hawker Siddeley Group. Its body was a four-door, six-light steel-and-aluminium structure supplied by Mulliners of Birmingham and fitted over a wooden frame.

The Lancaster rode on an all-new chassis with independent front suspension using torsion bars and a live rear axle on leaf springs — a significant step forward from pre-war practice. Early cars used a 70 bhp, 1,991 cc (16 hp) overhead-valve six-cylinder engine; from 1949 the bore was enlarged to give 2,309 cc (18 hp) and 75 bhp. Both a four-speed synchromesh gearbox and the traditional Wilson preselector were offered. A total of 3,597 Lancasters were built before the model was replaced as the Sapphire arrived.