Riley Nine History

Launched in July 1926, the Riley Nine was largely the work of two of the Riley brothers — Stanley designed the chassis, suspension and body, and the older Percy designed the engine. Its 1,087 cc four-cylinder unit had hemispherical combustion chambers with valves inclined at 45 degrees in a crossflow head, operated from two camshafts mounted high in the crankcase via short pushrods — a design that gave it free-revving performance well ahead of typical small cars of the day, and which underpinned Riley engines for decades.

At launch two bodies were offered: a fabric-bodied saloon called the Monaco and a four-seat fabric tourer. The range broadened steadily through the 1930s, with the Kestrel, Lynx and Falcon bodies all appearing in 1933. The Nine made Riley's reputation and was the basis of its competition cars.

The competition derivative, the Riley 9 Brooklands (built 1929–1932), was a low, lightweight two-seater developed with the help of J.G. Parry-Thomas and Reid Railton and named for Riley's racing success at the Brooklands circuit. Nine-based cars were giant-killers in 1930s racing and rallying.