A Regal Brit With American Power

In 1933 Noel Macklin hoped that the fourth time would be a charm. He had had three previous runs at manufacturing automobiles starting in 1919 when he, along with H. Eric Orr-Ewing formed the Eric-Campbell company. The firm's name represented the middle names of the two founders. Though the Eric-Campbells showed some success on the race track, sales were weak. Within a year Macklin left the company and it soon found itself in a bad economic situation.

Macklin wanted a company that was all his own and so he created the short lived Silver Hawk company. Running a 1373 cc engine that produced up to 25 horse power, the car was, for the time, a high performance machine. It was also incredibly stylish as Macklin used an all aluminum body. This helped performance due to its light weight but it didn't help the bottom line. After less than two years the company closed its doors.

In 1925, four years after shutting down Silver Hawk, Macklin partnered with Oliver Lyle, whose family had made a fortune in sugar, to for Invicta. The idea behind Invicta was to be the same as Macklin's first two ventures, a high performance luxury car. What the aspiring auto-makers found was that the prices they needed to ask for their cars limited their potential sales and so they started making less expensive cars. This led Macklin to sell out his share of the company in 1933.

Having learned some valuable lessons, Macklin undertook a new venture, Railton. The Railton cars were to live up to his high performance luxury standards but he had figured out a way to help keep his costs down. The first car, the Railton 8, draped a Ranalah body over a Hudson Terraplane chassis and sported Hudson's high performance 4010 cc 8 cylinder engine.

Within two years the Terraplane chassis was replaced by that of the new Hudson Eight. Also replaced was the engine, growing to a 4168 cc model. Macklin also expanded the number of available body styles to cater to a wider audience.That same year, two lightweight Railton 8 models were made. Their claimed 0-60 time of 8.8 seconds made them the fasted production cars in the world at the time.

Over the next several years, Macklin made a couple of smaller models to also help expand the line. By 1939 he had had enough of car manufacturing and turned his attention to power boats. His Fairmile Marine supplied boats to the Royal Navy during World War II. Sadly, shortly after the war in 1946, Macklin died, leaving behind a legacy that led to being knighted.

Part of that legacy is the 1937 Railton Saloon seen here. This car, oozing with luxury features. The body was built by Rippon Brothers of Yorkshire, England to be used by the owner of the firm, Reginald Rippon. This car was part of the 37th Annual Ault Park Concours d'Elegance and is on display at Hostetler's Hudson Museum in Indiana.