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Dellow
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| Defunct |
Dellow cars were made in factories at Alvechurch, Birmingham, England between 1949 and 1959.
Dellow Motors were founded by Ken Delingpole and Ron Lowe to produce cars for use in motor trials.
The first cars used a Ford 10 engine in an A frame chassis with very light simple aluminiium bodywork, early cars had no doors. Allegedly the early chassis frames were made from government surplus rocket launching tubes as used on Hawker Typhoons. Emphasis was on precise handling and good performance. Many sporting awards were won by drivers of Dellow cars in the early 1950s, not only in trials for which they were designed but also in speed events such as hillclimbs and even taking over all honours in the MCC organised Daily Express Nation Rally.
Their styling was created by Lionel Evans at his Radpanels coachbuilding workshop in Kidderminster. The car went through several variants known as Mk I to Mk V. Early cars had a beam front axle with transverse spring which continued until the Mk V which had coil springs. About 300 are thought to have been made.
A new company, Dellow Engineering, based in Oldbury near Birmingham produced a MK VI - often incorrectly quoted with glass fibre body, it too was built with alloy but few MK VI were made.
Cars
- Dellow Mk I - 1949 - Ford 10 powered basic 2 seat
- Dellow Mk II - 1951 - Optional doors, rear coil springs
- Dellow Mk III - 1952 - 2+2 model
- Dellow Mk IV - 1954? - one off with Ford Consul engine
- Dellow Mk V - 1954 - Coil sprung front axle, tuned engine, MkVs only had the 3 speed box although "the Lightweight" WRF81 now owned by Nigel Brown had a 4 speed ex Morris unit (information from David Haley of the Dellow register.)
- Dellow Mk VI - 1957 - Independent front suspension, ladder chassis
