Individual results

Registration No. Y 1060. J.W.F Crouch had served his apprenticeship at the Daimler Company and had also been a driver for the Deasy Motor Company. With this knowledge of the motor industry he decided to set up his own company in 1911. Crouch Motors started in Bishop Street but soon moved to the Tower Works, which stood where Lady Herbert’s Gardens stand today, next door to the Museum. Crouch Motors eventually stopped trading in 1927.

After the First World War there was a demand for smaller more economic cars. These small cars became known as cycle cars and this Crouch is an example of that type.

This car has an 8hp V-twin-cylinder, water cooled engine, which drives the single rear wheel through the gearbox and a chain. Crouch entered his cars in reliability trials of the period and they proved very reliable and competitive. This reliability was also found in the road going cars, so this vehicle will travel at over 35mph and do up to 50 miles per gallon of petrol. There are two main problems driving this car. Firstly it has a very small flywheel and a cone clutch which means the car accelerates very quickly from a standing start making it difficult to control. Secondly it has very stiff suspension which means the back wheel bounces off the road, especially on rougher terrain. As the only brake is on that back wheel, it can make the car very difficult to stop.