With great shortage of new cars after the Second World War, almost any product calling itself a sports car found a market. The Dellow, which was produced by a small garage business near Birmingham, was one such. Its instigators, K.C. Delingpole and Ron Lowe, were production car trials enthusiasts, so they produced a car which could be used as both a two-seater sports car on the road and as a trials car.
Built around a simple tubular chassis frame, it used mainly Ford Ten/Prefect components, including the rugged 1,172 cc side-valve engine and a three-speed gearbox, with the old-fashioned transverse leaf suspension. The original cars were bodied in stark two-seater open-top style, using aluminium skin panels on a tubular frame work. Naturally, there were no doors, a skimpy soft-top was only provided as an apology for keeping out the worst of the bad weather, while two trials-orientated features were the big (15 gallon) fuel tank, and the twin spare wheels, both of which hung out over the rear of the car, thus increasing the weight over the driven rear wheels.
The result was a perky, quirky, but above all light, cheap and appealing little two-seater, which soon built up its own small coterie of fans. |
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Eventually outclassed in trials, where more specialised machinery eventually took over, the Dellow was also a good car for use in driving tests and some rallies.
Compared with almost any other British car of the day – and certainly any family car – the original Dellow was outrageously stark and purposeful. Even though the side-valve-engined Fords were nothing special, and the three-speed gearbox was a positive drawback, this car was so light that it was brisk and appealing. Even in standard form they could reach 70 mph, but when super-tuned, speeds of 80 mph (which felt and sounded most impressive) were seen.
Later Dellows had coil spring suspension on their beam-axles, but by the mid-1950s their time had passed. No more than 500 cars of all types were ever made.
This open-topped two-seater, was a car with no opening doors and aluminium skin panels. The cars were light, cheap and appealing with two spare tyres mounted on the rear of the car.
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