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Thread: Wolseley Hornet

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    Wolseley Hornet

    The Wolseley Hornet was introduced in 1930 as a saloon, but soon its potential was realised and it became available as a chassis only on which various coachbuilders tried sport variants. At least 28 different companies have provided bodies for the Hornet, among those famous names like Abbey, Corsica, Guerney Nutting and Jensen.

    The main attraction of the Hornet was its 6 cylinder OHC engine, of which the origins date back to the first world war, when the Morris factory built Hispano Suiza Aero engines under license. The Wolseley10 had an 848cc four cylinder, which Cecil Kimber than started using for the MG Midget. By adding 2 more cylinders a 1271 unit was realised, which formed the basis for the Hornet, but also for all later MG 6 cylinders.

    The most important version were the Specials, which was introduced by the factory as a chassis, but not after many renowned tuning companies had already made their own versions, for instance by adding twin carburetors and even supercharging.

    In 1934 a new version of the Hornet chassis became available with an underslung layout, and in 1935 a 1605 cc version was introduced, which produced a healthy 50 BHP. However by the end of 1935 it was decided to concentrate efforts on sporty MGs rather than on the Wolseley marque. This meant the end of the Hornet, which nevertheless is an important car as it did pioneering work for all the famous MG sports cars that are still being regularly used in historic racing.

    Shown here is a regular Hornet Touring from 1931, which participated in the Rallye Sprint organised during the 2006 Concours d’Elegance at Palace Het Loo.
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