Before we tell the story of the Wolseley 4-44 it is worth talking about its designer Gerald Palmer – because his portfolio contains some of the most important British cars of the post-war period.
Gerald Marley Palmer (30 January 1911 – 23 June 1999) grew up in Southern Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, where his father was chief engineer to the state-run railways. Palmer returned to England in 1927 where he started an engineering apprenticeship with Scammell in London. In his spare time he designed and built a sports car in 1936 and showed it to Cecil Kimber of MG, who was impressed enough to give him a job at Cowley. Palmer led the design of the MG Y-Type which, due to the war, would not begin production until 1947.
Jowett of Bradford decided that they would, after the war, move on from their basic range of cars and vans. Their new managing director, Charles Reilly, overcame Palmer’s reluctance to move away from the heartlands of car manufacture to Bradford. Palmer started there in January 1942 and, with a clean sheet, designed the Jowett Javelin, including its flat-four engine and unitary body. Cars reached the first customers in 1948. It was well received but was expensive. Production volumes never reached the planned level, and subcontractor Briggs’s insistence on churning out bodies at the original order rate led to stockpiles and severe cash-flow problems for Jowett.
In 1949, Palmer left Jowett and returned to Morris where he designed a new range of cars for MG, Riley and Wolseley. The results of this were the MG ZA Magnette and Wolseley 4-44. In 1952, Palmer was made chief engineer of BMC, where he oversaw the design and launch of the Riley Pathfinder and Wolseley 6/90 and was involved in the design of the MGA Twin-cam engine. He became a director but, in 1955, fell out with chairman Leonard Lord and was dismissed. He was succeeded by Alec Issigonis.
Palmer then joined Vauxhall Motors, working with the team responsible for the Victor and Viva ranges. He retired in 1972.
The Wolseley 4-44 was introduced in 1952 and manufactured from 1953 until 1956. Much of the design was shared with the MG Magnette ZA, which was released later in the same year. Unlike the MG, which was powered by the BMC ‘B’ Series engine, the 4/44 had already been designed before the merger with BMC and therefore used the 1,250 cc Nuffield XPAW engine. The construction was monocoque, with independent suspension at the front by coil springs and a live rear axle. The car had upmarket trim, with wooden dashboard and leather seats and a traditional Wolseley radiator grille with illuminated badge, but was expensive at £997 on the home market.
An example tested by The Motor magazine had a top speed of 73 mph and could accelerate from 0–60 mph in 29.9 seconds.
The 4/44 was replaced in 1956 by the similar Wolseley 15/50. By now, BMC rationalisation meant that it was powered by the BMC ‘B’ series engine. The 15/50 was not a great seller, and only 12,352 cars were produced before it was replaced in December 1958 by the ‘Farina’ models.
Photo by Peter McFadyen. See his website: http://petermcfadyen.co.uk
Leave a Comment