Straker-Squire: PA

2011. 5038 today.

2011. 5027 today.

1948. Steve Delmont’s Straker 5038.

Kyffin Thomas and wife Maisie with the tourer body 5027

Engine of 5027.

The Brooklands Straker brought to South Australia by George Brooks in 1952

1920s. Straker-Squire Kneeling Mascot, nickel plated - 134mm, (left side view) as seen on these models.

Note: This is a sub-section of Straker-Squire

Straker Squire Model ‘PA’ 24/90 h.p 6 Cylinders 4 litres. - South Australia

During WWI Straker Squire made under licence Rolls Royce Falcon aero engines, and immediately following Armistice they built a car engine on the same lines. Initially it had a worm and wheel drive to the single overhead camshaft, but was soon changed to a bevel drive.

The Thomas family were pioneer settlers of South Australia, and brought with them a printing press on which the Gazettal of the State was printed. A grandson, Evan Kyffin Thomas bought a Straker Squire in 1913, and in 1922, upgraded to a 6 cylinder car, number 5027. It was ordered with a 2 seater body, but it was soon replaced with a tourer. Kyffin Thomas had ‘The Register’ newspaper, and so it is not surprising that a picture of the car was published the day after its arrival in Adelaide, which was on Tuesday 16 October 1922. It was off loaded from SS Moreton Bay at 12.20 p.m.

Opposite the Register Newspaper in Grenfell Street Adelaide was the engraving works of Steve Delmont, where plates were made for the paper. Delmont and Kyffin Thomas were well acquainted, and Delmont also owned a 4 cylinder Straker. When he saw the new 6 cylinder car arriving and parking opposite each day he decided to order one. His did not arrive until 1925, and was car number 5038. That car is now housed in the National Motor Museum at Birdwood, South Australia. It is significant that only 9 cars had been built in 3 years. The total produced is said to be about 60, and they were expensive, at £1,450.

There is another survivor in the U.K., number 5026. While parts of two others survive, along with an experimental racer built in 1918, no other Straker Squire 6 cylinder cars are known. Two of the three road going cars remain in running order in South Australia, the only cars known to have been exported. Also, the remains of the Brooklands racer built by Granville Grenfell from new Straker parts following the firm’s closure is in Adelaide.

See Also

Loading...