Sports car,The Vintage era

Sports car,The Vintage era

After the Great War, Europe returned to manufacturing automobiles from around 1920, the following decade becoming known as the Vintage era and featuring rapid technical advances over the Edwardian traditions. The vintage decade witnessed the widespread adoption of more modern and higher-speed engines; the abandonment of taxation on cylinder bore promoted the development of the higher-revolution short-stroke engine. The introduction of leaded fuel allowed for higher compression ratios, further increasing engine power.

It was after the first World War that the term 'Sports Car' began to appear in the motor catalogues, although the exact origin of the name is obscure. The demand for high performance motor cars was growing, and as racing cars were not yet exorbitant in price it was practical for some manufacturers, such as Bugatti and Sunbeam, to offer from one basic design this year's racing car and next year's sports car. Other designers, such as Cecil Kimber at Morris Garages exercised great ingenuity in converting standard touring cars into acceptable sports cars.

In the middle of the 1920s the expense of producing competitive specialist racing cars, especially Grand Prix cars, began to escalate dramatically; more and more manufacturers turned their attention instead to production for the growing sports car market. In 1923 l'Automobile Club de l'Ouest organised the first Twenty-Four Hour Race on the Circuit de la Sarthé for sports cars, although technically, except for the smallest class, the regulations at the time were for four-seat fast touring cars—two-seat sports cars still being an evolving category. "This race, together with the Tourist Trophy Series of Races, organised after the first World War by the R.A.C., appealed to the public imagination and offered to the manufacturers of the more sporting cars an excellent opportunity for boosting sales of their products." The classic Italian road races—the Targa Florio, and the Mille Miglia (first held in 1927)—also captured the public's imagination.

In 1921, Ballot premiered its 2LS, with a remarkable 75 hp (56 kW) DOHC two liter, designed by Ernest Henry (formerly of Peugeot's Grand Prix program), capable of 150 km/h (93 mph); at most, one hundred were built in four years. This was followed by the SOHC 2LT and 2LTS. The same year, Benz built a supercharged 28/95PS four for the Coppa Florio; Max Sailer won.[

Simson in 1924 offered a Paul Henze-designed 60 hp (45 kW) DOHC 2 liter four, the Simson Supra Type S, in a long-wheelbase 120 km/h (75 mph) tourer and 115 km/h (71 mph) twin-carburettor sporter; only thirty were sold, against around three hundred of the SOHC model and 750 of the pushrod-six Type R. Duerkopp's Zoller-blown two liter in 1924, as well.

There was a clear cleavage by 1925. As four-seaters were more profitable, two-seaters increasingly turned over to specialist manufacturers, led by Alvis, Aston-Martin, and Frazer-Nash, with shoestring budgets, fanatic followers, and limited sales (today exemplified by Aston and Morgan): between 1921 and 1939, 350 Astons were built; 323 Frazer-Nashes in the period 1924–39.

By the end of the 1920s, AC produced a 2-liter six, the 3.5 liter Nazzaro had a three-valve OHC (until 1922), while French makers Amilcar, Bignan and Samson, and Franco-Spanish Hispano-Suiza, had the typical small four-cylinder sporters and Delage, Hotchkiss, and Chenard-Walcker the large tourers. Benz introduced the powerful Ferdinand Porsche-designed SS and SSK, and Alfa Romeo, the Vittorio Jano-designed 6C.