it was founded by Edmund Dangerfield, proprietor of The Motor. A plaque on its dashboard also shows that OWL embarked on two more epic journeys: in 1950, it travelled from John o’ Groats to Land’ s End, finishing in Oxford, having covered 1,200 miles; and in 1960, it took part in a commemoration of the 1,000 Mile Trial, following the exact same route. These trips were in addition to the 39 times it has started the London to Brighton Veteran Car Run, with this its 40th entry an occasion of note, since OWL will be the first car to be flagged away, marking the 125th anniversary of the 1900 Trial from which it is now one of the last survivors.
To pull away in OWL, you add some ignition advance, leave the throttle in its midway position, release the handbrake, and ease the long transmission lever forward in its first gear slot – just enough to attain jogging pace – before making a back and forth change into second gear. The single cylinder’ s metronomic thumping intensifies as you push the lever further in its channel. It’ s a highly physical experience for your upper body, since you’ re effectively forcing the weight of the gearbox against the drive belt to attain more speed. But once into third, with a clear road before you and the transmission locked in, OWL canters along, its engine still revolving at less than 1,000rpm, but likely clipping around 25mph with( it feels like) more in reserve. I’ ve driven many tiller-steered cars, but OWL’ s centrallypositioned system is one of the best, muting the worst kickback over potholes and drain covers and in general imbuing the car with a reassuring stability.
Little did Austin know that 125 years hence his jewel of a motor car would still be impressing motoring journalists much as it did back in the day.
And no motor vehicle engages you quite like an early veteran: the organic simplicity of their engineering is refreshing and, while control solutions were still diverse, you find yourself sharing their maker’ s naïve optimism that their particular way was the future. The internal combustion-powered motor car, whatever its flavour, was the future, though, and 125 years ago, thanks to the farsightedness of a group of motoring enthusiasts and what was to become the Royal Automobile Club, a nation of doubters was starting to be convinced.
The full story about OWL and the 1,000 Mile Trial can be found in the November issue of Classic & Sports Car magazine.-
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