When you took delivery of your new 16/18 hp Armstrong Siddeley between 1945 and 1954 you would not have found a jack in the boot. Built into the chassis on each side of the car was a mechanical jack. If you needed to change a wheel you lifted the edge of the carpet, raised a small lid and, using the ratchet handle provided, wound down the jack!    

With the advent of modern technology, recent cars have more features than most of us ever need or use. Not so fifty years ago, when a heater was an optional extra or sometimes not even an option! How inventive then and what attention to detail  for Armstrong Siddeley to incorporate in the dashboard a warning light to inform you if the bulb in any of your running lights had blown.

In 1950 a new Armstrong Siddeley Hurricane was priced at £975.00 plus purchase tax of £271 11s 8d, making a total price if £1,246 11s 8d. In those days a nurse earnt £376.00 per annum and a bar of Pears soap cost tenpence ha'penny (4.375 p)

During the Second World War the Hawker Siddeley group of companies employed up to 100,000 people, and produced 40,000 aircraft, 38,000 aero engines, 7000 tank gearboxes, and 12,000 torpedo motors. In addition it repaired and put back into service 11,000 aircraft and 10,000 aero engines.

In 1911 Siddely Deasy used  a Knight Daimler engine, renowned for its quietness, in certain of its cars. A journalist reported that the Siddeley Deasy was ' as quiet and inscrutable as the Sphinx'. This description appealed to John Siddeley who introduced the Sphinx as the Armstrong Siddeley bonnet mascot. There have been a total of six different Sphinx mascots over the years.

Between 1945 and 1954 a total of 12470 16/18 h.p. chassis /engines were produced, of which 2606 were Hurricanes. Of the total production, the Armstrong Siddeley Owners Club estimate that only 921 still existed by the end of January 2004; a survival rate of just under 1 in 14. The Lancaster has the lowest survival rate, followed by the Hurricane. 

Steel shortages following the end of the WW11 meant that the government strictly rationed its supply to motor car manufacturers, unless the cars produced were for export, to earn much needed foreign currency. This led to the production of over 1000 Armstrong Siddeley pick up trucks (known as Utility or 'Utes') virtually all of which were exported to Australia and New Zealand. An Armstrong Siddeley pickup then would be akin to a Jaguar or BMW pickup today! 

One very interesting 16/18 h.p. model was the Armstrong Siddeley Tempest. In truth it was probably never more than an experiment for no more than six, if that many, were ever made. It has been a subject of debate between devotees of the marque for decades as to whether it ever even existed. Those against claim that the few photographs that exist are of a modified Typhoon, and that the name 'Tempest' was coined by a disreputable seller to maximise the selling price. Those for claim that the factory chassis records show unique non-sequential numbering concluding from these that it did exist. Typhoon, Hurricane, Tempest or perhaps just a Storm in a tea cup!