AutoCult Burney R-100 Stromlinie (1930) (Great Britain)

About the Original:

From Airships to Automobiles

England in the year 1927: The 29-year-old Commander Sir Charles Dennistoun Burney conceived the desire to adapt his experience in aviation to automobiles. His intention was to transfer the aerodynamic design of airships to the design of car bodies. However, he did not intend to start an own car production, but just wanted to design the streamlined car bodies. Therefore he founded his own company Streamline Cars Ltd. He transferred numerous good practices of the aviation, like flexible cables, independent suspension of all four wheels and hydraulic breaks, to the vehicle construction. All this was already quite forward-looking back-then but first of all he was committed to an optimally streamlined car body.

Compared to the standard cars back then Burney’s vehicle was revolutionary. The aerodynamically design had no protruding parts, which provided a target for windage. Even both headlights were seamlessly integrated into the car body. Due to the fact that he planned the front design as flat and aerodynamical as possible a front-engine-design was ineligible. He positioned the engine behind the axle in the rear of the car. As engine served a powerful eight-cylinder engine with almost 3-liter displacement of the British luxury car manufacturer Beverley. In his search for a buyer of his vehicle patent he agreed with the British car manufacturer Crossley in 1934. From then on the car was available under the name Crossley-Burney at the market.

Only 25 copies of the car were produced until the production came to an standstill. After that the construction fell into oblivion.