John Davenport Siddeley was without doubt one of the most successful of those entrepreneurial motoring pioneers. Siddeley was a master at assimilating the ideas of others, building on them and then producing a thoroughly individual product of his own. Siddeley's business empire resembled that of Rolls-Royce - both companies diversified into the aeronautical business and both had car-making and aero businesses complementing each other. Whilst it is fair to say that the aeronautical elements of both companies predominated, the car sections were more directly in the public eye, and, in times of peace, carried them through the depression years.

It is not surprising then that Armstrong Siddeley Motors became a subsidiary of Rolls-Royce's aero-engine empire. In many ways, Armstrong Siddeley was responsible for creating a legend of excellence, which became the true inheritance of Rolls-Royce. Through that inheritance we can appreciate Armstrong Siddeley's legacy.

It began with the birth of J D Siddeley in 1866. In his mid-twenties Siddeley became involved with the new bicycle industry, and was employed by the Humber Cycle Co., ostensibly as a draughtsman, but acting as manager of the cycle-racing department. In 1893 Siddeley was offered a post with Harvey Du Cros at the Pneumatic Tyre Company (later in 1898 to become the Dunlop Tyre Co.) and Siddeley first worked in Ireland and then in England. When the company became Dunlop, Siddeley's streak of independence emerged, and, a true entrepreneur, he set up his rival Clipper Tyre company just around the corner in Coventry. The company manufactured tyres under license from the Continental Caoutchouc and Gutterpercha Co. of Hanover, Germany (now known as the Continental Tyre Co.). Siddeley must have been well aware of the litigation over the Dunlop patents, for Continental had patented their own pattern of tyre, thus avoiding the dispute with the Dunlop patents.

One way Siddeley marketed this product was to arrange a cycle ride from John O'Groats to Lands End in 1898 on a specially lightened Humber racing cycle on Clipper pneumatic tyres ridden by a well known racing cyclist. The principle of such an exhaustive test, carried out in the public gaze, was set - and was to be repeated throughout the J D Siddeley era, evolving through the Autocar/Motor road tests and overseas endurance trips.

Having started manufacturing tyres for motor vehicles Siddeley searched for a suitable test of their reliability, again in public. The opportunity to do so appeared in the shape of the 1,000 miles reliability trial of 1900 organised by the Automobile Club of Great Britain (later The Royal Automobile Club). Siddeley entered two British-made Daimler Parisian 6hp cars - one driven by himself, rally number A30 - which completed the entire trial without a puncture. A second Daimler, fitted with Clipper Tyres, was driven by the Hon. John Scott Montagu, and the event attracted many British motoring pioneers, including C S Rolls, Harvey Du Cros, and S F Edge.

After this, Siddeley became an avowed Automobilist winning a trophy at the Spion Kop Hill climb of 1901 in a Daimler. In 1902, he became an importer of Peugeot cars, importing the mechanical parts and assembling them complete with English bodies in Coventry and marketing them as Siddeley Autocars. These vehicles were displayed at the Crystal Palace Exhibitions of 1902 and 1903. This wide range of vehicles included a 6hp single cylinder car, two 8 ½ hp twin-cylinder cars, one 12-16hp four cylinder car and one 18-24hp car. Advertising at this time was mainly photographic with a measure of retouching.

The next development was to manufacture components in Britain to Siddeley's own designs. This was undertaken by Vickers Son and Maxim, assembling parts (manufactured by the Wolseley Tool and Motor Co. of Adderley Park Birmingham) at the Maxim factory at Crayford in Kent.