Property of a deceased's estate
c.1928 Ariel 557cc Model B Project (see text)
Frame no. W11539
Engine no. W11066

Ariel's design department was blessed with a surfeit of talent as the Selly Oak firm entered the 1930s, Chief Designer Val Page having under his wing both Edward Turner and Bert Hopwood. The Ariel range at this time encompassed a dazzling variety of models: vertical engines, sloping engines, side valves, overhead valves - two or four per cylinder - all were represented along with Turner's revolutionary Square Four. It was Page though, who had laid down the basics of Ariel's four-stroke singles range in 1926, moved the magneto behind the engine for '27 and thus established the form in which the engine would survive for the next 30 years. At time of cataloguing it had not been possible to positively identify this sidevalve-engined Ariel, though the 'W' frame/engine number prefix suggests a Model A or B dating from 1928. There are no documents with this dismantled and incomplete machine, which is offered for restoration and sold strictly as viewed. No reserve.