The wholesome Armstrong Siddeley 236 and Riley Pathfinder were the last guard of sporting saloons from a time when patience was a virtue
WORDS MARTIN BUCKLEY PHOTOGRAPHY JOHN BRADSHAW
From the weary and highly legislated 2022 perspective, the seemingly carefree world of 1950s motoring has an understandable appeal. Fewer vehicles, fewer people and fewer rules, at a time when cars and driving were celebrated for their own sake. It was also when the march of technology was more of an exciting page-turner than a dark prelude to ecological catastrophe.
Life was simple. There was one television channel and the only electric cars came from a toy shop. It was a time before junk food, when stores didn’t open on a Sunday and a murderer could count on an appointment with the noose.
Yes, there was TB, polio and bad teeth, but our wonderful, shiny new National Health Service was going to sort all of that out. With the war 10 years behind and rationing at an end, it was time to sit back, light up that 20th Woodbine of the day, smooth back the Brylcreem in your barnet and imagine the new high-speed roads that had been promised by the end of the decade. There were foreign holidays and family cars, almost certainly of British origin – be it from Austin, Morris, Ford or Rootes. Britain was proudly at the cutting edge of the narrative as the world’s leading exporter.
Those who dared to dream of a Riley Pathfinder or an Armstrong Siddeley 236 in 1955 no longer lived in the austerity Britain most people inhabited. Priced at almost three times a manual worker’s annual salary, these were cars that spoke of the certainties and solid middle-class values of an age that was already passing. Yet today, a few miles in either will quickly sober you up to the reality of life behind the wheel 70 years ago, even in vehicles of this relatively lofty and luxurious ‘sports saloon’ station. The proportions of good news versus bad depends on how much work you want to put in and how much you value ‘charm’.
Built to replace successful and well thought of post-war quality saloons – the handsome Riley RM and ‘razoredge’ Siddeley Lancaster/ Hurricane/Typhoon were Britain’s first all-new cars in 1945 – the £1200 Riley Pathfinder and £1600 Armstrong Siddeley Sapphire 236 floundered in a mid-’50s market where choice and supply were quickly expanding. Against the spongy competence of a big Humber or the staid refinement of a Rover 90 for £1100 or so, the Pathfinder and Sapphire 236 tested these wealthy buyers’ marque loyalty to the limit. When the sleek, 100mph Jaguar 2.4 entered the fray in 1955 (at
