In 1935, twelve years after the dissolution of the GN cyclecar company, the 'G' - H R Godfrey - was back in business with new partners E A Halford and G H Robins, the trio's new firm adopting the name 'HRG'.

The aim was to build a lightweight Vintage-style sporting car endowed with the virtues of brisk acceleration and positive steering, and in this they succeeded brilliantly.

However, with its Meadows engine at the end development, an alternative was needed and the firm turned to Singer, adopting tuned versions of the latter's overhead-camshaft engines for its 1500 and 1100 models.

Hand built in limited numbers, the HRG was one of the best performing all-round 1½-litre sports cars of its day, as evidenced by class wins at Le Mans in 1939 and 1949.

By the early 1950s demand for HRG's traditional sports car was declining and the firm responded with a radical new design by its technical director Stuart Proctor: the Twin Cam.

The latter was powered by a 1,497cc Singer SM engine fitte...