Vale Motor Company Logo

Vale Motor Company Logo

The Vale Motor Company, from (Maida Vale) in London, England, is a former manufacturer of sports cars from the years 1931 to 1936


The Vale Motor Company was set up in 1931 by Pownoll Pellew (later 9th Viscount Exmouth) as a 'gentleman's hobby' in a rented workshop behind the Warrington pub in Maida Vale. It soon expanded with funding from Allan Gaspar and Robert Owen Wilcoxon, thanks largely to help from Pellew's then girlfriend Kay Walsh.

The cars were initially handmade and based on Triumph Motor Company components. The first cars used the 832 cc side-valve engine from the Triumph Super 7 fitted to a chassis bought in from Rubery Owen, semi-elliptic leaf springs all round, and the hydraulic brakes and axles from the Triumph. The top speed was only 65 mph (105 km/h), which was too slow for serious sporting events: so from 1933 a 1098 cc, overhead-inlet, side-exhaust, four-cylinder, Coventry Climax engine was offered, followed in 1934 by the 1476 cc six-cylinder version of the same engine.

Most of the cars had lightweight two-seater open bodies with fold-flat windscreens, but a four-seat version on a long-wheelbase chassis, called the Tourette, was available with the larger-engined versions.

Between 1932 and 1936 (according to other sources 1935) around 100 cars were produced and marketed as the Vale and Vale Special, though the actual figure is greatly disputed.

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