‘Invicta Cars’ was founded and run by the wealthy businessman, Noel Macklin. He was born in 1886, educated at Eton and in the Great War served as a Captain in the Royal Horse Artillery. He was wounded and invalided out in 1915. He established the Invicta Company in buildings on his estate in Cobham, Surrey in 1925. He had the financial backing of Oliver Lyle of the Tate and Lyle sugar refining dynasty. Invicta produced a range of cars but the marque is best known for its ‘100 mph’ Sports Tourer, the S Type.

Macklin’s goal was to produce a sportscar with the quality and reliability of a Rolls-Royce and performance and handling that would better a Bentley. Launched at the London Motor Show in 1930 the S Type was on a par with today’s Supercars. The cost was approximately £ 1,500, a huge amount at that time when the average house price was about £ 200, so about £ 1,750,000 in today’s money.

The S Type was made of the finest materials available, an immensely strong nickel steel chassis lugged together with massive high quality bronze castings and fitted with a cast aluminium bulkhead and bonnet landings. The car cut a very low profile and to achieve this the chassis legs passed below the rear axle. The S Type was powered by a Meadows 4½ Litre six cylinder engine with twin bronze bodied SU carburettors. In Macklin's own words "the essential characteristic of the Invicta was luxurious speed" and he was so confident of his product that he offered a Rolls-Royce style three year guarantee. The factory standard offering was the S Type chassis fitted with coachwork by Carbodies of Coventry. The styling was rakishly attractive with broad wings and extensively louvered side valances. The long bonnet embellished with domed rivets and twin chrome exhausts protruding left no doubt that this was a car with sporting potential.

S Types were widely used for racing and rallying, hill climbs and speed trials. In 1931 a young Donald Healey entered the Monte Carlo Rally in an S Type and won. His confidence in the car was such that he returned the following year and was rewarded with second place. In 1932 the lap record for Brooklands and the fastest times at the Shelsley Walsh Hill Climb and the Stelvio Pass Hill Climb were all held by Invicta. There were also numerous victories in International Alpine Trials.

In 1934 the ailing Invicta company moved its car assembly operation to the company’s London service works in Flood Street, Chelsea. Chassis S 165 was the third from last built and it was ordered by a nobleman in India, Nizzamuddin Vluddin Jillani. Little is known of him or his time with the car but by 1940 when just six years old it was bought by 2nd Lt. James Braid serving with the Royal Artillery in Calcutta.

Fortunately, his son is an Invicta enthusiast and passed on a wealth of history and photos of the car in this period. Braid was born in Dundee in 1910 and worked in the textile industry. To progress his career with the Angus Jute Company he moved to India in 1931, aged just 21. He enjoyed India and was successful and prospered but with war clouds looming he was also serving with the Royal Artillery training the Indian Army. The European conflict must have seemed a long way off as in February 1940 when he needed to upgrade his car he became the owner an S Type Invicta, chassis S 165. He bought it from Union Trading Limited in Calcutta, part exchanging his Rover in the process.

Particularly evocative is the photo of Braid wearing his officer’s uniform and with the Invicta in ‘black-out’ trim with masks on the headlights and two inches white paint all around the extremities of the car. The authorities were convinced that Calcutta would be bombed by the Japanese and the black-out regulations were the same as imposed on London in the ‘Blitz’.

S 165 was bought in the early sixties by a Lars de Jounge, a Swede living and working in Poona, West India. He exported the car when he left in 1966, although this entailed a degree of dismantling due to heritage restrictions. He is noted as a new member of the Invicta Club in 1965 with a car needing restoration and that the engine was being sent to England for re-conditioning. The car remained largely untouched until 1967 when De Jounge posted again in the club magazine asking for recommendations of someone to “build the engine and do the other repairs needed”.

The original engine ended up with the celebrated engineer, Maurice Leo of Beaconsfield, Bucks. Rather than rebuild the original unit he supplied De Jounge with one of the W.O. Bentley improved motors from a Lagonda LG 45. Back in the day this was quite a common occurrence with little thought given to keeping the old motor just because of its numbers. S 165’s engine took up residence in Beaconsfield and in 1970 the car travelled to California where De Jounge had relocated.

The car’s next owner was American enthusiast, Don Williams and in his care the car appeared in the Automobile Quarterly, Vol 15, No:3 and legend has it that it was shown at the Pebble Beach Concours. (More research required).

The car remained in the USA until it appeared in a Sotheby’s London Auction on 16th March 1991 where it was bought by gentleman dealer, Nigel Dawes. With cosmetic improvements the car is re-offered at a Brooks Auction at Olympia in October 1992. S 165 was then bought by Mr. Christopher Jacques (whose firm famously produces croquet sets known the world over). Although he only kept the car for three years he understood the growing importance of matching engine and chassis numbers. With a little detective work he approached Maurice Leo to see if he still had the original unit and was able to re-acquire it for the modest fee of £ 5,000. After 28 years apart the engine and the car were re-united, although the Lagonda unit continued to do the work in the chassis.

In 1995 Jacques sold the car, complete with the original engine on a pallet and it was bought by Peter Livanos in a deal organised by his friend and Aston Martin business partner, Victor Gauntlet. At the time they were both keen competitors in historic events and accordingly S 165 was successfully entered in the 1997 Mille Miglia. However, Mr. Livanos had another S Type and S 165 was offered for sale in a Brooks auction at Olympia on 14th April 1999.

The car was bought by a Midlands based collector and enthusiast, Gordon Willey. Significantly the car was sold without its original engine. When Mr. Livanos went on to sell his second S Type to Switzerland in 2003, it went with a package of spares including the complete engine from S 165. That could have been the end of it, but 15 years later, in 2018 Mr. Livanos bought his old Invicta back from Switzerland and the missing engine came back with it.

The current owner of S 165 had been trying to solve the mystery of the missing engine since he bought the car in 2015. Three years later he was delighted to get a call telling him that the unit had turned up.

Since 2015 S 165 has been maintained by marque expert, Paul Kitcher and has successfully competed in numerous events including the 2016 VSCC Pomerory Trophy and Prescott Hillclimb, the 2016 Mille Miglia, the 2017 Silverstone Classic, the 2017 Goodwood Revival, the 2018 Flying Scotsman Rally, 2019 Silverstone Classic and the 2021 Goodwood Revival. It has appeared at numerous shows and concours events and won the “Spirit of Motoring” award at the 2016 Blenheim Concours and was second in the 2022 “Levitt Concours” at Hampton Court.

S 165 is a highly original car with a fascinating international history. It is one of only 77 Low Chassis Invictas built and one of less than 30 fitted with the desirable Carbodies Tourer coachwork.

It is offered for sale complete with its original engine.