Auction announcements
11th Nov 2014
Shipping CostsGermany: 900 EUREU: 1900 EURRest Europe: 2900 EURWorld: 3900 EUR

Riley 12/4
Coventry, England, year of manufacture 1934
First registration: unknown
Vehicle Identification Number: 6023311
Engine number: N.A.
1.5 l Engine with 55 hp
No mileage available
Colour: bright green; Interior: black
Austrian car registration letter
Prewar race car
DEKRA reports, detail photos and various documents for this vehicle may be requested.
Object is regular taxed. 19% VAT is added to the purchase price for deliveries within the EU.
Shipping cost is free if collected by buyer. Otherwise a shipping rate, in accordance with effort, will be added.
Special condition: only 10% buyer´s premium plus VAT.

This Riley TT is especially impressive with its color and noticeable careful maintenance from well-known Riley specialists in England. The car was sold to Austria from Holland about eight years ago. The engine was completely overhauled about 6 years before and has a mileage of approx 3000 km. The Austrian owner had installed a new old stock Rev Counter. He competed over the last few years at several classic car events like the “Klausenrennen”/Switzerland, “Nürburgring”/Germany, “Gaisbergrennen” in Salzburg/Austria, the “Ventilspiel” at the Red Bull Ring/Austria and the “Grossglockner Bergpreis” in Austria. The highlight for the owner was attending the LeMans Classic in 2014. The car also has an FIA car pass and can participate in international events.

At the beginning there is, as with many other car manufacturers, the building of bicycles. Already William Riley had made ??his fortune in Coventry with two wheels. His son Percy Riley constructed a so-called three-wheeled Voiturette in 1897 from bicycle parts and a De Dion-Bouton single-cylinder. He did not do so just simply for the pleasure of innovation. At the time, the prohibition of child labor in England came into force. So he was no longer able to work alongside his son on this project.

1900 was followed by motorized four-wheeled vehicles. From 1903, Riley began the construction of their own drive units with 517 cc V2-cylinders that had either water or air cooling. Four years later, ??the designers made a step further and offered the first four-wheeled Riley with 1034 cc and 9 hp, the first car with mechanical inlet valve control. The wheels were entirely new with central locking. After patenting this design many well-known car manufacturers including Fiat, Renault and Mercedes based their wheels on Rileys for a certain time.

Percy Riley, the technical head of the company, also planned to continue pioneering detailed solutions and founded a new factory in Coventry for the production of the car with his brother Stanley in 1919, which would guarantee them the breakthrough for two decades: The Riley 10.8 "Redwing" stood 1498 cm high produced 35 hp. It had light-alloy pistons, modern electrical equipment and only six lubrication points. In particular, the two-seater sports version of "Redwing" was successful in the inter-war years.

The most well-known car the company produced on the continent was the 1.1-liter Riley 9 "Monaco" in 1926, which was indeed originally designed as a small family car, thanks to the tuning of Reid Railton and the driving skills of the racer Parry Thomas many more sports cars were to follow. At the beginning of the 1930s the small red Riley racer was above all the their respective classes in all sorts of sports car races and rallies.

In 1928 Riley brought out a six-cylinder and an eight-cylinder seven years later called the "Adelphi" model, but the emphasis remained on the small four-seater and Roadster. Even before the Second World War took William R. Morris, 1939, works were in place to integrate them into its own group.

Shipping costs excl. statutory VAT and plus 2,5% (+VAT) shipping insurance.