Grant Ford - Vintage Vehicle Zone

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Tony Stevens –

Automotive Maverick

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A quiet market town in deepest Kent is home to a man who has been involved with this country’s motor manufacturing from a very young age. Professor Tony Stevens has seen it all, been involved in some amazing projects, had to fight bureaucracy and been let down by short sighted banks; a career of ‘should haves’ and ‘could haves’ would have been so different if only the men in suits had enjoyed his vision. Canterbury born and bred Tony spent the war years with grandparents in the relative safety of Dorset and after finishing school secured an apprenticeship at Lockheed, Borg and Beck. It was here an understanding of manufacturing engineering developed and a chance to build the brakes for the BRM Grand Prix Cars. Tony built his first car at 18; an MG rolling chassis cost him £10 from the local taxi company. The rest his own creation and the MG M-type Special was born, a sign of things to come? 1957 and Tony returned to education at Kings College London where three years study resulted with an Honours degree and diploma in Mechanical Engineering. In his final year project at Kings, he designed an original vane-type rotary engine that so impressed Peter Ware, Rootes Group Engineering Director that in 1960 he appointed Tony as his Technical Assistant. By 1961 Tony became Rootes Group Chief Engine Designer resulting in plans for various engine types dependant on vehicle; these included an ‘Inline 4 cylinder’, flat 4, inline 6, V6, V8 (using common parts from inline 4),parallel 8, V12, rotary and diesels power plants. Tony told me of a quiet week and the chance to put some fresh paper on his drawing board and design a Grand Prix V12 engine! The toothed cam belt was just one of the ideas he penned that is still in use today. 1966 came with more responsibility and a promotion to Rootes/Chrysler Product Planning Manager Globally; in charge of the complete medium range for marques Hillman, Singer, Sunbeam and Humber; models such as Vogue, Gazelle, Sceptre and Rapier would all cross his desk over the next 2 years. In 1967 Tony saw an opportunity in the Group 6 Le Mans Prototype category and proposed it to the board, they declined on financial grounds so he funded, designed and built it himself. It would be the first glued monocoque construction car all made from 22 gauge soft aluminium; named ‘Desauto’ it would be powered by mating two Hillman Imp engines slightly off parallel into an 8 cylinder featuring an early fuel injection system. The car never saw the French circuit; again Rootes blamed a lack of funds so Tony raced himself at UK tracks and hill climbs. 1968 saw the competition department come under Tony’s planning wing and that included the London-Sydney Marathon.  Having little confidence in the project the company only employed a photographer as far as Istanbul; the Hillman Hunter however went on to win the event and they had to rely on their competitors images for the publicity shots. In 1972 leaving the big companies behind Anthony Stevens Automobiles, Warwick was formed where in 1974  they started limited production of a range of 1920’s style delivery vans using Ford power. Thirty of these unique vehicles were ordered and the same year Tony designed his first sports car. With his ideas and designs in demand the new company brought a wide variety of new innovations to the market place including trailers, an Escort Pick up and VW Camper high top conversions among others. In 1977 the Stevens Sienna sports car was completed, designed as much by the banks demand to show a waiting list before they would invest; Tony went with a traditional Morgan look, it was as he described ‘a superb little car that neither I or the public wanted’ it went no further. Undeterred a small brightly lit stand at the 1980 NEC Motorshow introduced the Stevens Cipher to the world; it was the only small sports car at the show as this market had been ignored by the main stream manufacturers. The days of the British sports car were back, the Spitfire and Midgets may have gone but the market was ready for something new? Great press coverage followed (Motor described the Cipher as ‘exquisitely pretty’) and interest from potential dealers virtually gave the Cipher complete UK coverage; buoyed by the enthusiasm Tony approached the banks. Again they declined; so as before the project would start self-funded with the aim to mass produce the car economically. Reliant got involved, the car powered by the small 4 cylinder ‘Kitten’ engine but ‘in house only prejudice’ didn’t help them move forward.  In 1985 The Cipher design was adjusted to accommodate a 1.4 turbo Renault unit and a LWB and 4WD. Cars were produced in full including collaboration between Lada and Stevens in 1989 resulting in Russia’s first sports car. Utilising mostly Samara parts plus Connolly hide interior into Tony’s design the car was on course for mass production in Lithuania just as Glasnost came to be and the Soviet Union broke up; the project collapsed over-night. A coupe was produced using Proton parts with the Mitsubishi 1.8 engine plus a design involving Suzuki/Maruti 1.0 litre in the roadster. Right from the first showing of the original Cipher at the NEC one Japanese manufacturer took a keen interest, they did not need to find a friendly bank manager and in 1981 instructed their design team based in California to build a very similar sports car; the result was the Miata/MX5. Covering just some parts of Tony Steven’s life leads me to conclude he had ‘no fear’ building cars in a time of UK manufacturing decline, alongside scandals such as DeLorean and without any funding assistance; a single minded maverick and a fascinating character.