Castle Three Owners Group

The Castle Three was a British three wheeled cyclecar made from 1919 to 1922 by the Castle Motor Company of Castle Mill Works, New Road, Kidderminster, Worcestershire. The company had originally been a car repair business founded in 1906 by brothers Stanley and Laughton Goodwin but grew to make munitions during World War I and entered the car building business with the coming of peace and the post war boom.

The car was aimed at the top end of the Cyclecar market and so was fitted with a four cylinder, water cooled engine. The first batch of cars had side valve, straight four, Dorman engines of 1094 cc with the remainder using Belgian Peters 1207 cc engines. These were in-unit with a gearbox, either of two speed epicyclic or three speed conventional type and drove the single rear wheel by a shaft and bevel gears.[1]

The open two seater body with dickey seat had a smart nickel plated radiator and electric lighting and was attached on a chassis with the suspension using quarter elliptic leaf springs at the front and semi elliptic at the rear. Unusually for a cyclecar, artillery wheels were used rather than wire spoked ones.

The car was exhibited at the 1919 London Motor Show and a reputed 2300 orders were taken. Not all these were confirmed and it is estimated that around 350 were made. Two are known to survive. [2]

A prototype of a four wheel version was made but never went into production. The company closed in 1922 selling the works to a carpet maker.