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SLIDER: 1911 Long-wheelbase 90 h.p. Napier

This imposing Napier was built to the order of the Nizam of Hyderabad, who at that time already possessed a fleet of twelve Napier cars.  It is a six-cylinder 90 h.p. twelve-seater limousine.

According to the caption under the photograph, the power output of the engine was 120 b.h.p.  The body was designed and built in India, under the supervision of Marcks and Co., of Bombay.  Curiously, this company was, and still is today, a watchmaker and jeweller – so perhaps they were entrusted with the control of quality during the manufacture of the body.

The caption also reports that the unusual length of the wheelbase, the capacity the body and the power of the engine lead the makers to suggest that this was in 1911 the largest and most powerful private motor carriage ever built up to that date.


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