Star Motor Company

The Star Motor Company was a British car and commercial vehicle maker based in Wolverhampton and active from 1898 to 1932. At its peak Star was the UK's sixth largest car manufacturer and produced around 1000 cars a year.

Star was founded by the Lisle family who like many other vehicle makers started by making bicycles, in their case in 1893 as Sharratt and Lisle. In 1896 this was changed to the Star Cycle Company.

Edward Lisle built his own first bicycle in the early 1870s and had enough success racing it that he began to build additional bicycles to order. In 1876, he partnered with William Sharratt to increase production, but that partnership only lasted three years. In 1883, Edward Lisle founded the Star Cycle Company. Besides safety bicycles, models included tandems and a Pedersen. In 1889 the company purchased a factory on Stewart Street and by 1899, production reached 10,000 cycles per year, and by 1904 Star was the largest Wolverhampton based bicycle manufacturer.

Planning for the Star car began in 1897 when the company acquired a 3.5 hp Benz car and used it as the basis for the design of their own car. The early vehicles were heavily influenced by existing car makers and the 1898 3.5 was essentially a single-cylinder 3.5 hp Benz and often called the Star-Benz; it had two speeds, chain drive, wire spoke wheels, acetylene lighting, electric ignition, and Clipper pneumatic tires standard, for ₤189. Star then purchased the rights to produce Star-Benz cars in Wolverhampton and began production at the Stewart Street Works. The cars were now being sold under the Star Motor Company name, a registered subsidiary of Star Engineering Limited, who adopted a policy of building as much as possible in-house. The Star-Benz model sold well and around 250 were made. The cars initially sold for £189 but in 1900 they were selling for £168 and the company was producing 20 a week.

One a week was being made in 1899, and in the first year, they made their first export sale, to Auckland, New Zealand. Exports became a major part of Star's business, particularly to Australia and New Zealand. In 1891 Lisle had adopted a 6 pointed star as their logo which led to a successful suit against Mercedes in 1902 where it was found they had infringed Star's copyright with their 3 or 4 pointed star emblem. In 1900, production had expanded to facilities in Dudley Road and Nelson, Stewart, Ablow, and Dobb Streets. A two-cylinder three-speed model appeared that year, also, at the Richmond Automobile Club Show. Encouraged by founder Edward Lisle, they were also being entered in the 1000 Miles' Trial (where it proved fragile), along with "every test or competition for which they were eligible". In 1901, the 7 and 10 with vertical twin De Dion engines and in 1902 a four-cylinder 20 hp appeared. In 1903, copying the leading maker, Mercedes, Star introduced a 12 hp four, and set a record of 39 mph (63 km/h) on a 2-mile (3.2 km) run in County Cork, Ireland, under the auspices of the Irish Automobile Club. In addition, two Stars ran in the Isle of Man qualifying races for the Gordon Bennett Cup; neither 10-litre car made it. From 1904 only four-cylinder models were made.

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