Star Motor Company

The Star Motor Company was a British car and commercial vehicle maker based in Wolverhampton and active from 1898 to 1932.

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. The first car was made in 1898 and a separate company, the Star Motor Company was registered as a wholly owned subsidiary of Star Engineering Ltd. The early vehicles were heavily influenced by existing car makers and the 1898 3.5 was essentially a single cylinder Benz and often called the Star-Benz. One a week was being made in 1899. Two cylinder models followed in 1901 with the 7 and 10 with De Dion engines and in 1902 a four cylinder 20hp appeared. From 1904 only four cylinder models were made.

The Star Cycle Company run by Edward Lisle's son, also called Edward, had continued in business and in 1905 entered the car industry in its own right and produced a two seater called the Starling. To avoid confusion a new company, the Briton Motor Company was formed in 1909 and the products were badged as Britons. Manufacture continued until 1928.

The main Star company continued to make well engineered models up to the outbreak of war in 1914 adding a range of vans and trucks to the output and became one of the six largest British car makers.

During World War 1 the company made a large number of lorries for the army and did some work on aircraft engines.

Post-war car production resumed in 1919 with the pre-war 3014 cc 15.9hp and 3815 cc 20.1hp models and in the early 1920s they were making 1000 cars a year from their cramped workshops.

In 1928 Edward Lisle sold the company to Guy Motors who were also based in Wolverhampton who wanted to add a range of cars to their heavy vehicle production. Production was moved to a new plant in Bushbury on the Wolverhampton northern outskirts near to the Clyno factory but profits were elusive and production was stopped in 1932.

Star cars (main models)
for a complete list of surviving cars, see http://www.localhistory.scit.wlv.ac.uk/Museum/Transport/Cars/staregister/starreg00.htm