Last month, starting with the first published road test of the original 4F 497cc overhead-camshaft Ariel Square Four in The Motor Cycle of April 9, 1931, we gave a brief outline of the development of this fabled machine.
The euphoria that greeted the complex newcomer was mirrored in the report, with sentences like: “Becoming critical through experience, it is not often that the staff of The Motor Cycle can apply superlatives to almost every feature of a particular motor cycle.”
Within a year a 597cc model had been introduced, presumably for sidecar use, and for a while was sold alongside the original.
By then the road testers, while still enthusiastic about the machine, had started to note a few faults as well.
Read more in July’s edition of OBM
