The Beverley Barnes must be one of the rarest of all British sports cars manufactured, with very few known survivors.

The car took its name from the location of the factory in which it was made at Barnes, in SW London. The founders of the Beverley Works were two Belgians - Lenaerts & Dolphens – who had undertaken engineering work during the First World War and subsequently moved on to supply the growing British motor industry – making parts for Bentley, Lagonda and Invicta amongst others. In order to showcase the company's engineering capabilities, they decided to make a car of their own – with the first, the 24/80, appearing in 1924. This luxury vehicle was powered by a straight–eight cylinder, overhead cam engine of 4 litres. As was common at the time, separate coachbuilding firms – e.g. Van den Plas – provided the bodies for the cars.

Taking the straight-eight engine as their unique selling point, the 4-litre was followed by a 5-litre of the same configuration – the 30/90 – then a 2.4-litre engine, later enlarged to 2.7 litres, by which time the engine carried double overhead cams. None of these Beverley-Barnes sold in any meaningful numbers and by 1931 the company ceased the production of any further cars, returning to engineering work for other manufacturers. Exact numbers are not known, but total production only just made double figures with perhaps 15 vehicles built.

The Beverley-Barnes 22/90 offered here was first registered in June 1931 but was likely built a couple of years earlier. It is believed only 2 or 3 were made. The straight-eight engine has a capacity of 2732 cc, twin overhead camshafts and twin carburettors. An American Warner four speed gearbox was used and braking aided by a vacuum servo.

This car was first registered as DG 2804 – a black, fabric saloon model – in Tewkesbury, Gloucestershire. It moved to Yorkshire the following year but may have quickly fallen into disuse as the last Road Tax stamp in the logbook is dated October ’34. In 1947 it was re-registered as FBT 498 by – appropriately – the licensing authority of Beverley, East Yorkshire. At this point, the car is recorded as a “Tourer” with the note “This machine has been built up from spare parts by licensee”. It looks like the car was again only in use for a couple of years in the Forties as the last logbook Road Tax stamp is for November ’49.

The car was then acquired by the previous owner and remained in his hands for several decades. It is not known when the body was removed from the chassis, nor when the chassis was shortened. The current owner purchased the non-running, part-assembled rolling chassis in 2010 at auction and set about restoration works to get the engine rebuilt and running and the rolling chassis mobile.