Geoffrey Taylors firm Atla had his best period before the Second World War. In the year 1928, Taylor began building sportcars for trials in his fathers stables. At first sight, it wasn't anything special, but the interesting part of it was that he made his own engines. And those were even very good. The engines had an engine block made of aluminium and a cylinder head with upper camshafts. The engines had cylinder capacities from 1074 to 1961 cc. The last one was equipped with a Rootes-compressor and could provide 180 km/h as a minimum. During the Second World War, the little factory built parts for the aircraft industry and went back to the car market in 1947. Alta built sport- and racecars and models whom where meant for both purposes. There was even built a formule one-car with a home-made engine. The car never drove on a circuit, but the engine was responsible for the first English GP-triumph since 1920. When the engine was built in a Connaught in 1955, the factory however was already closed for a year. ©VEA
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