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Origins of the Invicta Name

Edmund Spenser’s Poem

The origins of the Invicta name dates to the White Knight of Edmund Spenser’s 16th Century allegorical epic romance “The Faerie Queen”.  The poem celebrates and memorializes the Tudor dynasty (of which Elizabeth I was a part), much in the tradition of the Aeneid's celebration of Augustus Caesar's Rome.  The poem is deeply allegorical and allusive--many prominent Elizabethans could have found themselves--or one another--partially represented by one or more of Spenser's figures.  Elizabeth herself is the best example--she appears most prominently in her guise as Gloriana, the Faerie Queene herself; but also in Books III and IV as the virgin Belphoebe, daughter of Venus and twin to Amoret, the embodiment of womanly married love; and perhaps also, more critically, in Book I as Lucifera, the "maiden queen" whose brightly-lit Court of Pride masks a dungeon full of prisoners.

The poem found political favor with Elizabeth I and was consequently very successful, to the extent of far overshadowing Spenser's other poetry.  A measure of the favor which the poem found with the monarch is that Spenser was granted a pension for life on account of it (50 pounds a year).

The British Invicta

Invicta cars were made in Cobham, Surrey, England from 1925 to 1933, then in Chelsea, London, England from 1933 to 1938 and finally in Virginia Water, Surrey, England from 1946 to 1950.

The company was founded by Noel Macklin with Oliver Lyle of the sugar family providing finance, with assembly taking place in Macklin's garage at his home at Fairmile, Cobham, Surrey.  Macklin also was determined that the car should offer European standards of roadholding and handling, while matching the best of American cars for strength of construction and engine power.

The cars were designed to combine flexibility, the ability to accelerate from virtual standstill in top gear, with sporting performance.  The car’s enormous torque (pulling power) demanded little or no gear-changing.  Although supplied with a 4-speed gearbox, most Invicta owners were expected to use just first and top--such was the flexibility of the engine.

Sporting success came with Invictas driven by Violet Cordery, who was Noel Macklin's sister in law, and gained the Dewar Trophy for reliability in 1929 and 1931, Sammy Davis, who had a spectacular accident in one at Brooklands in 1931 and Donald Healey who in 1930 gained a class win and in 1931 a first in the Monte Carlo Rally.

The Buick Invicta

The Buick Invicta was a full-sized automobile produced by Buick Motors Division from 1959 to 1964.  The Invicta was a continuation of the Buick Century concept that mated the standard size Buick LeSabre (pre-1959 Buick Special) body with Buick's big block V-8 engine, yielding what was nicknamed the "banker's hotrod". 

Sales of the Invicta never reached the levels enjoyed by Buick with its Century models.  Various factors including changing demographics, the growing number of 2-car households, the introduction of the personal luxury Buick Riviera, to the public's inability to find meaning in the Invicta brand, have all been identified for the failure of Buick’s nameplate.  The fate of the Invicta certainly was sealed with the roll-out of the bucket seat Buick Wildcat in 1962.  Introduced as a full line of automobiles in 1959, by 1964 the Invicta was offered only as a full-size station wagon for its final year.

The New Invicta S1

In the early 2000’s, the Invicta car marquee was resurrected yet again, with a new company producing the Invicta S1, at a factory in Chippenham, Wiltshire, England.  The car is powered by a 4.6 litre Ford Mustang engine and features a carbon fibre body shell attached to a steel space frame chassis.  The Invicta S1 is the world's first car to feature a one-piece carbon-fibre bodyshell, and it is claimed to be capable of speeds in excess of 200 mph.