The HRG Engineering Company was founded in 1936 by Major Edward Halford, Guy Robins and Henry Ronald Godfrey, and took its name from the first letters of their surnames. Godfrey had previously been one of the founders of GN, the cyclecar maker.
HRG’s cars, built at Tolworth in Surrey, were traditional, stiffly sprung two-seaters with strong performance for their size, powered by Meadows and then Singer engines. The main models were the 1100, of which 49 were built between 1938 and 1950, and the 1500, built from 1939 to 1956, of which 111 were made. After the war HRG also built 45 of the streamlined Aerodynamic.
HRGs did well in trials, rallies and races, and in 1949 Eric Thompson and Jack Fairman won the 1.5-litre class at Le Mans in one. Car production ended in 1956 after just 241 cars, though the company carried on as an engineering business until it ceased trading in 1966.
