"The Raleigh Safety Seven was a product of the venerable Raleigh Cycle Company of Nottingham, England, formed in the 19th century and growing rapidly to become the world's leading producer of bicycles. Management saw an opportunity to expand into the burgeoning three-wheeler market, and a two-plus-two passenger car was produced. The Raleigh was marketed as a car (hence the Seven for seven taxable horsepower, like the Austin Seven,) but was carefully designed to technically be a motorcycle. It was a Cyclecar, in the same category as the Morgan trike and several others, meaning it had fewer than four wheels and weighed less than 896 pounds. This meant one only paid half the punishing Road Tax applied to cars (one pound per taxable hp, when a weekly salary was three or four pounds.) One could take the family in car-like comfort, instead of a typical sidecar combination. The air-cooled flathead vee-twin, built by in-house engineers Sturmey-Archer, was built for low-end torque, and pulled steadily to a maximum of 55mph, a very respectable turn of speed in the thirties. The car performed well in trials and endurance competitions of the day. In 1935, Raleigh management made a decision to drop all powered vehicles and concentrate on bicycle production."