Coventry Climax
Coventry Climax was a British forklift truck manufacturers, fire pumps as well as specialty and racing engines.
- 2.1 Type OC and JM
- 2.2 The FW series
- 2.3 FPE ( " Godiva " )
- 2.4 Flat -16 FWMW
History
1903 founded Pelham Lee, who had previously worked for the Daimler Motor Company, a company for internal combustion engines, the company Lee - Stroyer. Originally in partnership with Mr. Stroyer, but in 1905 retired again. Lee then led the small company alone and moved to the Paynes Lane to Coventry. He named the company is now Coventry - Simplex. One of the first customers was the company GWK, the fitting out with the two-cylinder engines from 1911 to 1915 over 1000 cars. Immediately prior to the First World War, Lionel Martin used a Coventry - Simplex engine for the first Aston Martin. Ernest Shackleton also used these motors to drive the tractors in its first Antarctic expedition of 1914.
During the First World War, hundreds of engines were used as generators for searchlight. 1917, the company moved to the East Street and changed the name to Coventry Climax. In the 1920s, the company moved to the Friars Road. End of the 1930s, business was good, you could buy the former Riley terrain in the Widdrington Road.
During the 1920s and 1930s many small-car manufacturer customers of Coventry Climax were:
- Abbey
- A.J.S.
- Albatross
- Ashton -Evans
- Bayliss -Thomas
- Clyno
- Crossley Brothers
- Crouch Cars
- G.W.K.
- Marendaz |
- Marseel / marSeal
- Morgan Motor Company
- Standard Motor Company
- Swift Motor Company
- Triumph Motor Company
- Vale Motor Company
Beginning of the 30s even buses with engines were fitted.
When Swift was closed in 1931, Climax remained on a lot of engines sitting. These were converted to electricity generators, which the company opened an entirely new field of business. This led to the development of the fire pumps. Especially the type " Godiva " was during the Second World War, much in use.
After the Second World War
After the Second World War, new customers came:
In the late 40 - es, the company shifted its focus from car engines in other markets. We developed diesel engines for marine, pumps and forklifts. 1946 was presented with the ET199 the first British forklift. He could (4000 lb) (9 ft) high lift .. In 1950 Walter Hassan, formerly with Jaguar and Bentley to Coventry - Climax. In the same year, the FW engine was (FW stands Feather Weight, Featherweight ) presented an engine with overhead camshaft. With the experience of automotive engines and marine engines H30 diesel engine was developed, a multi-function engine for the military sector. He was inducted into the Chieftain and Challenger 1 battle tanks as an auxiliary motor, as well as for the Rapier air defense system.
In 1963 the company was bought by Jaguar, but in 1966 merged with the British Motor Corporation ( BMC) to form British Motor Holdings ( BMH ). BMH in turn was merged with Leyland Motors in 1968 to British Leyland Motor Corporation. The was nationalized in 1975 as British Leyland (BL). Coventry Climax was now part of the Department of Special Products of British Leyland - along with well-known names such as Alvis Vickers Ltd, Aveling Barford, and some others. The end of 1978 founded BL BL Commercial Vehicles ( BLCV ) from Coventry Climax Limited ( engines), Leyland Vehicles Limited ( trucks, buses and tractors), Alvis Limited ( military vehicles) and Self -Changing Gears Limited (gear ), with David Abell as Director.
In the early 70s the area fire department pumper had been sold to investors, who thus founded the company Godiva Fire Pumps in Warwick. 1977 Coventry Climax bought the forklift division of Rubery Owen Conveyancer and called himself now Climax Conveyancer 1982 BL sold the forklift division of Coventry Climax to a private investor, the Coventry Climax Holdings Limited. Sir Emmanuel Kaye his time chairman and largest shareholder of Lansing Bagnall founded the company to take over Coventry Climax all.
1986 Coventry Climax went bankrupt and was bought by Cronin Tubular. The next owner came in 1990 with Horstman Defence Systems of Bath, who bought the engine area. The company went for the first time away from Coventry. The Department forklift was purchased in the late 1980s by Kalmar Industries (part of Cargotec ), which then renamed itself in Kalmar Climax.
Motors
Type OC and JM
The type of OC was a 1122 cc 4- cylinder engine with a bore of 63 mm and a stroke of 90 mm, with overhead inlet and side exhaust valves, he produced 34 hp. He came at the beginning of the 30s on the market. A license for the construction was awarded also to triumph. The six-cylinder version with 1476 cc JM developed 42 hp.
The FW series
The Type FW had a displacement of 1020 cm ³ and delivered 38 hp. The designers Walter Hassan and Harry Mundy had designed the engine for mobile fire department pumper.
In 1953 he was converted for racing cars. The racing version of FWA had ³ 71 cm PS/1097. The first use was at Kieft at Le Mans in 1954.
The version FWB had a larger bore and longer stroke and so came to 1460 cc and 108 hp.
The most important development was the version FWE, a combination of the bore from the Frankfurt Stock Exchange and the stroke of the FWA. Actually built for the Lotus Elite, it became the favorite of many racing stables.
The FWMA was the successor to the FWC and was based on the model FWM the Navy. The car version FWMA had little success at Lotus, but revised by Rootes and was a lightweight engine for the Hillman Imp also built Bearcat in the U.S. FWB -based outboard motors. The Lotus - Climax cars with engines won several times the price for the best performance in the 24 - hour race at Le Mans.
The version FPF was a pure race development, a twin cam version (DOHC ) based on the FWB designs. He started as a 1.5 liter for Formula 2 and was slow to 2.0 liter engine developed for Formula 1. With this engine, Stirling Moss and Maurice Trintignant won for Cooper, the first two Grand Prix victories against the 2.5 liter competitors. Later, the engine also grew on the allowed 2.5 liters for Formula 1 and 2.7 liters for the Indy and the Tasman series. 1966 even a 3.0 liter version was used in Formula 1.
Another special version developed from the naval version was the FWMV, a Coventry Climax V8. He produced 174 hp and was used in some Lotus cars, including: Lotus 24, Lotus 25 and Lotus 33 Jim Clark With these cars won the Formula 1 season 1963 Formula 1 season 1965.
When Cooper was found in the engine Formula Junior Cooper T51- Climax.
FPE ( " Godiva " )
Climax built two remarkable engines that never saw a race. The first version was the V8 FPE ( " Godiva " ) it was intended for the Formula 1 1954 season, but was allegedly withdrawn for fear of Mercedes again. Paul Emery bought a Godiva and installed it after a increase in displacement to 3.0 liters of the race car Shannon SH-1, of a Formula 1 race under Trevor Taylor denied in 1966.
The machine also worked in a slightly different form in the Grand Prix cars of Kieft.
Flat 16 FWMW
Another never inserted engine was the flat -16 FWNW. The work on this was done during the last years of the formula 1,5 l with Lotus and Brabham, but a number of problems still existed, as the race series has ended. At this time the engine had shown little more than the well-known V8, and the problems actually required a complete reworking of the design. Although the engine to achieve higher speeds, but torque was weaker, and the consumption and weight were higher. This ultimately meant the end for this engine.
List of Formula 1 engines
Cars with Climax engines
Some notable cars with Climax engines: