The story
Pre WWI
The company was started in 1903 as Lee Stroyer, a joint venture by Jens Stroyer and Horace Pelham Lee, a former Daimler employee, who saw an opportunity in the nascent internal combustion engine market. In 1905, following the departure of Stroyer, it was relocated to Paynes Lane, Coventry, and renamed as Coventry Simplex by Lee.
An early user was GWK, who produced over 1,000 light cars with Coventry-Simplex two-cylinder engines between 1911 and 1915. Just before the First World War, a Coventry-Simplex engine was used by Lionel Martin to power the first Aston Martin car. Ernest Shackleton selected Coventry-Simplex to power the tractors that were to be used in his Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914.
Hundreds of Coventry-Simplex engines were manufactured during the First World War to be used in generator sets for searchlights.
Post WWI
In 1919, Pelham Lee acquired an existing company, Johnson & Smith Ltd, and changed its name to Coventry Climax Engines Ltd with premises at East Street, Coventry. (Coventry Simplex continued under separate management).
Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, the company supplied engines to many companies manufacturing light cars such as Abbey, AJS, Albatross, Ashton-Evans, Bayliss-Thomas, Clyno, Crossley, Crouch, GWK, Marendaz, Morgan, Triumph, Swift, Standard, and Waverley Cars of London. In the early 1930s, the company also supplied engines for buses, and in 1935 supplied the 'L' engine to David Brown tractors for the 550 Model A, being a collaborative venture with Ferguson. In the 1920s, the company moved to Friars Road, Coventry, and in the late 1930s, they also acquired the former Riley premises on Widdrington Road, Coventry.
With the closure of Swift in 1931, the company was left with a stock of engines that were converted to drive electric generators, a field in which they had experience from building WW1 searchlight generators. They also started to make engine driven pumps, and mounted on a trailer as a mobile fire fighting appliance this was to be a great success. The economic problems of the 1930s hit the business hard, and Leonard Pelham Lee, who had taken over from his father, created a separate division of the company for the fire pumps. While the motor car engine business suffered during the recession, the mobile fire pump division of Coventry Climax became a great success, particularly during the late 1930s and this continued during the war.
Another diversification was into commercial vehicle engines. This started in 1929 with the launch of a large (5.8 litre) six-cylinder side-valve petrol engine intended for buses and trucks, and was followed in 1931 by a six-cylindered 6.8 litre petrol engine of inlet over exhaust (IOE) design, and a 4-cylinder engine in 1932. In 1934 Commercial Motor referred to the 'popular Coventry Climax engines' as the six-cylindered L6 and the four-cylindered B4 – the latter being of 'especially modern design with wet liners'. Examples of vehicles using the engines include the 1932 Karrier Bantam refuse truck, and the 1935 Gilford Motors CF176 coach.
Going into the war, Coventry Climax used their marine diesel experience to further develop and build the Armstrong Whitworth supercharged H30 multifuel engine for military use. This has been fitted as an auxiliary engine in the British Chieftain and Challenger battle tanks and Rapier anti-aircraft missile systems.
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Post WWII
In the late 1940s, the company shifted away from automobile engines and into other markets, including marine diesels, and forklift trucks – plus continuing to make their very successful fire pumps. In 1946, the ET199 forklift was announced, which the company claimed was the first British-produced forklift truck. The ET199 was designed to carry a 4,000 lb (1,800 kg) load with a 24-inch (610 mm) load centre, and with a 9 ft (2.7 m) lift height.
In 1950, Harry Mundy joined Coventry Climax, and a new lightweight all-aluminium overhead camshaft engine was developed in response to the government's ambitious requisition outline asking for a portable fire pump that was capable of pumping double the amount of water specified in the previous outline, with half the weight.
This was designated the FW for "Feather Weight". The engine was displayed at the Motor Show in London and attracted attention from the motor racing fraternity for its very high "horsepower per pound of weight". With strong persuasions at the show, including those by Cyril Kieft (who had Stirling Moss as an F3 driver) and a young Colin Chapman, Lee concluded that success in competition could lead to more customers for the company, and so the team designed the FWA, a Feather Weight engine for Automobiles.
The first Coventry Climax racing engine appeared at the 1954 24 Hours of Le Mans in the front of one of two Kieft 1100 sports racers, but both cars (one with an MG engine) failed to finish the race due to problems unrelated to the engines. The FWA became popular in sportscar racing and was followed by the Mark II and then by the FWB, which had a capacity of nearly 1.5-litres. The new Formula Two regulations suited the 1.5-litre engine, and it quickly became the engine to have in F2 racing. By 1957, the first Climax engines began to appear in Formula One in the back of Cooper chassis.
Initially, these were FWBs, but the FPF engine followed. Stirling Moss scored the company's first Formula One victory in Argentina in 1958, using a 2-litre version of the engine. In general terms, however, the engines were not powerful enough to compete with the 2.5-litre machinery, and it was not until the 2.5-litre version of the FPF arrived in 1959 that Jack Brabham was able to win the world championship in a Cooper-Climax. At the same time, the company produced the FWE engine for the Lotus Elite, and this enjoyed considerable success in sports car racing, with a series of class wins at the Le Mans events in the early 1960s.
In 1961, there was a new 1.5-litre formula, and the FPF engine was given a new lease on life, although the company began work on a V8 engine, designated the FWMV, and this became competitive in 1962 predominantly in Lotus, Cooper, Brabham, and Lola chassis, with Jim Clark's Lotus outstandingly the most successful. There were a total of 22 Grand Prix victories before 1966 with crossplane, flat-plane, two- and four-valve versions of the FWMV. When the new, 3-litre, formula was introduced, Coventry Climax decided not to build engines for the new formula and withdrew from racing after the unsuccessful FWMW project, with the exception of the new 2-Litre version of the FWMV.
Also, in the early 1960s, Coventry Climax was approached by Rootes to mass-produce FWMAs for use in a compact family car project called Apex with an all-aluminium alloy overhead cam engine combined with a full-synchromesh aluminium transaxle. This combination was considered very radical at the time, especially the synchromesh on all forward gears, which had been declared 'impossible' by Alec Issigonis of BMC Mini fame. The adoption to mass-production was successful, and the project came out to the market as the 875cc Hillman Imp totaling over 400,000 units made by 1976, including the later 998cc version.
Final years
At Earls Court in 1962, Coventry Climax chairman, Leonard Pelham Lee announced the withdrawal from building Formula 1 engines, stating that the company was losing money and not gaining enough publicity from their involvement. Nonetheless, Coventry Climax remained in Formula One until they were unable to come up with a new engine for the three-litre formula. The company was purchased by Jaguar Cars in 1963, which itself merged with the British Motor Corporation (BMC) in 1966 to form British Motor Holdings (BMH).
In May 1964, the Royal Automobile Club presented the Dewar Trophy, which is given at the recommendation of RAC's Technical and Engineering Committee for the most outstanding British achievement in the automotive field, to Leonard Pelham Lee. The citation reads: "Awarded to Coventry Climax Engines Ltd. for the design, development, and production of engines which have brought British cars to the forefront in the field of Grand Prix racing." The history of this trophy dates back to 1906. The last time the Dewar Trophy was awarded before 1964, the recipient was Alec Issigonis for British Motor Corporation (BMC) in 1959 on the design and production of the ADO15 Mini.
BMH merged with the Leyland Motor Corporation in 1968 to form the British Leyland Motor Corporation, which was then nationalised in 1975 as British Leyland (BL). Coventry Climax became part of the British Leyland Special Products Division, alongside Alvis, Aveling-Barford, and others. At the end of 1978, BL brought together Coventry Climax Limited, Leyland Vehicles Limited (trucks, buses, and tractors), Alvis Limited (military vehicles), and Self-Changing Gears Limited (heavy-duty transmissions) into a new group called BL Commercial Vehicles (BLCV) under managing director David Abell.
In the early 1970s, the fire pump business was sold back into private ownership, and the Godiva Fire Pumps company was formed in Warwick. In 1977 Coventry Climax acquired the Warrington forklift truck business of Rubery Owen Conveyancer, renaming it Climax Conveyancer.
In 1982 BL sold off the Coventry Climax forklift truck business back into private ownership to Coventry Climax Holdings Limited. Sir Emmanuel Kaye, also chairman and a major shareholder of Lansing Bagnall at the time, formed the company, independent of his other interests for the purpose of acquiring Coventry Climax.
In 1986 Coventry Climax went into receivership and was acquired by Cronin Tubular. In 1990, a further change of ownership came with the engine business being sold to Horstman Defence Systems of Bath, Somerset, thus breaking the link with Coventry.
Kalmar Industries acquired the forklift truck interests of Coventry Climax in 1985. The company traded as "Kalmar Climax" for a few years but is now trading as Kalmar Industries Ltd. The 'Coventry Climax logo trademark is the property of Canadian Peter Schömer, based in Chichester.
From Wikipedia’s article on Coventry Climax, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3