This article is about a low volume car manufacturer that survived by manufacturing military vehicles and aircraft engines. T.G. John founded a company in his name in 1919 as a supplier of engines and scooter style motorised bikes. He set up his company in Coventry in the UK, which was at the heart of the British industry. The following year John used a new four cylinder engine … [Read more...]
Austin Gipsy
I saw an old Austin Gipsy recently and it reminded me very much of a series 1 Land Rover or Willys Jeep. There is no mystery around that - they were all designed for a purpose. With the Willys Jeep and the Land Rover developed in the 1940s, the Austin Gipsy was a later entrant to the market - and was designed to be a direct competitor to the Land Rover as the Jeep (built by … [Read more...]
Triumph V8
This article discusses the famous, or possibly, infamous engine – the Triumph V8. During the 1960s, Triumph decided to build a ragtop based on the 2000 saloon. The original plan was to use the 2 and 2.5 litre engines that were available in the Triumph parts bin, however as development continued and the car morphed from being a convertible saloon into an open grand tourer - … [Read more...]
Triumph Cars
The Triumph name has been around for over a century and today it is only seen on motorbikes; however they have produced bicycles and cars, notably a range of sports cars. Triumph was originally founded in 1886 in Coventry by Siegfried Bettmann who had emigrated from Germany two years earlier and had set up an importation company bringing in bicycles and other items from … [Read more...]