Pilot Works and Friction Cars, Ltd. was a short lived British automobile company that produced cars from 1911 to 1912. The first and final Pilot automobiles were made by its holding company Motor Schools Limited between 1909 and 1911, and again in 1914. [1]
The company was started by Turberville Smith of London. [2] Smith had originally formed Motor Schools Limited, a driving and maintenance school. The first Pilot automobile was a motorcab was made by the driving school between 1909 and 1911. [1] [3]
As a side note. Motor Schools Limited also taught Aviation under Mr T W K Clarke, aeronautical engineer, an aviation pioneer, and founder of the first aeronautical engineering works in Britain. [4] [5]
In 1909, Motor School Ltd displayed two cars at the Olympia Motor Show. One was a chassis with a 4-cylinder White and Poppe engine of 16 hp (12 kW) for £275 and the other a landaulot mounted on the same type of chassis for £425. [6] The following year they displayed another 4-cylinder car, this one with a Hillman engine and belt and cone-pulley drive. Both of these were probably the only cars produced with these specifications. [1]
In 1911 Pilot Cars Ltd was formed to produce a smaller car. This had a Coventry-Simplex single-cylinder engine of only 7 hp (5.2 kW), in addition to friction drive. [1] In 1912–1914, yet another engine was employed in their cars — a Chapuis-Dornier 4-cylinder of 10 hp (7.5 kW). This two-seater car also used a friction drive. It was shown at the 1912 and 1913 Olympia Motor Shows. [7] [8] This appears to be the last car produced with Pilot Cars Ltd having been placed in liquidation in 1912. [1] [9]
There was a new company formed in March 1914 called Pilot Cars and Motor Schools Ltd. According to Graces Guide this was formed out of a merger of Motor School Ltd and Friction Cars Ltd. [10] This company was deleted from the companies register in 1916. [11]
Clément-Bayard, Bayard-Clément, was a French manufacturer of automobiles, aeroplanes and airships founded in 1903 by entrepreneur Gustave Adolphe Clément. Clément obtained consent from the Conseil d'Etat to change his name to that of his business in 1909. The extra name celebrated the Chevalier Pierre Terrail, seigneur de Bayard who saved the town of Mézières in 1521. A statue of the Chevalier stood in front of Clément's Mézières factory, and the image was incorporated into the company logo.
L'Aster, Aster, Ateliers de Construction Mecanique l'Aster, was a French manufacturer of automobiles and the leading supplier of engines to other manufacturers from the late 1890s until circa 1910/12. Although primarily known as an engine mass manufacturer the company also produced chassis for coach-works and a complete range of components.
Sunbeam Motor Car Company Limited was a British automobile manufacturer in operation between 1905 and 1934. Its works were at Moorfields in Blakenhall, a suburb of Wolverhampton in Staffordshire, now West Midlands. The Sunbeam name had originally been registered by John Marston in 1888 for his bicycle manufacturing business. Sunbeam motor car manufacture began in 1901. The motor business was sold to a newly incorporated Sunbeam Motor Car Company Limited in 1905 to separate it from Marston's pedal bicycle business; Sunbeam motorcycles were not made until 1912.
Singer Motors Limited was a British motor vehicle manufacturing business, originally a bicycle manufacturer founded as Singer & Co by George Singer, in 1874 in Coventry, England. Singer & Co's bicycle manufacture continued. From 1901 George Singer's Singer Motor Co made cars and commercial vehicles.
The Lanchester Motor Company Limited was a British car manufacturer in active trade between 1899 and 1955. Though the Lanchester Motor Company Limited is still registered as an active company and accounts are filed each year, the marque has been dormant since. As of 2014 it is marked as "non-trading".
Wolseley Motors Limited was a British motor vehicle manufacturer founded in early 1901 by the Vickers Armaments in conjunction with Herbert Austin. It initially made a full range, topped by large luxury cars, and dominated the market in the Edwardian era. The Vickers brothers died and, without their guidance, Wolseley expanded rapidly after the war, manufacturing 12,000 cars in 1921, and remained the biggest motor manufacturer in Britain.
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Sheffield-Simplex was a British car and motorcycle manufacturer operating from 1907 to 1920 based in Sheffield, Yorkshire, and Kingston upon Thames, Surrey.
Straker-Squire was a British automobile manufacturer based in Bristol, and later Edmonton in North London.
Hatfield Motor Vehicle Company was a pioneer brass era American automobile company, built in Miamisburg, Ohio, in 1907 and 1908.
The Rover 12 was a name given to several medium-sized family cars from the British Rover car company between 1905 and 1948.
Bradbury Motor Cycles was a British motorcycle manufacturer based in Oldham, England and established in 1902. Originally involved in the manufacture of machine tools, sewing machines and cycles, their first motorcycles were bicycles with clip-on Minerva engines. The Bradbury factory went on to develop and produce a range of single-cylinder motorcycle, V-twins and horizontally opposed twins. The 1912 Bradbury motorcycles were one of the earliest with variable gearing. Although the factory survived the First World War it closed in 1924.
The Austin 40 hp is a 4-cylinder motor car launched at the Olympia Motor Show in November 1907. Manufactured by Austin at Longbridge, Northfield, Birmingham, it was the first variant from Austin's initial plans for a two model range of a 15 hp —which they had dropped—and a 25 hp car.
The Austin 15 hp is a 2.8-litre motor car manufactured by the British manufacturer Austin and first displayed at the seventh exhibition of motor vehicles which opened at London's Olympia in November 1908. Its tax rating was 20 horsepower. It was sold between 1908 and 1915.
Iris was a British car brand that was manufactured from 1906 to 1925 by Legros & Knowles Ltd in Willesden, London and Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire.
Automobiles Darracq France was a manufacturer of motor vehicles and aero engines in Suresnes, near Paris. The enterprise, known at first as A Darracq et Cie, was founded in 1896 by successful businessman Alexandre Darracq.
F. E. Baker Ltd was a British motorcycle engine and cyclecar engine manufacturer based in the Precision Works, Moorsom Street, Birmingham, England. Founded in 1906 by Frank Edward Baker, the company produced motorcycle engines under the Precision trademark until 1919. Precision engines were used by a wide range of motorcycle manufacturers in the United Kingdom and in other parts of the Commonwealth and were also used in cyclecars. Many manufacturers used the 'Precision' trademark as part of their model names, and in 1912 there was a 'Precision' motorcycle sold in Australia, but it is unclear if this was manufactured by F. E. Baker or just permitted use of the trademark by a motorcycle manufacturer.
Arthur William Wall was an engineer in the field of motorised transport and inventor of the self-powered wheel in England in the early 20th century. He is best known for his creation of the self-powered wheel, the Wall Autowheel, which could be used to power a bicycle, but he was also the man behind Roc motorcycles and a tricar and four-wheel cyclecar. His main company was A. W. Wall Ltd, but he created several other companies to compartmentalise his different activities, such as the Roc Gear Co, who supplied epicyclic gears to a significant number of manufacturers before WW1.
The Mason was a Brass Era automobile manufactured in Des Moines, Iowa from 1906 to 1909 and Waterloo, Iowa from 1911 to 1914. In 1909 and 1910 it was marketed as the Maytag-Mason.
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