Universal Power Drives was a British truck manufacturer which branded its trucks with the Unipower marque.
Universal Power Drives was a British truck manufacturer which branded its trucks with the Unipower marque.
Universal Power Drives was founded in 1934 with a factory in Perivale and its head office in Aldwych, London. During the 1930s, 40s and 50s it specialised in producing 4x4 forestry logging trucks. In 1972 it launched the 4x4 Unipower Invader suited to fire-fighting and construction use.
Todd Motors in New Zealand produced the TS3 Commer Truck, in the early 1970s, with a Unipower tandem drive assembly as a factory option.
In January 1966 they exhibited a sports car, the Unipower GT at the Racing Car Show. Another car they produced was the Quasar-Unipower which was built in 1967 and 1968.
In 1977 the company was acquired by Caterpillar Inc and production was moved to Thames Ditton, Surrey.
In 1988 the company started a new enterprise in Watford to provide continuity of support for Scammell trucks following the closure of the Leyland DAF (formerly British Leyland) owned Scammell plant that year. [1]
In the 1980s it launched the C-series heavy-haulage tractor and a range of military trucks.
Alvis plc acquired the company in 1994 and named their new subsidiary Alvis Unipower Limited, the trucks began to be branded as Alvis-Unipower.
Following their elimination from the bidding process for the UK Ministry of Defence's Heavy Equipment Transporter (HET) project, Alvis announced their intention to seek a new owner for Alvis Unipower. [2]
Land Rover is a British brand of predominantly four-wheel drive, off-road capable vehicles, that is owned by multinational car manufacturer Jaguar Land Rover (JLR), since 2008 a subsidiary of India's Tata Motors. JLR currently builds Land Rovers in Brazil, China, India, Slovakia, and the United Kingdom. The Land Rover name was created in 1948 by the Rover Company for a utilitarian 4WD off-roader; yet today Land Rover vehicles comprise solely upmarket and luxury sport utility cars.
DAF Trucks is a Dutch truck manufacturing company and a division of Paccar. Its headquarters and main plant are in Eindhoven. Cabs and axle assemblies are produced at its Westerlo plant in Belgium. Some of the truck models sold with the DAF brand are designed and built by Leyland Trucks at its Leyland plant in England.
The automotive industry in the United Kingdom is now best known for premium and sports car marques including Aston Martin, Bentley, Caterham Cars, Daimler, Jaguar, Lagonda, Land Rover, Lister Cars, Lotus, McLaren, MG, Mini, Morgan and Rolls-Royce. Volume car manufacturers with a major presence in the UK include Honda, Nissan, Toyota and Vauxhall Motors. Commercial vehicle manufacturers active in the UK include Alexander Dennis, Ford, IBC Vehicles, Leyland Trucks and London Electric Vehicle Company.
The Rover Company Limited was a British car manufacturing company that operated from its base in Solihull in Warwickshire. Its lasting reputation for quality and performance was such that its first postwar model reviewed by Road & Track in 1952 was pronounced finer than any but a Rolls-Royce. Rover also manufactured the Land Rover from 1948 onwards, which spawned the Range Rover in 1970, and went on to become its most successful and profitable product — with Land Rover eventually becoming a separate company and brand in its own right.
The Austin Motor Company Limited was a British manufacturer of motor vehicles, founded in 1905 by Herbert Austin. In 1952 it was merged with Morris Motors Limited in the new holding company British Motor Corporation (BMC) Limited, keeping its separate identity. The marque Austin was used until 1987. The trademark is currently owned by the Chinese firm SAIC Motor, after being transferred from bankrupt subsidiary Nanjing Automotive which had acquired it with MG Rover Group in July 2005.
British Leyland was an automotive engineering and manufacturing conglomerate formed in the United Kingdom in 1968 as British Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd (BLMC), following the merger of Leyland Motors and British Motor Holdings. It was partly nationalised in 1975, when the UK government created a holding company called British Leyland, later renamed BL in 1978. It incorporated much of the British-owned motor vehicle industry, which in 1968 had a 40 percent share of the UK car market, with its history going back to 1895.
The Rover Group plc was the British vehicle manufacturing conglomerate known as "BL plc" until 1986, which had been a state-owned company since 1975. It initially included the Austin Rover Group car business, Land Rover Group, Freight Rover vans and Leyland Trucks. The Rover Group also owned the dormant trademarks from the many companies that had merged into British Leyland and its predecessors such as Triumph, Morris, Wolseley, Riley and Alvis.
PACCAR Inc is an American Fortune 500 company and counts among the largest manufacturers of medium- and heavy-duty trucks in the world. PACCAR is engaged in the design, manufacture and customer support of light-, medium- and heavy-duty trucks under the Kenworth, Peterbilt, Leyland Trucks, and DAF nameplates. PACCAR also designs and manufactures powertrains, provides financial services and information technology, and distributes truck parts related to its principal business.
Leyland Motors Limited was a British vehicle manufacturer of lorries, buses and trolleybuses. The company diversified into car manufacturing with its acquisitions of Triumph and Rover in 1960 and 1967, respectively. It gave its name to the British Leyland Motor Corporation, formed when it merged with British Motor Holdings in 1968, to become British Leyland after being nationalised. British Leyland later changed its name to simply BL, then in 1986 to Rover Group.
The Austin Rover Group was a British motor manufacturer. It was created in 1982 as the mass-market car manufacturing subsidiary of British Leyland (BL). Previously, this entity had been known as BL Cars Ltd which encompassed the Austin-Morris and Jaguar-Rover-Triumph divisions of British Leyland. After a major restructuring of BL's car manufacturing operations, Jaguar regained its independence whilst the Triumph and Morris marques were retired. The new, leaner car business was rechristened as the Austin Rover Group and focused primarily on the Austin and Rover marques. The Morris and Triumph marques continued briefly within ARG until 1984 when both were dropped.
Alvis Car and Engineering Company Ltd was a British manufacturing company in Coventry from 1919 to 1967. In addition to automobiles designed for the civilian market, the company also produced racing cars, aircraft engines, armoured cars and other armoured fighting vehicles.
Ashok Leyland is an Indian automobile company headquartered in Chennai, India. It is owned by the Hinduja Group.
Associated Equipment Company (AEC) was a British vehicle manufacturer that built buses, motorcoaches and trucks from 1912 until 1979. The name Associated Equipment Company was hardly ever used; instead it traded under the AEC and ACLO brands.
Thornycroft was an English vehicle manufacturer which built coaches, buses, and trucks from 1896 until 1977.
Albion Motors was a Scottish automobile and commercial vehicle manufacturer.
Scammell Lorries Limited was a British manufacturer of trucks, particularly specialist and military off-highway vehicles, between 1921 and 1988.
Bedford Vehicles, usually shortened to just Bedford, was a brand of vehicle manufactured by Vauxhall Motors, then a subsidiary of multinational corporation General Motors. Established in April 1931 and constructing commercial vehicles, Bedford Vehicles was a leading international lorry brand, with substantial export sales of light, medium, and heavy lorries throughout the world.
The Unipower GT is a British specialist sports car that debuted at the January 1966 Racing Car Show. It uses the powertrain from the BMC Mini mounted amidships. Production lasted until 1969.
Leyland Trucks is a medium- and heavy-duty truck manufacturer based in Leyland, Lancashire, England. It can trace its origins back to the original Leyland Motors, which was founded in 1896, and subsequently evolved into British Leyland. After British Leyland became the Rover Group in February 1986, the truck business was spun out and merged with DAF Trucks to form DAF NV, operating as Leyland DAF in the United Kingdom.
Land Rover Group (LRG) was a division of British Leyland (BL) and later the Rover Group that was in existence between 1981 and 1987. LRG brought British Leyland's light commercial vehicle production under one management, consisting of the Land Rover utility 4x4 range, the Range Rover luxury 4x4 and the former Leyland Sherpa van range. LRG operated two factories in the Birmingham area- the Solihull plant and the Freight Rover plant at Washwood Heath.
 | Wikimedia Commons has media related to Unipower vehicles . |