Guy Motors

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Guy Motors Ltd
legal form Ltd.
founding 1914
resolution 1968
Seat United Kingdom
Branch Automotive industry

Guy Motors Ltd was a British vehicle manufacturer. The company produced cars , trucks , buses and trolley buses .

Company history

Aerial view of the plant in Fallings Park, Wolverhampton, 1920

The company was founded in 1914 by Sidney Slater Guy. Until then, Guy had been production manager at the nearby car manufacturer Sunbeam . The production buildings were built in Fallings Park , Wolverhampton . The first product of the new company was a light truck with a chassis made of a pressed steel frame. This construction resulted in considerable weight savings compared to the heavy rolled steel frame that had been used up to that point.

During the First World War , the company produced radial engines for aircraft , truck engines and, under license from Maudslay, vehicle transmissions . At the same time, the company became the largest manufacturer of fuses for ammunition.

After the end of the war, the company switched to the production of luxury automobiles. The first British V-8 engine was created based on a design by RH Rose, which had also come from Sunbeam. The engine had a displacement of 4.072 l and had side valves. About 25 of the vehicle were produced. In 1922, the product range was supplemented by a smaller vehicle with a four-cylinder engine with a displacement of 2.465 l and an output of 16.9  bhp . Both models were very expensive to buy, which reduced sales opportunities, especially for a new company entering the market. Therefore, from 1924 onwards, a cheaper model with an engine manufactured under license from Coventry Climax was produced. The engine had a displacement of 1.954 l. About 110 pieces of the small four-cylinder models were made. In order to expand the sales market, Guy bought the Star Motor Company in 1928 . However, it did not succeed in making the operation profitable, so Star was closed in 1932.

Guy Arab III, built in 1954

From the mid-1930s, the company benefited from government armaments programs. Guy designed and manufactured military vehicles. During the Second World War , however, the company mainly built buses. As a result of the war, sales of cars fell, which led to a higher demand for buses. Guy was able to produce more than 2000 chassis for double-decker buses between 1942 and 1945  . Bus manufacturing remained Guy’s main business in the decades that followed, with the company exporting a large part of its production. The main sales markets were South Africa , Pakistan and the Netherlands . However, expensive research and development work could not be converted into a corresponding corporate profit. Although Guy also resumed heavy truck production after the war, the company found itself in financial trouble during the 1950s, leading to the appointment of a bankruptcy administrator at the end of the decade. In particular, the high development costs of the Guy Wulfrunian with its unusual engine arrangement at the front, of which only 137 units could be sold, had contributed to the difficult situation. The company's founder, Sidney Guy, had retired in 1957.

The business was bought by Jaguar in 1961 . The company name was changed to Guy Motors (Europe) Ltd , but the company was returned to its old company in 1966 when Jaguar became part of British Motor Holdings . The production of buses ended in 1964. In the same year Guy had completed the development of a new generation of heavy trucks. For installing a V-6 engine from Cummins designed the intended for fast freeway traffic models were as Big J known.

In 1968 British Motor Holdings and Leyland Motor Corporation merged to form British Leyland Motor Corporation . The production in Wolverhampton was initially continued, but the sales figures continued to decline both on the domestic and on the export markets. Therefore, Guy produced tractor by Scammell , better use of the factory. In 1978 the plant was finally closed.

Some of the products were sold by Leyland under its own name, for example the Leyland Victory Mk 2 bus, which was based on the Victory J chassis from Guy. Although no bus with the characteristic Indian head as a hood ornament had left the factory halls since 1964, the Victory 2 could be clearly identified as a development by Guy based on the G cast on the gas pedal . The J-series trucks were manufactured until 1978 and also sold under the Leyland name. Since Leyland had many similar models in its range due to the numerous takeovers and mergers, production was discontinued in favor of other types.

Models

Car

  • 20 hp, 1919-1923, V-8
  • 16.9 hp, 1922-1924, V-4
  • 13/36, 1924-1925, V-4 Coventry Climax

Buses / trolley buses

  • B series - three-axle double-decker buses / trolley buses, cab-over-engine vehicles and long-nosed vehicles
  • C series - three-axle double-decker buses / trolleybuses, cab-over-engine and long-nosed vehicles
  • Arab Mk I / II / III / IV / V - double-decker bus with engine in front
  • Arab UF / LUF - single-decker bus with underfloor engine
  • Wolf - single-decker bus with engine in front, short-nosed / long-nosed
  • Vixen - single-decker bus with engine in front, short-nosed / long-nosed
  • Warrior UF - single decker bus with underfloor engine
  • Warrior Trambus - single-decker bus with engine in front
  • Wulfrunian - double decker bus with engine in front
  • Victory UF - single decker bus with underfloor motor
  • Victory J - single deck bus with engine in the front

Trucks and special vehicles

  • Guy Armored Car - armored reconnaissance vehicle
  • Lizard - armored command vehicle
  • Wolf - light truck, cab-over-engine and short-nosed truck
  • Vixen - light truck, cab-over-engine and short-nosed truck
  • Otter - light truck, cab and short-nosed truck
  • Ant - truck 0.75 t, 4 × 2, transport truck and radio car, further developed from Vixen / Otter
  • Quad-Ant - 0.75 t 4 × 4 truck , artillery tractor and transport truck
  • Warrior - three-axle heavy truck and two-axle tractor unit, cab-over-engine and short-nosed truck
  • Invincible - heavy truck, two-, three- and four-axle, cab-over-engine and short-nosed vehicles
  • J series (Big J)

Web links

Commons : Guy Motors  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ History of Guy Motors Ltd, Wolverhampton . Jaguar Enthusiasts' Club. Archived from the original on June 25, 2009. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved December 1, 2008. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.jaguar-enthusiasts.org.uk
  2. Alec Brew: Sunbeam Aero-Engines . Airlife, 1998, ISBN 1-84037-023-8 .
  3. a b c d e A Alan Townsin: The BMH group's Big 'Uns: Daimler and Guy in: Autocar , Issue 127 No. 3730 of August 10, 1967, pages 73/74
  4. ^ Charles Bulmer (editor): Obituary: Sidney Guy in: Motor, October 9, 1971, p. 57
  5. Guy Motors, the Big J, and Leyland . Jaguar Enthusiasts' Club. Archived from the original on June 25, 2009. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved December 1, 2008. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.jaguar-enthusiasts.org.uk