Maudslay Motor Company

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Maudslay from 1910
Maudslay from 1910

Maudslay was a British manufacturer of automobiles and commercial vehicles from Alcester near Coventry . Founded in 1902, production stopped in 1954 after the company became part of the Associated Commercial Vehicles Group in 1948 .

Company history

The origins of the company went to the 1833 founded Engineering Office Maudsley & Field back, which is in improving the Gurney - steam car had acquired some merit. The Maudsley family members were active in many fields of engineering. The Maudslay Motor Company was founded in 1902 , initially dedicated to the production of automobiles and delivery vans . In 1923 the production of cars was stopped; it is possible that isolated vehicles were created from existing components by the end of the 1920s. It seems that special bodies were made for other brands on the side, for example a Rolls-Royce 40/50 hp "Silver Ghost" from 1907 with a Maudslay wagonette structure (chassis no. 577), but the main focus was on the production of Trucks and chassis for buses . In the course of the reorganization of the British commercial vehicle industry as a result of the Transport Act 1947 , Maudslay was taken over by the Associated Equipment Company (AEC) in 1947 and merged with Crossley Motors and AEC to form the Associated Commercial Vehicles Group (ACV). However, production continued until 1954 under the established Maudslay brand .

Passenger cars

The first vehicle of the newly founded company was the Model 18 HP . The vehicle was powered by a water-cooled three - cylinder engine with 3.383 l displacement , which delivered an output of 18 bhp . In 1904 the engine capacity was increased to 4.828 l by increasing the stroke, which brought the engine output to 25 bhp. In the same year a six-cylinder model appeared, in which the original three-cylinder engine was practically doubled. The displacement was 6.766 l and the output was 40 bhp. The engines were equipped with an overhead camshaft . As a result, Maudslay produced a number of passenger cars with three, four and six-cylinder engines , but the numbers produced remained small. In 1923, Maudslay presented a newly designed car after nine years with the 15/80. The vehicle was powered by a six-cylinder engine with a displacement of 1.991 l and two overhead camshafts. However, it remained with a prototype, from then on Maudslay concentrated on the production of commercial vehicles.

model construction time cylinder Cubic capacity cm³
18 HP 1902-1904 3 3383
25 HP 1904 3 4828
40 HP 1904 6th 6766
60 HP 1904 6th 9586
16/20 HP 1905 3 3063
20 HP 1905 4th 3656
20/30 HP 1906-1907 4th 4084
30/40 HP 1906 4th 6437
27 HP 1906-1915 6th 4961
30/40 HP 1906 6th 6126
35/45 HP 1907-1911 4th 6437
25/30 HP 1908-1911 4th 5187
60 HP 1909 6th 9656
17 HP 1910-1914 4th 3308
15/80 HP Prototype 1923 6th 1991

A car of this brand can be viewed at the Coventry Transport Museum in Coventry.

commercial vehicles

Maudslay Marathon II

The company's first commercial vehicle was a truck with a payload of 3 tons , which was powered by a 30/40 bhp four-cylinder engine. The vehicle developed in 1907 won a gold medal in the RAC Industrial Motor Trials . In 1912 some chassis for payloads of 30 cwt , 3 or 5 tons were produced. Some vehicles were also produced during the First World War , but the focus was on the manufacture of assemblies for aircraft engines.

At the 1921 Motor Show , Maudslay presented a new generation of commercial vehicles. These were types for payloads of 3/4, 4/5, 5/6 and 6/7 ton, which were powered by a 50 bhp four-cylinder petrol engine. Starting in 1929, the range was supplemented by a three-axle truck with a payload of 10 tons, which was now powered by a 75 bhp four-cylinder petrol engine. This vehicle was had a tow axle. Notwithstanding the fact that the rear axle was twin , such vehicles were referred to as six-wheelers in the United Kingdom .

After ceasing car production, Maudslay concentrated on the manufacture of trucks and chassis for buses. The breakthrough of the company in 1933 with the mogul , who by a Gardner - diesel engine was driven. The two-axle vehicle had a payload of 6 tons, but was classified in the cheaper 4-ton class for tax purposes. In 1938 a new version appeared, this time with a payload of 7.5 tons.

The company was hit hard by the consequences of the economic depression, so production fell to fifty vehicles a year. With the economic upturn, however , Maudslay developed a new range of truck types in 1939. The vehicles were designed by Siegfried Sperling , an Austrian who emigrated to Great Britain. The vehicles equipped with Gardner engines were to be presented at the 1939 Commercial Motor Show , which was canceled due to the outbreak of World War II. The smallest model in the series was the Merlin with a payload of 6 tons, followed by the Mogul with payloads of 6 to 7.5 tons. The Militant was the tipper model of the vehicle series with a loading volume of 7 cu yd . While the types mentioned were two-axle vehicles, the Mustang was a three-axle vehicle with twin front axles and a payload of 10 tons. The Mahrajah was a conventional three-axle vehicle with a payload of 13 tons and the Maharanee was a tractor unit with a trailer load of 13 tons. The Mikado was a four-axle vehicle with a 15 ton payload. After the war began, the name of this type was changed to Meritor .

The newly developed vehicle types were no longer all put into production. During the war, Maudslay continued to manufacture the Mogul , as well as the Militant and the Merlin II .

After the end of the Second World War, the types developed by Sperling for the civilian market were mass-produced, but as early as 1948 the company was incorporated into the Associated Commercial Vehicle group. The range was supplemented by the Marathon , a chassis for buses with a front-link structure . In addition to the types originally developed by Maudslay , some of which were further produced, trucks designed by AEC were now also produced. However, production was finally ended in 1954.

literature

  • Harald H. Linz, Halwart Schrader : The great automobile encyclopedia. BLV, Munich 1986, ISBN 3-405-12974-5 .
  • GN Georgano : cars. Encyclopédie complète. 1885 à nos jours. Courtille, 1975 (French).
  • David Culshaw, Peter Horrobin: The Complete Catalog of British Cars 1895-1975. Veloce Publishing PLC, Dorchester 1997, ISBN 1-874105-93-6 (English).
  • SW Stevens-Strattan: British Lorries 1900–1902. Ian Allan ltd 1992, ISBN 0-7110-2091-4 (English).
  • Lawrence Dalton: Those Elegant Rolls Royce. Revised edition 1978, Dalton-Watson Ltd., Publishers, London, England, hardcover (English).

Web links

Commons : Maudslay Motor Company  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ According to Stevens-Stratten, it was founded in 1903
  2. ^ According to Dalton, automobiles were built until the end of the 1920s.
  3. ^ Dalton, p. 292