Opperman Limited

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Opperman Motocart (1945–1952)
Opperman Unicar (1959)
Opperman Stirling (1959)

SE Opperman Limited was a British manufacturer of automobiles .

Company history

The company from Elstree in Hertsmere was founded in 1862 as an engineering company Opperman, Sons and Tasker, gear cutters and engineers , which mainly manufactured gears and gears . In 1934 the subsidiary S. E. Opperman Ltd. founded, which manufactured components for the aviation industry.

In 1936, both companies were listed on the stock exchange as SE Opperman and Opperman Sons and Taskers . At that time, anchor winches , lifting devices for aerial bombs and, above all, gears for adjusting the steering and lift flaps on aircraft were also part of the delivery program.

In 1945 the production of motor vehicles in the form of a three-wheel tractor and transport device began. It ended temporarily in 1952. Automobiles were manufactured from 1956 to 1959. That year the company was taken over by EV Industrials . In 1961 the company had 400 employees.

vehicles

Motocart

The motocart was a curious three- wheeled motor vehicle that a farmer had developed for his own use. Opperman was so convinced of the design that the company put this simply constructed transport device into production in 1945. It was developed by a laterally mounted on the steered front wheel 8-PS JAP - cylinder engine driven and had a four-speed transmission with reverse gear and a patented Opperman control mechanism which allowed the driver to advance the device while he was walking walking beside it. This made the Motocart a useful and versatile work and transport device and agricultural tractor .

Production ended around 1952. During its construction, the Motocart was also used to a certain extent by municipalities and park administrations. From 1949 it was also used by Lacre Motor Co. in Welwyn Garden City (Hertfordshire) as the basis for the conversion to a street cleaning vehicle.

The Ercole and Edile by Moto Guzzi are similar to the “Motorcart” . The Moto Guzzi Ercole had 1,500 kg load the same payload as the "Motorcart". However, "Ercole" was considerably faster with a maximum of 60 km / h. The largest variant of the Moto Guzzi tricycles was the “Moto Guzzi Edile” model. At 25 km / h, it was slightly faster than the "motorcart" and could carry 3.6 tons of payload.

Unicar

The only automobile production model from Opperman was the Unicar. It was a small car . It had four wheels, the rear wheels being closer together than the front. The engine was arranged in a mid-engine design in front of the rear axle. The two-door body offered space for two people in the front and two emergency seats next to the engine in the rear. Between 1956 and 1958, a two-cylinder two - stroke engine from Anzani was used, which delivered 15 hp from a displacement of 322 cm³ . Between 1957 and 1959 a two-cylinder Excelsior engine with 328 cc and 18 hp was used. A total of around 200 copies were produced.

Stirling

The Opperman Stirling was a prototype of which only two copies were produced. It was a coupe . The two-cylinder engine with a displacement of 424 cm³ was mounted as a mid-engine in front of the rear axle.

Two vehicles of this brand can be viewed in the Hammond Microcar Collection .

See also

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)
  • Franco Zampicinini: Il grande succecco della motoragricultura , in Vita in campagna, January 2010 edition, Verona, ISSN 1120-3005.

Web links

Commons : Opperman  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Grace's Guide: Oppermann.
  2. ↑ a b Georgano, Naul: Complete Encyclopedia of Commercial Vehicles. 1979, p. 475.
  3. ↑ Georgano, Naul: Complete Encyclopedia of Commercial Vehicles. 1979, p. 368.
  4. ↑ Grace's Guide: Lacre Motor Car Co.
  5. ↑ Franco Zampicinini: Il grande della succecco motoragricultura , pages 9-10 (online at Archive.org)
  6. ↑ History of Motoguzzi Ercole (Italian) ( Memento from June 21, 2017 in the Internet Archive )