Obscure British Manufacturers.
Discussion
coppice said:
A word on Marendaz; in the mid 70s I was a very green trainee solicitor with Lincolnshire County Council; I was given a trading standards case to deal with and the compalainant was none other than Captain DMK Marendaz . He lived in a very large house out on the Lincs Wolds - Asterby Hall ?- and he would pen these utterly bonkers letters about how he had been ripped off.If I recall correctly he'd bought a 250 Merc secondhand years before and because some tiny fault had appeared he wanted the Council to throw the book at the garage who sold it to him. Frequent referemce was made to the legendary qualities of the mighty Marendaz special. I later found out that the poor old bugger had been banned from the public libraries because of his rather patrician belef that the library service was a sort of free bookshop; he'd order lots of esoteric and expensive tomes and they would never be seen again. If challenged the toff charm disappeared and was replaced by an utterly vile and abusive temper.
A wonderful story!!!Sounds like a dodgy bloke this Marendaz.He raced cars,flew planes,started businesses that failed,got up to all sorts,and upset a lot of people along the way.
In 1930 he killed a man on the Kingston Bypass in a car crash and had to pay the man`s wife £1850 compensation.That was a huge sum in those days.
In 1936 Marendaz Special Cars went bust and he started a flying school??
He was a supporter of Oswald Mosley!! and got jailed during WW2 for a few days.
He moved to South Africa,(good place for a Moseley supporter)and in 1965 stood trial for fraud after some dodgy business deals.
In 1930 he killed a man on the Kingston Bypass in a car crash and had to pay the man`s wife £1850 compensation.That was a huge sum in those days.
In 1936 Marendaz Special Cars went bust and he started a flying school??
He was a supporter of Oswald Mosley!! and got jailed during WW2 for a few days.
He moved to South Africa,(good place for a Moseley supporter)and in 1965 stood trial for fraud after some dodgy business deals.
t too? 
RichB said:
Humm... as I said earlier, I've always wanted a Marendaz but maybe I'm beginning to reconsider.
I don't think the cars themselves were too bad, although they weren't as fast as they looked. Low slung and big exhaustsStirling Moss' mum Aileen used one in mild competition, driving tests, trials, that sort of thing.Anzani engines, so not too bad..
RichB said:
Sure I've read of them also having a 6 cylinder Meadows engine?
Just to be as pedantic as possible, I've looked it up in The Encyclopedia:Originally Anzani 1496cc with some linered down to 1097cc.
One 1495 straight-eight (make unknown)
Later ones were 1869cc 6-cyl from a Birmid block (never heard of them, maybe something to do with Birmid-Qualcast?) with crankshafts and cams from Continental
Final model 1991 6-cyl Coventry-Climax.
All a bit vague - before the Climax models they "assembled" the above Birmid blocks and also a 2469cc model.I suspect from what we now know of Capt. Marendaz that he claimed they were his own engines when in fact they had been bought in. All part of his "smoke and mirrors" marketing.
tali1 said:
crossley burney streamline
That's quite a famous car in the tiny world that studies the modernist movement in the 1930's. Comes from the same thinking that brought us Buckminster-Fuller's 'Dymaxion' cars, those nutcase rear-engined V8 Tatras, the Beetle, and ultimately the Porsche 911.esso said:
Anyone know the history of Coventry-Climax,i know that their engines were put into a number of sports cars but being a Coventry kid i only remember them for building fork-lift trucks which eventually became Kalmar-Climax i believe?
I couldn't tell you their history per se, but they were manufacturers of stationary engines for many years, from before WW2, and the original success came because one engine designed to power fire pumps was discovered to be idael for a racing car (light weight and relatively powerful). That was the 1098cc motor that resulted in the really popular sports-racing class that dominated British national racing in the 50s.
socorob said:
I thought I saw a documentary that said the Coventry Climax was a BMW designed engine. It was one of the spoils of war, they brought the plans back, built it and called it the Climax?
No, that was the Bristol engine, the rights of which, as you point out, were passed to the Aero' company as part of war reparations. Coventry Climax made a whole series of industrial powerplants and provided proprietary engines for a series of manufacturers pre-war (including Morgan) but were best known for their lightweight firepump engines. These all-ally, high output engines proved an ideal basis for a variety of racing car engines for which they became best known (including winning the F1 world championship). They also produced various exotic multi-cyclinder grand prix engines for various formula although not all were raced in period.
I have always liked the stories about Bean cars made in Dudley in the 1920s and 30s. They produced a land speed record taker, and the first car to drive to Australia, it was also the preferred choice of Australian outlaw Ned Kelly. Yet few have heard of them.
More details here http://www.localhistory.scit.wlv.ac.uk/Museum/Tran...
More details here http://www.localhistory.scit.wlv.ac.uk/Museum/Tran...
Gassing Station | Classic Cars and Yesterday's Heroes | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff