The Buckingham was an
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
automobile
A car or automobile is a motor vehicle with Wheel, wheels. Most definitions of ''cars'' say that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, pe ...
manufactured by the Buckingham Engineering Company in
Coventry
Coventry ( or ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is on the River Sherbourne. Coventry has been a large settlement for centuries, although it was not founded and given its ...
from 1914 until 1923. The company had made cars under the
Chota name from 1912.
History
The first cars were a 746 cc cyclecar and a 1492 cc V-twin-engined light car both previously sold as Chotas. The engines were to Buckingham's own design
and were water-cooled.
Production was suspended during World War I and during the conflict Captain Buckingham, the company owner, gained fame as the inventor of the
tracer bullet, which was used against airships.
In 1920 he returned to car production with a new model using an air-cooled version of the pre war V-twin engine but now with a capacity of 1096 cc, a two-speed gearbox and belt drive to the rear axle.
A three-speed gearbox was fitted from 1922 with shaft drive and a rear axle incorporating a differential.
Front suspension was by a transverse leaf spring and the rear by quarter elliptic leaf springs.
The two-seat bodies were made by the coachbuilder
Charlesworth.
A
coupé
A coupe or coupé (, ) is a passenger car with a sloping or truncated rear roofline and two doors.
The term ''coupé'' was first applied to horse-drawn carriages for two passengers without rear-facing seats. It comes from the French past parti ...
version was called the "Palace".
From 1922 to 1923 manufacture of the car was undertaken by
Alvis
Alvis may refer to:
*Alvis Car and Engineering Company, British luxury car and military vehicle manufacturer which later became Alvis plc
* Alvis plc (formerly United Scientific Holdings plc), a defence contractor which acquired Alvis Cars and bec ...
but it is estimated that they only made about 30 of the cars.
Popular culture
*
Ozzie and Harriet
''The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet'' is an American television sitcom that aired on ABC from October 3, 1952, to April 23, 1966, and starred the real-life Nelson family. After a long run on radio, the show was brought to television, where it ...
, ''The Buckingham, season 7, episode 32, May 20, 1959 Ricky and David buy one and later regret the high costs.''.
See also
*
List of car manufacturers of the United Kingdom
:''This list is incomplete. You can help by adding correctly sourced information about other manufacturers.''
As of 2018 there are approximately 35 active British car manufacturers and over 500 defunct British car manufacturers. This page lists ...
References
{{reflist
Other sources
*
David Burgess Wise
David Burgess-Wise is a motoring author, enthusiast, and automobile historian.
According to the dustcover of the book "The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Automobiles" he edited in 1979, David Burgess Wise ith no "-"was born in 1942.
A motoring wr ...
, ''The New Illustrated Encyclopedia of Automobiles''.
External links
November 1919 advertisement
Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of the United Kingdom
Cyclecars