![Green Goddess pump](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/de/Green_Goddess_pump.JPG)
Coventry Climax was a British
forklift truck
A forklift (also called lift truck, jitney, hi-lo, fork truck, fork hoist, and forklift truck) is a powered industrial truck used to lift and move materials over short distances. The forklift was developed in the early 20th century by various c ...
, fire pump, racing, and other specialty engine manufacturer.
History
Pre WW1
The company was started in 1903 as
Lee Stroyer, but two years later, following the departure of Stroyer, it was relocated to Paynes Lane,
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 ...
, and renamed as Coventry-Simplex by
H. Pelham Lee, a former
Daimler
Daimler is a German surname. It may refer to:
People
* Gottlieb Daimler (1834–1900), German inventor, industrialist and namesake of a series of automobile companies
* Adolf Daimler (1871–1913), engineer and son of Gottlieb Daimler
* Paul Da ...
employee, who saw a need for competition in the nascent
piston engine
A reciprocating engine, also often known as a piston engine, is typically a heat engine that uses one or more reciprocating pistons to convert high temperature and high pressure into a rotating motion. This article describes the common featu ...
market.
An early user was
GWK, who produced over 1,000 light cars with Coventry-Simplex two-cylinder engines between 1911 and 1915. Just before the
First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...
, a Coventry-Simplex engine was used by
Lionel Martin
Lionel Walker Birch Martin (1878 – 21 October 1945) was an English businessman who co-founded the company that became Aston Martin.
Early life
He was born at Nansladron at Pentewan near St Austell in Cornwall, and was an only child. His fat ...
to power the first
Aston Martin
Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings PLC is an English manufacturer of luxury sports cars and grand tourers. Its predecessor was founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford. Steered from 1947 by David Brown, it became associated with ...
car.
Ernest Shackleton
Sir Ernest Henry Shackleton (15 February 1874 – 5 January 1922) was an Anglo-Irish Antarctic explorer who led three British expeditions to the Antarctic. He was one of the principal figures of the period known as the Heroic Age of ...
selected Coventry-Simplex to power the tractors that were to be used in his
Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition
The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–1917 is considered to be the last major expedition of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Conceived by Sir Ernest Shackleton, the expedition was an attempt to make the first land crossing ...
of 1914.
Hundreds of Coventry-Simplex engines were manufactured during the First World War to be used in generating sets for
searchlight
A searchlight (or spotlight) is an apparatus that combines an extremely bright source (traditionally a carbon arc lamp) with a mirrored parabolic reflector to project a powerful beam of light of approximately parallel rays in a particular direc ...
s.
Post WW1
In 1919, Pelham Lee acquired an existing company, Johnson & Smith Ltd, and changed its name to Coventry Climax Engines Ltd with premises at East Street, Coventry.
oard of Trade Certificate, Herbert Collection, Coventry(Coventry Simplex continued under separate management).
Throughout the 1920s and 1930s, the company supplied engines to many companies manufacturing light cars such as
Abbey
An abbey is a type of monastery used by members of a religious order under the governance of an abbot or abbess. Abbeys provide a complex of buildings and land for religious activities, work, and housing of Christian monks and nuns.
The conce ...
,
AJS,
Albatross
Albatrosses, of the biological family Diomedeidae, are large seabirds related to the procellariids, storm petrels, and diving petrels in the order Procellariiformes (the tubenoses). They range widely in the Southern Ocean and the North Pacifi ...
,
Ashton-Evans,
Bayliss-Thomas,
Clyno
Clyno Engineering Company, later Clyno Engineering Company (1922) Ltd, was a motorcycle and car manufacturer that operated in Thrapston from 1909 to 1910 and then in Wolverhampton from 1910 to 1929. During this time they produced over 15,000 mo ...
,
Crossley
Crossley, based in Manchester, United Kingdom, was a pioneering company in the production of internal combustion engines. Since 1988 it has been part of the Rolls-Royce Power Engineering group.
More than 100,000 Crossley oil and gas engines ...
,
Crouch,
GWK,
Marendaz
Marendaz Special cars were made in Brixton Road, London SW9, England from 1926 to 1932 and in Maidenhead, Berkshire, England from 1932 to 1936.
DMK (Donald Marcus Kelway) Marendaz served as an apprentice at Siddeley-Deasy before the first Wor ...
,
Morgan,
Triumph
The Roman triumph (Latin triumphus) was a celebration for a victorious military commander in ancient Rome. For later imitations, in life or in art, see Trionfo. Numerous later uses of the term, up to the present, are derived directly or indirectl ...
,
Swift
Swift or SWIFT most commonly refers to:
* SWIFT, an international organization facilitating transactions between banks
** SWIFT code
* Swift (programming language)
* Swift (bird), a family of birds
It may also refer to:
Organizations
* SWIFT, ...
,
Standard Standard may refer to:
Symbols
* Colours, standards and guidons, kinds of military signs
* Standard (emblem), a type of a large symbol or emblem used for identification
Norms, conventions or requirements
* Standard (metrology), an object th ...
, and Waverley Cars of London. In the early 1930s, the company also supplied engines for buses, and in 1935 supplied the 'L' engine to David Brown tractors for the 550 Model A, being a collaborative venture with Ferguson. In the 1920s, the company moved to Friars Road, Coventry, and in the late 1930s, they also acquired the former
Riley premises on Widdrington Road, Coventry.
With the closure of Swift in 1931, the company was left with a stock of engines that were converted to drive electric generators, a field in which they had experience from building WW1 searchlight generators. They also started to make engine driven pumps, and mounted on a trailer as a mobile fire fighting appliance this was to be a great success. The economic problems of the 1930s hit the business hard, and
Leonard Pelham Lee
Leonard Pelham Lee (1903–1980) was an executive in the English internal combustion engine industry.
Biography
Leonard Pelham Lee was born as the son of Horace Pelham Lee on 31 May 1903. He joined Coventry Climax Engines in 1919 and beca ...
, who had taken over from his father, created a separate division of the company for the fire pumps. While the motor car engine business suffered during the recession, the mobile fire pump division of Coventry Climax became a great success, particularly during the late 1930s and this continued during the war. Main article :
Godiva Fire Pumps
Godiva Fire Pumps was an offshoot from Coventry Climax, directed by Charles Pelham Lee, son of Leonard Pelham Lee.
Company history
The building of fire pumps was initially developed as a division of the Coventry Climax engine company in the lat ...
.
Another diversification was into commercial vehicle engines. This started in 1929 with the launch of a large (5.8 litre) six-cylinder side-valve petrol engine intended for buses and trucks, and was followed in 1931 by a six-cylindered 6.8 litre petrol engine of inlet over exhaust (
IOE) design, and a 4-cylinder engine in 1932. In 1934 Commercial Motor referred to the 'popular Coventry Climax engines' as the six-cylindered L6 and the four-cylindered B4 - the latter being of 'especially modern design with wet liners'. Examples of vehicles using the engines include the 1932
Karrier
Karrier was a British marque of motorised municipal appliances and light commercial vehicles and trolley buses manufactured at Karrier Works, Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, by Clayton and Co., Huddersfield, Limited. They began making Karrier moto ...
Bantam refuse truck, and the 1935 Gilford Motors CF176 coach.
Going into the war, Coventry Climax used their marine diesel experience to further develop and build the
Armstrong Whitworth
Sir W G Armstrong Whitworth & Co Ltd was a major British manufacturing company of the early years of the 20th century. With headquarters in Elswick, Newcastle upon Tyne, Armstrong Whitworth built armaments, ships, locomotives, automobiles and a ...
supercharged H30
multifuel
Multifuel, sometimes spelled multi-fuel, is any type of engine, boiler, or heater or other fuel-burning device which is designed to burn multiple types of fuels in its operation. One common application of multifuel technology is in military sett ...
engine for military use. This has been fitted as an
auxiliary engine in the British
Chieftain
A tribal chief or chieftain is the leader of a tribe, tribal society or chiefdom.
Tribe
The concept of tribe is a broadly applied concept, based on tribal concepts of societies of western Afroeurasia.
Tribal societies are sometimes categori ...
and
Challenger
Challenger, Challengers, or The Challengers may refer to:
Entertainment
Comics and manga
* Challenger (character), comic book character
* ''Challengers'' (manga), manga by Hinako Takanaga
Film and TV
* ''The Challengers'' (TV series), a 1979 ...
battle tanks and
Rapier
A rapier () or is a type of sword with a slender and sharply-pointed two-edged blade that was popular in Western Europe, both for civilian use (dueling and self-defense) and as a military side arm, throughout the 16th and 17th centuries.
Impor ...
anti-aircraft missile systems.
Post WW2
![Coventry Climax ET 199 fork lift truck](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/Coventry_Climax_ET_199_fork_lift_truck.jpg)
In the late 1940s, the company shifted away from automobile engines and into other markets, including marine diesels, and forklift trucks - plus continuing to make their very successful
fire pump
A fire pump usually refers to a pressure-increasing component of the water supply for fixed-place fire suppression systems such as fire sprinklers, standpipes, and foam systems. Fire pumps are also a critical component integrated into fire tru ...
s. In 1946, the ET199 forklift was announced, which the company claimed was the first British-produced forklift truck. The ET199 was designed to carry a load with a load centre, and with a lift height.
In 1950,
Harry Mundy
Harry Mundy (1915–1988) was a British car engine designer and motoring magazine editor.
He was educated at King Henry VIII School in Coventry and went on to serve his apprenticeship with Alvis. He left them in 1936 to join English Racing Autom ...
joined Coventry Climax, and a new lightweight all-aluminium
overhead camshaft
An overhead camshaft (OHC) engine is a piston engine where the camshaft is located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier overhead valve engines (OHV), where the camshaft is located below the combustion c ...
engine was developed in response to the government's ambitious requisition outline asking for a portable fire pump that was capable of pumping double the amount of water specified in the previous outline, with half the weight.
This was designated the FW for "Feather Weight". The engine was displayed at the Motor Show in London and attracted attention from the motor racing fraternity for its very high "
horsepower per pound of weight". With strong persuasions at the show, including those by
Cyril Kieft
Cyril Kieft (1911–2004) was a Welsh industrialist and racing driver. He founded Kieft Cars
Kieft Cars, founded by Cyril Kieft, was a British car company that built Formula Three racing cars and some road going sports cars in a factory i ...
(who had
Stirling Moss
Sir Stirling Craufurd Moss (17 September 1929 – 12 April 2020) was a British Formula One racing driver. An inductee into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, he won 212 of the 529 races he entered across several categories of comp ...
as an F3 driver) and a young
Colin Chapman
Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman (19 May 1928 – 16 December 1982) was an English design engineer, inventor, and builder in the automotive industry, and founder of Lotus Cars.
In 1952 he founded the sports car company Lotus Cars. Chapman ...
, Lee concluded that success in competition could lead to more customers for the company, and so the team designed the FWA, a ''F''eather ''W''eight engine for ''A''utomobiles.
![Kieft 1953](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/Kieft_1953.JPG)
The first Coventry Climax racing engine appeared at the
1954 24 Hours of Le Mans
The 1954 24 Hours of Le Mans was a 22nd race for Sports Cars, and took place on 12 and 13 June 1954, at the Circuit de la Sarthe, Le Mans, France. It was also the fourth race of the 1954 World Sportscar Championship. The race was won by José Fr ...
in the front of one of two
Kieft 1100 sports racers, but both cars (one with an
MG engine) failed to finish the race due to problems unrelated to the engines. The FWA became popular in sportscar racing and was followed by the Mark II and then by the FWB, which had a capacity of nearly 1.5-litres. The new
Formula Two
Formula Two (F2 or Formula 2) is a type of open-wheel formula racing category first codified in 1948. It was replaced in 1985 by Formula 3000, but revived by the FIA from 2009–2012 in the form of the FIA Formula Two Championship. The name retur ...
regulations suited the 1.5-litre engine, and it quickly became the engine to have in F2 racing. By 1957, the first Climax engines began to appear in
Formula One
Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...
in the back of Cooper chassis.
Initially, these were FWBs, but the FPF engine followed. Stirling Moss scored the company's first Formula One victory in Argentina in 1958, using a 2-litre version of the engine. In general terms, however, the engines were not powerful enough to compete with the 2.5-litre machinery, and it was not until the 2.5-litre version of the FPF arrived in 1959 that
Jack Brabham
Sir John Arthur Brabham (2 April 1926 – 19 May 2014) was an Australian racing driver who was Formula One World Champion in , , and . He was a founder of the Brabham racing team and race car constructor that bore his name.
Brabham was a R ...
was able to win the world championship in a Cooper-Climax. At the same time, the company produced the FWE engine for
Lotus Elite
The Lotus Elite name has been used for two production vehicles and one concept vehicle developed and manufactured by British automobile manufacturer Lotus Cars. The first generation Elite Type 14 was produced from 1957 until 1963 and the second ...
, and this enjoyed considerable success in
sports car racing
Sports car racing is a form of motorsport road racing which utilises sports cars that have two seats and enclosed wheels. They may be purpose-built prototypes or grand tourers based on road-going models. Broadly speaking, sports car racing is ...
, with a series of class wins at the Le Mans events in the early 1960s.
In 1961, there was a new 1.5-litre formula, and the FPF engine was given a new lease on life, although the company began work on a V8 engine, designated the FWMV, and this became competitive in 1962 predominantly in Lotus, Cooper, Brabham, and Lola chassis, with Jim Clark's Lotus outstandingly the most successful. There were a total of 22 Grand Prix victories before 1966 with
crossplane
The crossplane or cross-plane is a crankshaft design for piston engines with a 90° angle (phase in crank rotation) between the crank throws. The crossplane crankshaft is the most popular configuration used in V8 road cars.
Aside from the V8 alre ...
,
flat-plane, two- and four-valve versions of the FWMV. When the new, 3-litre, formula was introduced, Coventry Climax decided not to build engines for the new formula and withdrew from racing after the unsuccessful FWMW project, with the exception of the new 2-Litre version of the FWMV.
Also, in the early 1960s, Coventry Climax was approached by
Rootes to mass-produce FWMAs for use in a compact family car project called Apex with an all-aluminium alloy
overhead cam
An overhead camshaft (OHC) engine is a piston engine where the camshaft is located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier overhead valve engines (OHV), where the camshaft is located below the combustion cha ...
engine combined with a full-
synchromesh
A manual transmission (MT), also known as manual gearbox, standard transmission (in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States), or stick shift (in the United States), is a multi-speed motor vehicle transmission system, where gear changes ...
aluminium
transaxle
A transaxle is a single mechanical device which combines the functions of an automobile's transmission, axle, and differential into one integrated assembly. It can be produced in both manual and automatic versions.
Engine and drive at the ...
. This combination was considered very radical at the time, especially the synchromesh on all forward gears, which had been declared 'impossible' by
Alec Issigonis
Sir Alexander Arnold Constantine Issigonis (18 November 1906 – 2 October 1988) was a British-Greek automotive designer. He designed the Mini, launched by the British Motor Corporation in 1959, and voted the second Car of the Century, most i ...
of BMC Mini fame. The adoption to mass-production was successful, and the project came out to the market as the 875cc
Hillman Imp
The Hillman Imp is a small economy car that was made by the Rootes Group and its successor Chrysler Europe from 1963 until 1976. Revealed on 3 May 1963, after much advance publicity, it was the first British mass-produced car with the engine blo ...
totaling over 400,000 units made by 1976, including the later 998cc version.
Final years
At
Earls Court
Earl's Court is a district of Kensington in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in West London, bordering the rail tracks of the West London line and District line that separate it from the ancient borough of Fulham to the west, the ...
in 1962, Coventry Climax chairman, Leonard Pelham Lee announced the withdrawal from building Formula 1 engines, stating that the company was losing money and not gaining enough publicity from their involvement.
Nonetheless, Coventry Climax remained in Formula One until they were unable to come up with a new engine for the three-litre formula. The company was purchased by
Jaguar Cars
Jaguar (, ) is the luxury vehicle brand of Jaguar Land Rover, a British multinational car manufacturer with its headquarters in Whitley, Coventry, England. Jaguar Cars was the company that was responsible for the production of Jaguar cars ...
in 1963, which itself merged with the
British Motor Corporation
The British Motor Corporation Limited (BMC) was a UK-based vehicle manufacturer, formed in early 1952 to give effect to an agreed merger of the Morris and Austin businesses.Morris-Austin Merger Company Named. ''The Times'', Friday, 29 February ...
(BMC) in 1966 to form
British Motor Holdings
British Motor Holdings Limited (BMH) was a British vehicle manufacturing company known until 14 December 1966 as British Motor Corporation Limited (BMC). BMH was created as a holding company following BMC's takeover of both Jaguar Cars and th ...
(BMH).
In May 1964, the
Royal Automobile Club
The Royal Automobile Club is a British private social and athletic club. It has two clubhouses: one in London at 89 Pall Mall, and the other in the countryside at Woodcote Park, near Epsom in Surrey. Both provide accommodation and a range o ...
presented the
Dewar Trophy
The Dewar Trophy was a cup donated in the early years of the twentieth century by Sir Thomas R. Dewar, M.P. a member of parliament of the United Kingdom (UK), to be awarded each year by the Royal Automobile Club (R. A .C.) of the United Kingdom "t ...
, which is given at the recommendation of RAC's Technical and Engineering Committee for the most outstanding British achievement in the automotive field, to Leonard Pelham Lee. The citation reads: "Awarded to Coventry Climax Engines Ltd. for the design, development, and production of engines which have brought British cars to the forefront in the field of Grand Prix racing." The history of this trophy dates back to 1906. The last time the Dewar Trophy was awarded before 1964, the recipient was Alec Issigonis for British Motor Corporation (BMC) in 1959 on the design and production of the ADO15
Mini
The Mini is a small, two-door, four-seat car, developed as ADO15, and produced by the British Motor Corporation (BMC) and its successors, from 1959 through 2000. Minus a brief hiatus, original Minis were built for four decades and sold during ...
.
BMH merged with the
Leyland Motor Corporation
Leyland Motors Limited (later known as the Leyland Motor Corporation) was a British vehicle manufacturer of lorries, buses and trolleybuses. The company diversified into car manufacturing with its acquisitions of Triumph and Rover in 1960 and 1 ...
in 1968 to form the
British Leyland Motor Corporation
British Leyland was an automotive engineering and manufacturing conglomerate formed in the United Kingdom in 1968 as British Leyland Motor Corporation Ltd (BLMC), following the merger of Leyland Motors and British Motor Holdings. It was partl ...
, which was then nationalised in 1975 as British Leyland (BL). Coventry Climax became part of the British Leyland Special Products Division, alongside
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 ...
,
Aveling-Barford
Aveling-Barford was a large engineering company making road rollers, motorgraders, front loaders, site dumpers, dump trucks and articulated dump trucks in Grantham, England. In its time, it was an internationally known company.
History Rus ...
, and others. At the end of 1978, BL brought together Coventry Climax Limited, Leyland Vehicles Limited (trucks, buses, and tractors), Alvis Limited (military vehicles), and
Self-Changing Gears Limited (heavy-duty transmissions) into a new group called BL Commercial Vehicles (BLCV) under managing director
David Abell.
In the early 1970s, the fire pump business was sold back into private ownership, and the
Godiva Fire Pumps
Godiva Fire Pumps was an offshoot from Coventry Climax, directed by Charles Pelham Lee, son of Leonard Pelham Lee.
Company history
The building of fire pumps was initially developed as a division of the Coventry Climax engine company in the lat ...
company was formed in
Warwick
Warwick ( ) is a market town, civil parish and the county town of Warwickshire in the Warwick District in England, adjacent to the River Avon. It is south of Coventry, and south-east of Birmingham. It is adjoined with Leamington Spa and Whi ...
. In 1977 Coventry Climax acquired the Warrington forklift truck business of
Rubery Owen Conveyancer, renaming it ''Climax Conveyancer''.
In 1982 BL sold off the Coventry Climax forklift truck business back into private ownership to Coventry Climax Holdings Limited.
Sir Emmanuel Kaye, also chairman and a major shareholder of
Lansing Bagnall
Lansing Bagnall, later known as Lansing Linde, was a British forklift truck manufacturer based in Kingsclere Road, Basingstoke, England. The company was known for the invention of the reach truck. Later, it was merged into Linde Material Handlin ...
at the time, formed the company, independent of his other interests for the purpose of acquiring Coventry Climax.
In 1986 Coventry Climax went into receivership and was acquired by
Cronin Tubular. In 1990, a further change of ownership came with the engine business being sold to
Horstman Defence Systems of
Bath, Somerset
Bath () is a city in the Bath and North East Somerset unitary area in the county of Somerset, England, known for and named after its Roman-built baths. At the 2021 Census, the population was 101,557. Bath is in the valley of the River Avon, ...
, thus breaking the link with Coventry.
Kalmar Industries
Cargotec Oyj (trading internationally as Cargotec Corporation) is a Finnish company that makes cargo-handling machinery for ships, ports, terminals and local distribution. Cargotec was formed in June 2005 when Kone Corporation was split into tw ...
acquired the forklift truck interests of Coventry Climax in 1985. The company traded as "Kalmar Climax" for a few years but is now trading as Kalmar Industries Ltd. The 'Coventry Climax logo trademark is the property of Canadian Peter Schömer, based in
Chichester
Chichester () is a cathedral city and civil parish in West Sussex, England.OS Explorer map 120: Chichester, South Harting and Selsey Scale: 1:25 000. Publisher:Ordnance Survey – Southampton B2 edition. Publishing Date:2009. It is the only ci ...
.
Engines
Design
Within the complicated corporate lineage, the reputation of Coventry Climax as a top-rate engine designer-builder is largely credited to
Walter Hassan
Walter Thomas Frederick Hassan OBE, C.Eng., M.I. Mech.E. (25 April 1905 – 12 July 1996) was a distinguished UK automotive engineer who took part in the design and development of three very successful engines: Jaguar XK, Coventry Climax and Ja ...
and
Harry Mundy
Harry Mundy (1915–1988) was a British car engine designer and motoring magazine editor.
He was educated at King Henry VIII School in Coventry and went on to serve his apprenticeship with Alvis. He left them in 1936 to join English Racing Autom ...
, who designed and developed the FW together. The following design aspects are credited to these two people, except the last two items, in which Peter Windsor Smith played a considerable role in place of Mundy, who left the firm in 1955 and returned in 1963.
*Designed as a fire engine component, one unique requirement the Feather Weight fulfilled was the ability to be run at nearly full-throttle without a proper warm-up. This required careful attention to lubrication and thermal expansion rates on its parts, which translated into legendary durability in rough racing environments at the price of high oil consumption.
*Another technical significance of the FW series, which was carried over to the FWM, is an interpretation of
Harry Ricardo
Sir Harry Ralph Ricardo (26 January 1885 – 18 May 1974) was an English engineer who was one of the foremost engine designers and researchers in the early years of the development of the internal combustion engine.
Among his many other works, ...
's intake
turbulence
In fluid dynamics, turbulence or turbulent flow is fluid motion characterized by chaotic changes in pressure and flow velocity. It is in contrast to a laminar flow, which occurs when a fluid flows in parallel layers, with no disruption between ...
theory, whereby intake and exhaust valves are tilted to the same side of the engine where the intake and exhaust ports are located. In the
SOHC
An overhead camshaft (OHC) engine is a piston engine where the camshaft is located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier overhead valve engines (OHV), where the camshaft is located below the combustion cha ...
reverse-flow cylinder head
In engine technology, a reverse-flow or non-crossflow cylinder head is one that locates the intake and exhaust ports on the same side of the engine. The gases can be thought to enter the cylinder head and then change direction to exit the head. T ...
design, where valves are actuated directly under the camshaft, and where the intake and exhaust ports are located fore and aft of the cylinder bore centre, this arrangement allows intake and exhaust flows to encourage a swirl in the same rotational direction in the combustion chamber going into and coming out of the cylinder.
*Later
crossflow DOHC
An overhead camshaft (OHC) engine is a piston engine where the camshaft is located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier overhead valve engines (OHV), where the camshaft is located below the combustion c ...
FPF designs incorporated the same concept in a completely different arrangement, where the tracts in the intake manifold are connected to the intake ports in a staggered manner, in a somewhat corkscrew fashion, to create the turbulence by the intake flow.
*The FWMV had an unusually small exhaust valve size to intake valve size ratio for an increased intake flow speed for the same reason. At one time, the FWMV's exhaust valve size (1.37") exceeded the inlet valve size (1.35") on the most successful Mk.4 version.
*Separately, the FWMV Mk.III and Mk.4 became famous for proving that
flatplane
The flat-plane crank (sometimes flatplane) is a type of crankshaft for use in internal combustion engines that has a 180 degree angle between crank throws.
Details
Flat-plane cranks are used in V-configuration engines, generally with eight cy ...
crankshaft design is more advantageous for a racing
V8 than a
crossplane
The crossplane or cross-plane is a crankshaft design for piston engines with a 90° angle (phase in crank rotation) between the crank throws. The crossplane crankshaft is the most popular configuration used in V8 road cars.
Aside from the V8 alre ...
, in spite of the engineering theories at the time suggesting otherwise. Flatplane crankshafts became the norm in V8 racing engine designs from the 1970s on.
F Type
At the Olympia Motor Show (in 1923) Coventry Climax listed four F-type 4-cylinder water cooled engines.
All had 100 mm stroke, and the bores were 59, 63, 66 and 69 mm. The
GWK car had featured in Coventry Climax adverts from late 1920 with a Coventry Climax 10.8 hp 4-cylinder engine, the same horsepower rating as the 66 mm bore F type. The engines were available either separate or in unit construction with a three speed gearbox.
ET 2
Also displayed at the 1923 Olympia Motor Show was a twin cylinder 2-stroke engine. The bore was 80 mm and the stroke 85 mm.
[
]
CX
The main engine of interest at the 1923 show was the new 6-cylinder CX engine. This had 61 mm bore and 100 mm stroke, and was rated at 13.8 hp.[ The same six-cylinder engine appeared in the Waverley car at the 1925 Olympia motor show. The engine size had increased to 1990cc (16 hp rating), with overhead valves and Lanchester style vibration damper, it was coupled to a 4-speed Meadows gearbox.
]
OC
At first, the OC was made with a capacity of 1122 cc as a straight-four
A straight-four engine (also called an inline-four) is a four-cylinder piston engine where cylinders are arranged in a line along a common crankshaft.
The vast majority of automotive four-cylinder engines use a straight-four layout (with the e ...
using a bore of 63 mm and stroke of 90 mm with overhead inlet and side exhaust valves, producing . It was introduced in the early 1930s and also built under licence by Triumph
The Roman triumph (Latin triumphus) was a celebration for a victorious military commander in ancient Rome. For later imitations, in life or in art, see Trionfo. Numerous later uses of the term, up to the present, are derived directly or indirectl ...
.
MC
The OC engine had morphed into the MC engine by 1933. It looked virtually identical, but there were internal differences. It was still 1122 cc, I.O.E., and four cylinders inline, but for example, the camshaft was different, as were the cam followers. The timing marks on the flywheel are now observed from the top of the engine rather than the underside (OC engine). Carburation was variable, from the side draught Solex Solex may refer to:
* Solex (musician), Dutch musician
* Solex Carburetor, a French manufacturer of carburetors and the powered bicycle VéloSoleX
* Solex College, a former private for-profit college in Chicago, Illinois
* Solex Unit, a fictiona ...
, via the down draught SU, to the progressive choke down draught and larger side draught SU system on Triumph engines. Water-cooled by thermosyphon with no water pump or fan.
JM
A six-cylinder version of the MC engine, the JM, was made with a capacity of 1476 cc developing . The JMC version had its capacity increased to 1640 cc by increasing the bore to 63 mm and produced . It was different from the 4 cylinder
engine in that it had both a water pump and an oil filter, whereas the 4 cylinder engine relied on thermosyphon alone and no oil filter.
FW
The FW 38 hp 1020 cc straight-four SOHC was designed by Hassan and Mundy as the motive unit for a portable service fire pump which was supplied to the government under three contracts totaling over 150,000 units. This engine was revolutionary in its lightness, with a bare weight of 180 pounds, combined with the maintenance-free valve adjustment using shims under an overhead camshaft.
In 1953 it was adapted for automotive racing as the 1098 cc FWA retaining the cast crank three main bearing construction of the FW but with a distributor ignition in place of a magneto, a different camshaft, and a higher, 9.8:1 compression ratio. With a bore of 2.85 inches and a stroke of 2.625 inches, it produced and was first used at Le Mans in 1954 by Kieft Cars
Kieft Cars, founded by Cyril Kieft, was a British car company that built Formula Three racing cars and some road going sports cars in a factory in Derry St, Wolverhampton.''The Complete Encyclopedia of Motorcars, 1885 to the Present''. By G. ...
. After the FWA was introduced, the FW was renamed to FWP (Pump).
The larger bore (3 inches) and longer stroke (3.15 inches) 1460 cc FWB engine followed; it retained the FWA head but had a forged steel crank and produced a nominal . The most significant of the series was the FWE which used the FWB bore size and the FWA stroke for a displacement of 1216 cc. In exchange for a 1,000 unit purchase agreement signed by Chapman, it was specifically designed with forged steel crank for the Lotus Elite
The Lotus Elite name has been used for two production vehicles and one concept vehicle developed and manufactured by British automobile manufacturer Lotus Cars. The first generation Elite Type 14 was produced from 1957 until 1963 and the second ...
but became a favourite with a number of sports car racing firms for its racing durability and high power-to-weight ratio.
* FWE Stage I - 10:1 compression ratio, single 1-1/2" SU H4 carburetor on cast iron intake and exhaust manifold, 75 bhp at 6100rpm
* FWE Stage II - Dual 1-1/2" SU H4 carburetors on alloy manifold, standard on Series 2 Elite, 80 bhp at 6100rpm
* FWE Stage III (Super 95) - 10.5:1 compression ratio, dual twin-choke Weber 40DCOE, 95 bhp at 7000rpm
* FWE Super 100 - Five-bearing high lift camshaft, steel timing gear, ported head, 100 bhp
* FWE Super 105 - 11:1 compression ratio, racing exhaust manifold, 105 bhp
Other FW variants included a short-stroke (1.78 inches) steel crank version of the FWA named the 744 cc FWC, as used by Dan Gurney
Daniel Sexton Gurney (April 13, 1931 – January 14, 2018) was an American racing driver, race car constructor, and team owner who reached racing's highest levels starting in 1958. Gurney won races in the Formula One, Indy Car, NASCAR, Can-Am, ...
early in his career in US club racing. The objective of this engine was for Lotus to campaign for the 750 cc Le Mans Index of Performance prize in 1957, three engines were made for this purpose, and they won the prize. Lotus also campaigned the FWC at Le Mans in 1958.
The FWE powered Lotus Elites won their class six times and the Index of Thermal Efficiency once during the 24 Hours of Le Mans
The 24 Hours of Le Mans (french: link=no, 24 Heures du Mans) is an endurance-focused Sports car racing, sports car race held annually near the town of Le Mans, France. It is the world's oldest active Endurance racing (motorsport), endurance r ...
. The FW series engines in modified forms also powered Lotus Eleven
The Lotus Eleven is a sports racing car built in various versions by Lotus from 1956 until 1958. The later versions built in 1958 are sometimes referred to as Lotus 13, although this was not an official designation. In total, about 270 Elevens ...
cars which took three class wins at Le Mans and one Index of Performance win.
In 1966–67, Fisher-Pierce of America imported an 85 hp version of the FWB with twin-carburetors to be mounted vertically in their outboard marine unit. This boat engine came out to the market as Bearcat 85.
FPE (the 'Godiva')
Commission Sportive Internationale
Commission or commissioning may refer to:
Business and contracting
* Commission (remuneration), a form of payment to an agent for services rendered
** Commission (art), the purchase or the creation of a piece of art most often on behalf of another ...
announced in 1952 that 2.5L naturally aspirated engines would be a part of Formula One regulation starting 1954. Walter Hassan and especially Harry Mundy having their roots deeply in the racing field, started discussions and preliminary designs of a 2.5L 8 Cylinder GP engine in 1952 without a formal directive from the father and son Pelham Lees. Because this project was a pure racing engine from the beginning, which was in stark contrast to the corporate product history up to FWA, the engine was named FPE for Fire Pump Engine (Eight according to another lore) by the playful minds of Hassan and Mundy.
After the corporate blessing was given to the project with the name 'Godiva
Lady Godiva (; died between 1066 and 1086), in Old English , was a late Anglo-Saxon noblewoman who is relatively well documented as the wife of Leofric, Earl of Mercia, and a patron of various churches and monasteries. Today, she is mainly reme ...
', this DOHC, 90-degree, steel crossplane
The crossplane or cross-plane is a crankshaft design for piston engines with a 90° angle (phase in crank rotation) between the crank throws. The crossplane crankshaft is the most popular configuration used in V8 road cars.
Aside from the V8 alre ...
crank V8 engine was built in 1954 for an F1 Kieft with the intention to use the fuel injection system made by Skinners Union
SU carburettors were a British manufacturer of constant-depression carburettors. Their designs were in mass production during most of the twentieth century.
The S.U. Carburetter Company Limited also manufactured dual-choke updraught carburettor ...
(SU).
However, this fuel injection system, is designed for aeroplane engines, was found not to have the means to enrich the mixture for acceleration, which is not suitable for automobile use. FPE initially showed 240 bhp using Weber carburetor, Weber carburettors, but the press at the time reported the rumoured fuel-injected Mercedes 2.5L GP engine is quoted as producing more than 300 Horsepower#Brake horsepower, bhp, and a corporate decision was made not to release FPE to Kieft in light of the lack of proper fuel injection, leaving the Kieft F1 project, as well as other prospective users, Hersham and Walton Motors, HWM and Connaught Engineering, Connaught, high and dry.
There were reports to the effect that the engine was not run because of fears about the rumoured power of other 2.5L GP engines, but shortly after, John Cooper (car maker), John Cooper brought a race-winning, works Maserati F1 engine he had on loan into Coventry Climax, where it produced 225 bhp running on the same dynamometer upon which the FPE had made 264 bhp after some development.
Ultimately, development on the engine was abandoned in favour of focusing on the FPF engine, which was already proven competitive in 1.5L form with side-draft Weber carburetors in the F2 races, and the entire stock of parts was sold to Andrew Getley in the mid-1960s. When the Formula One regulation changed to 3 Litres for 1966, Mr. Getley permitted Paul Emery to rebuild one FPE to 3 Litre format and fit it into a one-off Shannon steel monocoque chassis to make the Shannon Racing Cars, Shannon F1 car named Shannon Racing Cars#SH1, SH1 driven by Trevor Taylor (racing driver), Trevor Taylor at 1966 British Grand Prix. Bored out to 3 Litres and Tecalemit Jackson fuel injection installed, this Emery-built FPE produced 312 bhp on the dynamometer at Chrysler UK, Chrysler's Kew facility.
Remnants of other FPE parts were much later found by the then-owner of 1954 Kieft F1 chassis, Gordon and Martyn Chapman, in an air-raid cellar in the abandoned building which used to belong to Bill Lacey (of Power Engines Ltd., a Coventry Climax specialist) near the main entrance of Silverstone Circuit, including 3 blocks, 2 cranks, 16 cylinder heads, 20-some cam covers (carriers?), two card boxes full of timing gears and camshafts, which all belonged to "Doc Murfield" who had purchased the parts from Andrew Getley in 1968-69 and had entrusted them to Bill Lacey.
These parts were assembled into two engines under the ownership of Gordon Chapman and then under Bill Morris, who bought the engine parts and the Kieft chassis after Gordon Chapman's death. One engine was sold by Chapman to the then-owner of Shannon SH1, and this FPE is said to be in Austria together with Shannon SH1. Another using two of the later type twin spark plug heads in the stock, was run in the original 1954 Kieft-Climax V8 Grand Prix chassis with downdraft Weber 40IDF carburetors when they were finally mated, and the construction finished on 21 September 2002 at VSCC Silverstone Meeting, and this car was campaigned in VSCC events for the next 10 years.
Four sets of period-correct Weber 40DCNL carburetors were installed on the FPE during the 10 years, and the car, one spare chassis, and the FPE parts were sold in a lot at Bonhams Chichester auction on 15 September 2012 for £185,000.
FPF
The FPF was a double overhead cam all-aluminium Inline-four engine, four-cylinder that was essentially half of the above #FPE, FPE V8 engine, which was designed as a pure racing engine from the outset. Designed in 1955 and becoming available in 1956, it had gear-driven camshafts, steel alloy cylinder sleeves, and individual oil scavenge as well as pressure feed pumps for a dry sump system. Carburetion was by two twin-choke Weber DCO side-draft carburettors.
It started life as a 1,475 cc Formula Two
Formula Two (F2 or Formula 2) is a type of open-wheel formula racing category first codified in 1948. It was replaced in 1985 by Formula 3000, but revived by the FIA from 2009–2012 in the form of the FIA Formula Two Championship. The name retur ...
engine by enlarging the 2.95" bore of the FPE to 3.2" with the slightly increased 2.8" stroke, and was gradually enlarged for use in Formula One
Formula One (also known as Formula 1 or F1) is the highest class of international racing for open-wheel single-seater formula racing cars sanctioned by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile (FIA). The World Drivers' Championship, ...
. See the above #Design, Design section for its unusual intake port design.
A 1,964 cc (3.4" x 3.3") version took Stirling Moss
Sir Stirling Craufurd Moss (17 September 1929 – 12 April 2020) was a British Formula One racing driver. An inductee into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, he won 212 of the 529 races he entered across several categories of comp ...
and Maurice Trintignant to Cooper Car Company, Cooper's first two Grand Prix victories against 2.5 L opposition in 1958. After the interim 2,207 cc (3.5" x 3.5") version, a larger block was cast to result in 2,467 cc (3.7" x 3.5") in 1958, and then to a full-sized 2,497 cc (3.7" x 90 mm[See the FWMC description in the #FWM, FWM section for the reason for this inches/mm mixed specification]) in 1960.[See the #FWM, FWM section for the use of Metric system by Coventry Climax.] Jack Brabham won the Formula One, World Championship of Drivers in both 1959 and 1960 driving FPF powered Cooper Car Company, Coopers.
The FPF with a larger block (to accommodate larger bores) was then adapted to the new 1.5-litre Formula One of 1961 as 1,499.8 cc (82 mm x 71 mm) FPF Mk.II and won three World Championship Grand Prix races in that year. In addition, capacity was increased to 2,751 cc (96 mm x 95 mm) for the Indianapolis 500[ML Twite, The World's Racing Cars, Second Edition, 1964, page 74] and this larger variant was also utilised for sports car racing,[ the Intercontinental Formula][ML Twite, The World's Racing Cars, Second Edition, 1964, page 56] and Formula Libre racing. It also served as a stopgap in the new 3.0 L Formula One regulation, which went into effect in 1966. The old 2,497 cc FPF gained a new lease of life in 1964 with the introduction of the Tasman Formula and the Australian National Formula, both of which had a maximum engine capacity of 2.5 litres.
The following is the list of FPF versions:
* 1956 FPF 1475 cc 4 cyl 3.20" × 2.80" 141 bhp (105 kW)@7300rpm for F2
* 1957 FPF 1964 cc 4 cyl 3.40" × 3.30" 175 bhp (130 kW)@6500rpm for F1
* 1958 FPF 2207 cc 4 cyl 3.50" × 3.50" Smaller block
* 1958 FPF 2467 cc 4 cyl 3.70" × 3.50" 220 bhp (160 kW)@6500rpm Larger block for F1
* 1960 FPF 2497 cc 4 cyl 3.70" × 90 mm 239 bhp (180 kW)@6750rpm.[Setright, L.J.K., "Lotus: The Golden Mean", in Northey, Tom, ed. ''World of Automobiles'' (London: Orbis, 1974), Volume 11, p.1228.] for F1
* 1961 FPF 2751 cc 4 cyl 96 mm × 95 mm Indianapolis and Formula Libre
* 1961 FPF Mk.II 1499.8 cc 4 cyl 82 mm × 71 mm 151 bhp (113 kW)@7500rpm for F1
See the below #F1 engines, F1 engines section for comparison to other models.
FWM
The FW was designed in response to the British Government's Ministry of Defence (1947–1964), Defence Ministry (MoD) requisition outline issued in 1950, specifying a water pump and petrol engine combination to deliver 350 gallons of water per minute at 100 psi, with 35 to 40 bhp at the weight of 350 pounds or less. The successful bid by a portable pump driven by the 38 bhp FW mounted in a steel pipe frame resulted in a 5000 unit supply contract in 1952.
By 1956, 1460 cc FWB was adapted back to a higher output fire pump engine as FWBP with good results, and led to the realisation that the newer 35 hp general purpose engine specification by the government (including for Search Lights and Generator Sets) could be met with a smaller displacement engine. This resulted in the development of SOHC 654 cc (2.35" bore x 2.25" stroke) FWM in 1957, which basically was a smaller and lighter version of FWP with many detailed differences that reflect the improvements and cost-cutting as well as weight-saving measures found in the development of FWA, FWB, and FWE. The differences include:
* Deletion of the intermediary shaft (Jackshaft) making the cam drive a single stage chain as opposed to FW series' two stage gear/chain set up. This made the camshaft turn in the same direction as the crank.
* Conrod big end part line was made horizontal, as opposed to the previous diagonal.
* The number of cylinder head studs was reduced from 18 to 10.
Evolution
FWM was then developed into an automotive engine as FWMA of 742 cc with larger 2.45" bore and 2.4" stroke in 1959. Several versions of FWMD diesel utility engines, including a marine version, followed, and then a chain-driven DOHC 2 valves per cylinder crossflow cylinder head was developed and became the FWMC, succeeding FWC as the all-out racing engine for the 750cc class. FWMC became known for the unusually loud and high-pitched exhaust note when installed in a specially made super-light version of Lotus Elite
The Lotus Elite name has been used for two production vehicles and one concept vehicle developed and manufactured by British automobile manufacturer Lotus Cars. The first generation Elite Type 14 was produced from 1957 until 1963 and the second ...
run by British Racing Partnership, UDT Laystall at 1961 24 Hours of Le Mans, 1961 Le Mans 24 Hours.
It was this 4 cylinder DOHC FWMC that was used as the basis to develop the successful #FWMV, FWMV V8.
However, coinciding with the promotion of Peter Windsor Smith as the Chief Engineer (reporting to Walter Hassan) in 1960, Coventry Climax reverted (as in OC and JM engines) to using the metric system for specifying piston and crankshaft sizes, so FWMV was born with 63 mm (2.4803") bore and 60 mm (2.3622") stroke, ending up having almost no parts interchangeability to FWMC despite having an extremely similar design.
To streamline production, the 63 mm × 60 mm sizes were later applied back to the 4 cylinder engine to form the 748 cc FWMB with the same cylinder head as the FWMA.
FWMV
The 1.5-litre FWMV V8, developed from FWMC using a crossplane
The crossplane or cross-plane is a crankshaft design for piston engines with a 90° angle (phase in crank rotation) between the crank throws. The crossplane crankshaft is the most popular configuration used in V8 road cars.
Aside from the V8 alre ...
crankshaft, was designed in 1960 and ran for the first time in May 1961. It produced from 11.5:1 compression ratio and made its debut on Cooper Cars, Cooper T58 at 1961 German GP in August. Initial developments resulted in at 8500rpm soon after, but Jack Brabham
Sir John Arthur Brabham (2 April 1926 – 19 May 2014) was an Australian racing driver who was Formula One World Champion in , , and . He was a founder of the Brabham racing team and race car constructor that bore his name.
Brabham was a R ...
at Cooper and Stirling Moss
Sir Stirling Craufurd Moss (17 September 1929 – 12 April 2020) was a British Formula One racing driver. An inductee into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, he won 212 of the 529 races he entered across several categories of comp ...
at Rob Walker Racing Team suffered over-heating problems while enjoying a great amount of power for the rest of the season.
The problem was diagnosed to originate in the thermal expansion rate of the cylinder sleeve causing the Wills Ring, Cooper Ring in between the block and the head to leak. With this problem solved in the Mk.II 186 bhp version, having a larger 1.35" intake valves (1.30" previously), FWMV started to score GP victories, ending the 1962 season with 3 wins for Lotus, 1 win for Cooper, 5 second places and 4 third places, in addition to 7 pole positions and 6 fastest laps.
For 1963, Coventry Climax was able to convince Lucas Industries, Lucas to supply the cogged belt-driven fuel injection system originally developed for British Racing Motors, BRM with then-unique sliding throttle plates with four round intake bores cut out. With the larger bore (from 63 mm to 68 mm) and shorter stroke (60 mm to 51.5 mm) compared to Mk.II, notable changes include the increase in conrod length (from 4.2" to 5.1" centre to centre, with a shorter piston crown height) and the switch from crossplane
The crossplane or cross-plane is a crankshaft design for piston engines with a 90° angle (phase in crank rotation) between the crank throws. The crossplane crankshaft is the most popular configuration used in V8 road cars.
Aside from the V8 alre ...
to flat-plane crankshaft, which surprisingly did not increase vibration in the higher RPM range because the longer conrod length counteracted the increase in Engine balance#Secondary balance, secondary vibration inherent in flatplane design.
The flat-plane crank was adopted partly due to Rob Walker Racing Team, Rob Walker's proposed successor to the 4WD Ferguson P99 Formula 1 having a front engine layout, which could not accommodate exhaust pipes that merge with pipes from exhaust ports on the opposing banks on Crossplane#90° V8 crankshaft, crossplane arrangement, but this project did not materialise. Later, such an elaborate crossplane exhaust system became known as "Crossplane#Bundle of Snakes, bundle of snakes" on the Ford GT40, but was a feature of FWMV Mk.I and Mk.II.
This Mk.III developed at 9500rpm, propelling Jim Clark, Lotus 25 and Team Lotus to 7 wins, 7 pole positions, 6 fastest laps, and the World Championship title.
Mk.4 was developed for 1964 with yet larger bore (72.4 mm) and shorter stroke (45.5 mm) with a larger exhaust valve (from 1.237" to 1.37") and 12:1 compression ratio to result in at 9750rpm.
One-off Mk.5 was made with a larger inlet valve (from 1.35" to 1.40") for , which was delivered to Lotus and said to be used by Clark in the 1964 season. Mk.4 and Mk.5 scored five wins (three by Clark for Lotus, two by Gurney for Brabham), seven pole positions, and seven fastest laps.
A one-off 4 valve Mk.6 had 1.04" intake and 0.935" exhaust valves, new pistons, cylinder sleeves and crankshaft, and had gear driven camshafts as opposed to the previous chain drive. This engine made at 10300rpm and went to Lotus during 1965. Another 4 valve one-off, Mk.7, was built with 1.107" intake and 1.043" exhaust and all the new Mk.6 parts for at 10500rpm, and was delivered to Brabham. However, these engines started showing reliability problems.
Except for these two one-off 4 valve engines with characteristic ribbed cam covers, all the FWMVs used in 1965 season were 2 valve Mk.5 or earlier versions with various levels of upgrade. This was because Coventry Climax had started the FWMW flat-16 project, which was finally announced at the beginning of 1965, and had more than a handful in things needed to be developed or solved, so the 4 valve configuration on FWMV did not get completely developed nor did reach a series production. However, Jim Clark was able to win 6 championship races (3 with Mk.6), 6 pole positions and 6 fastest laps to become the 1965 World Champion.
At the end of the 1965 season, the failure of FWMW project left Coventry Climax with no 3 litre successor to FWMV for the next season, so a 2 Litre version of FWMV was assembled using Mk.4 bore (72.40 mm) and Mk.II stroke (60.00 mm) and was used by Lotus in 1966 as a stopgap until 3 litre BRM H-16 engines became available but with little success. However, Jim Clark won the 1967 Tasman Series with this engine in his Lotus 33.
Overall, FWMV powered Cooper Car Company, Cooper, Team Lotus, Lotus and Brabham Formula One cars won 22 World Championship Grand Prix races.
FWMW
By the middle of the 1962 season, Peter Windsor Smith and Walter Hassan were convinced that the only viable route to more power was through higher revs, and the decision was made, partly in light of Harry Mundy's experiences on the 1.5-Litre supercharged British Racing Motors V16, BRM V16, to develop a 1.5-Litre Flat-sixteen engine, flat-16 designated the FWMW. Design work started in 1963, and a prototype was running on the bench in late 1964 with two flatplane flat-8 cranks end-to-end, shrunk-fit to a central spur gear at 90 degrees phase shift to each other (not a true Boxer engine, boxer arrangement, but rather with opposing pistons sharing a crankpin).
Work on this project continued through the later years of the 1.5 Litre formula with Lotus and Brabham the likely recipients. The engine was fairly compact at 30.9" long (only 1" longer than FWMV Mk.4) and 22.6" wide, but there were a number of design issues still to solve before the formula ran out. Not only had the engine shown no power advantage over the V8 despite its much higher rev limit, but it had mechanical problems that would have required either a major rework to solve properly or, at the least, the need for complete engine rebuilds after 3 hours of running.
From the outset, the largest problem was torsional vibration of the crankshaft, which at one time necessitated a ban on using below 4000rpm on the bench. The vibration often caused one or other of the cranks to shear itself off the central spur gear, resulting in the engine becoming two aphasic flat-8s, or the parallel quill shaft (driven at 0.8 times the crank speed, located below crank, and in turn driving the flywheel and ancillaries) overheated and disintegrated.
The central power-take-off system using the parallel shaft was intended to reduce torsional vibration of the long crankshaft, but destructive vibration appeared no matter what was changed in firing order, crank counter-weight configuration or crankshaft weight distribution.
As a result, Coventry Climax could not derive revenues from the project, and was further forced to develop a 2-Litre version of FWMV so that Lotus, who built one Lotus 33 chassis specifically for FWMW, and were counting on using FWMW's anticipated 3-Litre successor, could avoid missing the first races of the 1966 season. Neither the old 4 cylinder FPF nor the 8 cylinder FWMV could be enlarged to 3 Litres, and the 11 years old 2.5-Litre FPE parts had been sold off in their entirety and were in the hands of Paul Emery, who was in the process of enlarging FPE to 3-Litres as described in the above #FPE, FPE section.
Partly because of this project's grand scale failure, and partly because of Jaguar's take over in 1963, Coventry Climax could not develop a 3-Litre successor to FWMW, and announced its withdrawal from the F1 engine business, with its reputation and the long-standing relationship with Team Lotus, Lotus seriously tarnished.
Jaguar V12
Having designed and developed the successful Jaguar XK6 engine, Jaguar XK engine under the guidance of William Heynes at SS Cars Ltd, Walter Hassan and the team were tasked to develop a Jaguar 5.0 L DOHC
An overhead camshaft (OHC) engine is a piston engine where the camshaft is located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier overhead valve engines (OHV), where the camshaft is located below the combustion c ...
V12 engine when Coventry Climax was purchased by Jaguar in 1963.
It was about this time when Walter Hassan convinced Harry Mundy, who had left to become the Technical Editor of ''Autocar (magazine), The Autocar'' magazine in 1955 (while there he also designed the Lotus-Ford Twin Cam for Colin Chapman
Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman (19 May 1928 – 16 December 1982) was an English design engineer, inventor, and builder in the automotive industry, and founder of Lotus Cars.
In 1952 he founded the sports car company Lotus Cars. Chapman ...
), to rejoin the team, which now included the Jaguar engineer, Claude Bailey, who always worked under William Heynes from the days of XK engine development. William Heynes was the executive in charge of the team, who retired in July 1969.
This engine was initially conceived in 1954 for the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Le Mans 24 Hour Race by combining two Jaguar XK cylinder heads on a common 60 degree block.
The first prototype was assembled in 1964 with LM8 aluminium alloy sand cast block and flanged cast iron liners, EN4A forged and nitrided 7 main bearing crankshaft for 4994 cc (87 mm × 70 mm). This racing engine, with its intake ports in between the intake and the exhaust camshafts, came out to be the fuel-injected 5L DOHC Jaguar XJ13 engine in 1966, but more importantly, it was further developed by the same team into the series-production Jaguar V12 engine, 5.3 L SOHC V12 engine. This engine, with characteristically long intake tracts connecting the four carburetors on the outside of cam covers to the intake ports inside the V angle, came out to the market on Jaguar E-Type in 1971, on Jaguar XJ#Series 1 (1968–1973), Jaguar XJ12 in 1972, and, together with the later 6.0 L version, remained in production until 1997.
CFA and CFF
After the designing was finished on the 5.3 L V12 and the Jaguar XJ, Jaguar wanted a modern engine for a smaller version of Jaguar XJ, XJ. Although Jaguar had gained access to the 2.5 Litre iron block Daimler V8 engines, Daimler V8 with the take over of Daimler in 1960, it was a pushrod engine designed in the 1950s, and was not particularly small or light as it was based on, and had many common components with, Daimler Majestic Major#4½ litre 220hp V8 Engine, the 4.5 Litre version.
In response, Coventry Climax designed an aluminium crossflow chain-driven SOHC cylinder head somewhat similar to the 5.3L V12 head, on FWMV Mk.4 block with a stroked crank and wet sump. Tecalemit-Jackson fuel injection was used for the development of this 2,496 cc CFA V8 that weighed 300 lb, with a bore and stroke of 80.77 mm and 60.96 mm and the engine was installed on Leonard Pelham Lee's personal Triumph 2000#Triumph 2000 Mark I, Triumph 2000 Estate.
The testing was promising, producing more than 200 bhp at 7,000 rpm in flexible sports-car tune and a 1,812 cc CFF version was prototyped; however, this 1.8 - 2.5 Litre baby XJ project was killed along with the V8 engines when British Motor Holdings
British Motor Holdings Limited (BMH) was a British vehicle manufacturing company known until 14 December 1966 as British Motor Corporation Limited (BMC). BMH was created as a holding company following BMC's takeover of both Jaguar Cars and th ...
merged with Leyland Motor Corporation
Leyland Motors Limited (later known as the Leyland Motor Corporation) was a British vehicle manufacturer of lorries, buses and trolleybuses. The company diversified into car manufacturing with its acquisitions of Triumph and Rover in 1960 and 1 ...
in 1968 for the strategy to eliminate internal competition against what came out to be the Rover SD1.
F1 engines
The F1 engines were as follows (bore and stroke figures are unified in inches on Metric designs for comparison):
* 1954 FPE 2492cc V-8 2.95 x 2.78125" @7900rpm Godiva
* 1956 FPF 1475cc 4 cyl 3.20 x 2.80" @7300rpm for F2, ran in GP races
* 1957 FPF 1964cc 4 cyl 3.40 x 3.30" @6500rpm
* 1958 FPF 2207cc 4 cyl 3.50 x 3.50" power figures unknown
* 1958 FPF 2467cc 4 cyl 3.70 x 3.50" @6500rpm
* 1960 FPF 2497cc 4 cyl 3.70 x 3.54" @6750rpm
* 1961 FPF 2751cc 4 cyl 3.78 x 3.74" Indianapolis and Formula Libre
* 1961 FPF Mk.II 1499.8cc 4 cyl 3.23 x 2.80" @7500rpm
* 1961 FWMV Mk.I 1496cc V-8 2.48 x 2.36" @8500rpm Crossplane Crankshaft, crank
* 1962 FWMV Mk.II 1496cc V-8 2.48 x 2.36" @8500rpm 1.35" Intake, Crossplane
* 1963 FWMV Mk.III 1496cc V-8 2.675 x 2.03" @9500rpm Fuel injection, Flatplane
* 1964 FWMV Mk.4 1499cc V-8 2.85 x 1.79" @9750rpm 1.37" Exhaust, Flatplane
* 1964 FWMV Mk.5 1499cc V-8 2.85 x 1.79" @9750rpm 1.4" Intake, Lotus
* 1965 FWMV Mk.6 1499cc V-8 2.85 x 1.79" @10300rpm 4 valve/cyl, Lotus
* 1965 FWMV Mk.7 1499cc V-8 2.85 x 1.79" @10500rpm 4 valve/cyl, 1.107" Intake, Brabham
* 1966 FWMV Mk.8 1976cc V-8 2.85 x 2.36" @8900rpm 2 valve/cyl, Lotus, Bonnier
* 1964 FWMW 1495cc F-16 2.13 x 1.60" @12000rpm 2 valve/cyl[
]
Formula One legacy
In the period 1958-1965, Climax-powered cars won 40 (out of 75) World Championship Grands Prix, were runners-up on another 8 occasions, and won 59 non-championship races. The last win for a Climax-powered car in an international event was Mike Spence's win in the non-championship 1966 South African Grand Prix, driving a Lotus 33. The last entries for Climax-powered cars in a World Championship Grand Prix were at the 1969 Canadian Grand Prix, where John Cordts' Brabham retired with an oil leak and Al Pease in an All American Racing, Eagle was disqualified for driving too slowly.
World Championship Formula One wins
Complete Formula One World Championship results
Climax-powered vehicles
Some notable Coventry Climax-powered cars:
* 1911 GWK, 2 cyl. Coventry Simplex
* 1913 Aston Martin, Bamford & Martin, 4 cyl. Coventry Simplex, The first Aston Martin
Aston Martin Lagonda Global Holdings PLC is an English manufacturer of luxury sports cars and grand tourers. Its predecessor was founded in 1913 by Lionel Martin and Robert Bamford. Steered from 1947 by David Brown, it became associated with ...
* 1922 Lea Francis C-Type, 1074cc OC
* 1922 Clyno
Clyno Engineering Company, later Clyno Engineering Company (1922) Ltd, was a motorcycle and car manufacturer that operated in Thrapston from 1909 to 1910 and then in Wolverhampton from 1910 to 1929. During this time they produced over 15,000 mo ...
1368cc F-type (also 1496cc, 1593cc)
* 1925 Waverley Cars, 1990cc CX
* 1929 AJS Nine, 1018cc OC
* 1930 Crossley
Crossley, based in Manchester, United Kingdom, was a pioneering company in the production of internal combustion engines. Since 1988 it has been part of the Rolls-Royce Power Engineering group.
More than 100,000 Crossley oil and gas engines ...
10, 1122cc OC
* 1933 Vale Special, 1098cc OC, 1476cc JM
* 1935 Triumph Motor Company, Triumph Gloria, 1087/1232cc OC, 1476/1991cc JM
* 1935 Crossley
Crossley, based in Manchester, United Kingdom, was a pioneering company in the production of internal combustion engines. Since 1988 it has been part of the Rolls-Royce Power Engineering group.
More than 100,000 Crossley oil and gas engines ...
Regis, 1122cc OC, 1476 cc and 1640cc JM
* 1936 Morgan Motor Company, Morgan 4-4, 1122cc OC
* 1954 Kieft-Climax 1100 LeMans, 1098cc FWA
* 1954 Kieft-Climax V8, 2492cc FPE, not raced
* 1955 Cooper T39 Climax 'Bobtail', 1098cc FWA
* 1955 Lotus Mark IX 1098 FWA Le Mans
* 1955-64 Cooper Car Company, Cooper Monaco Mk.I(T49), Mk.II(T57/59), Mk.III(T61/62/64), 1475/1964/2203/2467/2751cc FPF
* 1956–7 Lotus Eleven
The Lotus Eleven is a sports racing car built in various versions by Lotus from 1956 until 1958. The later versions built in 1958 are sometimes referred to as Lotus 13, although this was not an official designation. In total, about 270 Elevens ...
, 1098cc FWA, 1460cc FWB, 744cc FWC
* 1957 Cooper T43 Climax, 1964cc FPF, The first mid-engine car to win a Grand Prix
* 1957-58 Lotus 12 Climax, 1475/1964/2203cc FPF
* 1957-63 Lotus Elite
The Lotus Elite name has been used for two production vehicles and one concept vehicle developed and manufactured by British automobile manufacturer Lotus Cars. The first generation Elite Type 14 was produced from 1957 until 1963 and the second ...
, 1216cc FWE, 742cc FWMC (British Racing Partnership, UDT Laystall, 1961 24 Hours of Le Mans, 1961 Le Mans)
* 1958 TVR Grantura, 1216cc FWE
* 1958-60 Lotus 16 Climax, 1475/1964/2467/2495cc FPF
* 1959 Lotus 17, 1098cc FWA, 1460cc FWB, 742cc FWMA
* 1959 Cooper T51, 2467cc FPF, World Champion
* 1959-65 Turner Sports Cars#Turner Sports Mk I, Turner Sports, 1098cc FWA, 1216cc FWE
* 1960-61 Lotus 18, 2495cc FPF, 1475cc FPF
* 1960 Cooper T53, 2495cc FPF, World Champion
* 1960-63 Lotus 19, 2467/2495/2751cc FPF
* 1961 Cooper Car Company, Cooper T54, 2751cc FPF, The first mid-engine Indy car
* 1962-64 Lotus 23, 742cc FWMC, 748cc FWMB
* 1962-65 Lotus 25, 1496/1497cc FWMV, World Champion
* 1963–76 Hillman Imp
The Hillman Imp is a small economy car that was made by the Rootes Group and its successor Chrysler Europe from 1963 until 1976. Revealed on 3 May 1963, after much advance publicity, it was the first British mass-produced car with the engine blo ...
, 875 – 998cc derivative of the FWMA, adapted by Rootes
* 1964-65 Brabham BT11, 1497cc FWMV
* 1965 Lotus 33, 1497cc FWMV, World Champion
* 1965–75 Bond 875 and Bond Ranger, low compression version of Imp engine
* 1967-74 Ginetta Cars, Ginetta G15, 875cc Imp and 998cc Rally Imp engines
* 1971-74 Clan (car), Clan Crusader, 875cc Imp engine
See also
* Cosworth
* List of automotive superlatives
* Forklift truck
References
*'Coventry Climax Racing Engines: The Definitive Development History' Author — Des Hammill ()
*'History of Coventry Climax
from Archive.Org
*'Climax in Coventry' Author Walter Hassan ()
External links
Coventry Climax (Class 12) UK trade mark registration. https://trademarks.ipo.gov.uk/ipo-tmcase/page/Results/1/UK00003116965Development of zero-emission hydrogen fuel cell drivetrains.
Kalmar Limited UK
(Formerly Kalmar Climax)
*
2.75L FPF warming up on Cooper T54
The technical history of the Jaguar V12 engine
Jaguar V12 explained by Walter Hassan and Harry Mundy
- a 1939 ''Flight'' advertisement
Catalogue of the Conveyancer Group (Rubery Owen Conveyancer Ltd) archives
held at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick
Catalogue of the Conveyancer Fork Lift Trucks Ltd archives
held at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick
Catalogue of the Conveyancer-Scott Electric Vehicles Ltd archives
held at the Modern Records Centre, University of Warwick
{{Authority control
Formula One engine manufacturers
Forklift truck manufacturers
British Leyland
Engine manufacturers of the United Kingdom
Manufacturing companies based in Coventry
Manufacturing companies established in 1903
Coventry motor companies
1903 establishments in England
British companies established in 1903
History of science and technology in the United Kingdom