The Critchley Light car was briefly manufactured by

Daimler Company The Daimler Company Limited ( ), prior to 1910 The Daimler Motor Company Limited, was an independent British motor vehicle manufacturer founded in London by H. J. Lawson in 1896, which set up its manufacturing base in Coventry. The compan ...

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 ...

in 1899 to find use for about 50 unwanted 4 h.p. engines shipped to Coventry by the German Daimler works at

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

. The car was well regarded and sold well but was not intended to extend Daimler's range of high-powered expensive motorcars. As such, it was named Critchley after James S. Critchley Daimler's works manager The car was equipped with advanced features, including pneumatic tyres and wheel steering. The engine was mounted transversely, with the flywheel rotating in the direction of travel. The water-cooled engine drove the rear wheels through a belt transmission. The belt was tensioned by moving the engine forward or backward in the frame. The steering wheel was on a vertical column on the right side of the car, such that it could only be operated by the driver's right hand. In 1900, a redesign of the Critchley Light Car was built and sold as the "Kimberley".

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* * * * British brands Daimler vehicles {{veteran-auto-stub