Coventry Climax

British forklift truck, fire pump, and speciality engine manufacturer Coventry Climax Godiva fire pump in a Green Goddess Coventry Climax was a British manufacturer of forklift trucks, fire pumps, racing engines, and other speciality engines. History Pre WWI The company was started in 1903 as Lee Stroyer, a joint venture by Jens Stroyer and Horace Pelham Lee, a former Daimler employee, who saw an opportunity in the nascent internal combustion engine market. In 1905, following the departure of Stroyer, it was relocated to Paynes Lane, Coventry, and renamed as Coventry Simplex by Lee. 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, a Coventry-Simplex engine was used by Lionel Martin to power the first Aston Martin car. Ernest Shackleton selected Coventry-Simplex to power the tractors that were to be used in his Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914. Hundreds of Coventry-Simplex engines were manufactured during the First World War to be used in generator sets for searchlights. Post WWI In 1919, Pelham Lee acquired an existing company, Johnson & Smith Ltd, and changed its