Coventry-Victor Motor Co
Coventry-Victor of Cox Street, Coventry were motorcycles and cars produced from 1919 to 1935 by the Coventry-Victor Motor Company Limited.
- 1904 Morton & Weaver was a proprietary engine manufacturer in Hillfields, Coventry, founded in 1904
- 1911 It changed its name to Coventry-Victor' in 1911.
The company started manufacturing horizontally opposed engines in 1904, and in 1906 one powered the first monoplane, the Weaver Ornithoplane, to fly in Britain. It was designed by W. A. Weaver, one of the partners in the company. Later they supplied engines to many motor cycle and cyclecar makers, especially Graham-White.
Between 1919 and 1930 Coventry-Victor, using their 688cc flat twin engine, started making motor cycle and sidecar combinations many of which were used as commercial outfits.
Motorcycles
- 1919 The engine first became available and was sold to assemblers including Ayres-Layland, Bulldog, McKechnie and Regent. Throughout its existence the firm produced horizontally opposed twin-cylinder engines.
- 1921 The company built its first model with a 689cc sv flat-twin engine produced by Morton and Weaver who were closely associated with Coventry-Victor. The machine performed well in the Brooklands 500 mile Race that year.
- 1922 A replica of the Brooklands machine went into production as the Super Six. It was an eye-catching beast with high-level exhaust pipes on the left side and a bulbous-nosed saddle tank.
- 1923-1927 The Super Six was produced as a racing model in various forms and a supercharged version was guaranteed to reach 80mph.
- 1929 The company unexpectedly unveiled the Dirt Track model which was produced until 1932.
- 1933 Unchanged vintage looks resulted in the machines looking very out-dated, so the Dirt Track was dropped.
- 1935 The 486cc road bike went out of production soon to be followed by the 689cc sv twin and by the end of the year manufacturing had ceased completely.
Cars
By 1926, the company found a new scope of activity: they launched their own design two seater, three-wheeler [cars|car]] with the single wheel at the rear. There were four versions, the Standard, the Sports, the De-luxe and the Parcelcar with prices starting at £75. It used their own horizontal twin-cylinder engines of 688cc at first, later enlarged to 749cc, 850cc and finally 998cc. Drive was to the rear wheel via a two-speed gearbox and chain drive. Early cars had a single brake.
There was an updating in 1932, with styling by C. F. Beauvais and called the Luxury Sports with three-speed gearbox and costing from £110. The previous models remained available. Car production survived until 1938.
After World War II, a prototype, codenamed Venus, was made with flat four 747cc engine never reached production. Instead, the company concentrated on small diesel engines for the maritime market.
The company still exists as A. N. Weaver (Coventry Victor) Ltd.