Coventry Climax facts for kids

Quick facts for kids
Coventry Climax

Former type	Limited company
Industry	Speciality machinery and engine manufacture
Fate	Purchased by Jaguar Cars, businesses merged by British Leyland or divested
Predecessor	Johnson & Smith Ltd.
Successor	Kalmar Climax (forklift business)
Founded	1903
Defunct	1986 (Coventry Climax Holdings Ltd)
Headquarters	Coventry
Key people	Lee Stroyer, Henry Pelham Lee, Leonard Pelham Lee Walter Hassan, Harry Mundy, Peter Windsor Smith

A Coventry Climax Godiva fire pump inside a Green Goddess fire engine.

Coventry Climax was a British company famous for making engines. They built engines for many different things, like forklift trucks, fire pumps, and even powerful racing cars. They were especially well-known for their engines in Formula One racing during the late 1950s and early 1960s.

History of Coventry Climax

Early Days (Before 1918)

The company started in 1903 as Lee Stroyer. A couple of years later, in 1905, it moved to Coventry and changed its name to Coventry-Simplex. This happened because H. Pelham Lee, who used to work for Daimler, saw a need for more engine makers.

Early on, their engines were used in cars like the GWK. Just before World War I, a Coventry-Simplex engine powered the very first Aston Martin car. Even famous explorer Ernest Shackleton chose their engines for tractors on his 1914 expedition to Antarctica. During World War I, hundreds of their engines were made for searchlight generators.

Growing and Changing (After 1918)

In 1919, Pelham Lee bought another company and renamed it Coventry Climax Engines Ltd. They kept making engines for many light cars throughout the 1920s and 1930s, for brands like Morgan and Triumph.

When one of their car customers, Swift, closed down in 1931, Coventry Climax had extra engines. They cleverly turned these into electric generators and mobile fire pumps. This mobile fire pump business became very successful, especially during the tough economic times of the 1930s and during World War II.

They also started making bigger engines for buses and trucks. For example, their engines were used in Karrier refuse trucks and Gilford coaches. During the war, they even developed a special engine for military vehicles, which was later used in British Chieftain and Challenger tanks.

Racing Success (After 1945)

A Coventry Climax ET 199 forklift truck from 1949.

After World War II, the company focused less on car engines and more on other products like marine engines and forklift trucks. In 1946, they launched the ET199, which they said was the first British-made forklift.

In 1950, a brilliant engineer named Harry Mundy joined the company. He helped design a new, super-light engine called the FW (Feather Weight) for a portable fire pump. This engine was amazing because it was very light but also very powerful.

People in motor racing noticed how good this engine was. They convinced Coventry Climax to adapt it for cars, leading to the FWA engine. The first Coventry Climax racing engine appeared at the 1954 24 Hours of Le Mans race. The FWA and its improved versions, like the FWB, became very popular in sports car racing.

By 1957, Coventry Climax engines started appearing in Formula One cars. The FPF engine was a big success, and in 1959, Jack Brabham won the Formula One World Championship using a Cooper-Climax car. The FWE engine also powered the Lotus Elite car, which won many races.

In 1961, Formula One rules changed to smaller 1.5-litre engines. Coventry Climax developed a new V8 engine called the FWMV. This engine was incredibly successful, especially in Lotus cars driven by Jim Clark. They won 22 Grand Prix races before 1966.

Around the same time, Coventry Climax also helped Rootes mass-produce an engine for a new family car, the Hillman Imp. This engine was based on their FWMA design and was very advanced for its time. Over 400,000 Hillman Imp cars were made.

Later Years and Legacy

In 1962, Coventry Climax announced they would stop making Formula One engines because it was too expensive. However, they stayed in Formula One until they couldn't create a new engine for the 3-litre rules.

In 1963, Jaguar Cars bought Coventry Climax. Then, Jaguar merged with other companies to form British Leyland in 1968. Coventry Climax became part of this larger group.

In 1964, Coventry Climax received the prestigious Dewar Trophy for their amazing work in designing and building engines that made British cars leaders in Grand Prix racing.

In the 1970s and 1980s, parts of Coventry Climax were sold off. The fire pump business became a separate company called Godiva Fire Pumps. The forklift truck business was also sold and later became part of Kalmar Industries. Today, the "Coventry Climax" name is owned by a Canadian person.

Famous Engines

How They Designed Engines

The great reputation of Coventry Climax engines is largely thanks to engineers Walter Hassan and Harry Mundy. They designed the FW engine together. Here are some cool things about their designs:

• Quick Start: The FW engine, originally for fire pumps, could run at full power almost instantly without needing a long warm-up. This meant it had very strong parts and good lubrication, which also made it super durable for racing.
• Smart Airflow: They designed the engine's internal parts to make the air swirl in a special way inside the engine. This helped the engine breathe better and produce more power.
• V8 Innovation: For their FWMV V8 racing engine, they proved that a "flat-plane" crankshaft was better for racing V8s than the traditional "crossplane" design. This was a big deal at the time and became standard for racing V8s later on.

The FW Engine Series

A 1098cc FWA engine inside a Lotus 17 racing car.

The Lotus Elite car, which used the FWE engine.

The FW engine (Feather Weight) was first designed in 1950 for portable fire pumps. It was revolutionary because it was incredibly light (only about 80 kg) but still very powerful.

In 1953, it was adapted for racing cars and became the FWA. This engine was first used in the 1954 24 Hours of Le Mans race. The FWB and FWE versions followed, with the FWE becoming very popular in sports car racing because of its durability and great power for its size. The FWE-powered Lotus Elite cars won their class six times at the 24 Hours of Le Mans race.

The FPE ('Godiva') Engine

This was a powerful 2.5-litre V8 engine designed in 1954 specifically for Formula One. It was nicknamed 'Godiva'. Even though it showed great power in tests, it wasn't used in races because the fuel injection system wasn't quite ready for car racing. However, parts of these engines were later used in other racing projects.

The FPF Engine

A 2.5L FPF engine in a Lotus 18 racing car.

The 1961 Cooper T54, the first mid-engine car to race in the Indy 500, used a 2.75L FPF engine.

The FPF was a four-cylinder engine designed in 1955. It was essentially half of the FPE V8. It started as a 1.5-litre engine for Formula Two races and was gradually made bigger for Formula One.

In 1958, a 2-litre version helped Stirling Moss win Coventry Climax's first Formula One race. Later, a 2.5-litre version helped Jack Brabham win the Formula One World Championship in both 1959 and 1960 with Cooper cars. The FPF was a very successful engine for Coventry Climax.

The FWMV Engine

An FWMV Mk.III engine on a Lotus 24 racing car.

An FWMV Mk.4 engine on a Cooper T66 racing car.

The FWMV was a 1.5-litre V8 engine designed in 1960. It was developed from the smaller FWMC engine. It first appeared in a Cooper car in 1961.

After some early issues were fixed, the FWMV became incredibly powerful. In 1963, with new fuel injection and a special "flat-plane" crankshaft, it helped Jim Clark and Team Lotus win 7 races and the World Championship title. The FWMV continued to win races in 1964 and 1965, making Jim Clark the 1965 World Champion as well.

Overall, FWMV-powered cars from Cooper, Lotus, and Brabham won 22 Formula One Grand Prix races.

The FWMW Engine (The Flat-16)

In the early 1960s, engineers wanted even more power, so they started designing a very ambitious 1.5-litre "flat-16" engine called the FWMW. This engine was meant to rev very high.

However, this project faced many technical problems, especially with vibrations in the crankshaft. It didn't produce the expected power and was very unreliable. Because this big project failed, Coventry Climax decided not to build a new 3-litre engine for the next Formula One rules and eventually left the F1 engine business.

Jaguar V12 Engine

After Jaguar bought Coventry Climax in 1963, the talented engineers, including Walter Hassan and Harry Mundy, helped design the famous Jaguar V12 engine. This powerful engine was first used in the Jaguar E-Type car in 1971 and stayed in production for many years.

Formula One Wins

Coventry Climax engines were incredibly successful in Formula One. Between 1958 and 1965, cars powered by Climax engines won 40 World Championship Grand Prix races! They also won 4 World Championships for constructors (the teams) and 4 World Championships for drivers.

World Championship Formula One Wins

Year	Race	Team	Driver	Car	Engine
1958	Argentine Grand Prix	R.R.C. Walker Racing Team	Stirling Moss	Cooper T43	FPF
	Monaco Grand Prix		Maurice Trintignant	Cooper T45
1959	Monaco Grand Prix	Cooper Car Company	Jack Brabham	Cooper T51	FPF
	British Grand Prix
	Portuguese Grand Prix	R.R.C. Walker Racing Team	Stirling Moss
	Italian Grand Prix
	United States Grand Prix	Cooper Car Company	Bruce McLaren
1960	Argentine Grand Prix	Cooper Car Company	Bruce McLaren	Cooper T51	FPF
	Monaco Grand Prix	R.R.C. Walker Racing Team	Stirling Moss	Lotus 18
	Dutch Grand Prix	Cooper Car Company	Jack Brabham	Cooper T53
	Belgian Grand Prix
	French Grand Prix
	British Grand Prix
	Portuguese Grand Prix
	United States Grand Prix	R.R.C. Walker Racing Team	Stirling Moss	Lotus 18
1961	Monaco Grand Prix	R.R.C. Walker Racing Team	Stirling Moss	Lotus 18	FPF Mk II
	German Grand Prix			Lotus 18/21
	United States Grand Prix	Team Lotus	Innes Ireland	Lotus 21
1962	Monaco Grand Prix	Cooper Car Company	Bruce McLaren	Cooper T60	FWMV
	Belgian Grand Prix	Team Lotus	Jim Clark	Lotus 25
	British Grand Prix
	United States Grand Prix
1963	Belgian Grand Prix	Team Lotus	Jim Clark	Lotus 25	FWMV
	Dutch Grand Prix
	French Grand Prix
	British Grand Prix
	Italian Grand Prix
	Mexican Grand Prix
	South African Grand Prix
1964	Dutch Grand Prix	Team Lotus	Jim Clark	Lotus 25	FWMV
	Belgian Grand Prix
	French Grand Prix	Brabham Racing Organisation	Dan Gurney	Brabham BT7
	British Grand Prix	Team Lotus	Jim Clark	Lotus 25
	Mexican Grand Prix	Brabham Racing Organisation	Dan Gurney	Brabham BT7
1965	South African Grand Prix	Team Lotus	Jim Clark	Lotus 33	FWMV
	Belgian Grand Prix
	French Grand Prix			Lotus 25
	British Grand Prix			Lotus 33
	Dutch Grand Prix
	German Grand Prix

Vehicles with Climax Engines

Here are some famous cars that used Coventry Climax engines:

• 1913 Bamford & Martin (the very first Aston Martin)
• 1936 Morgan 4-4
• 1954 Kieft-Climax 1100 LeMans
• 1955 Cooper T39 Climax 'Bobtail'
• 1956–7 Lotus Eleven
• 1957 Cooper T43 Climax (the first mid-engine car to win a Grand Prix)
• 1957-63 Lotus Elite
• 1959 Cooper T51 (Formula One World Champion)
• 1960 Cooper T53 (Formula One World Champion)
• 1961 Cooper T54 (the first mid-engine car to race in the Indy 500)
• 1962-65 Lotus 25 (Formula One World Champion)
• 1963–76 Hillman Imp (its engine design was based on Coventry Climax's FWMA)
• 1965 Lotus 33 (Formula One World Champion)

See also

• Cosworth (another famous engine manufacturer)
• Forklift truck