The company began in 1903 as Lee Stroyer, was renamed Coventry Simplex in 1905, and became Coventry Climax Engines in 1919. Its Simplex engine powered the first Aston Martin, built by Lionel Martin just before the First World War. Through the 1920s and 1930s it supplied engines to light-car makers including Morgan, Triumph, Standard, Swift and Crossley, and it made bus and truck engines, but it became best known for fire pumps, which were a great success in the late 1930s and through the war.
After the war it moved into marine diesels and forklift trucks. In 1950 Harry Mundy joined the company and Walter Hassan followed, and they designed the lightweight all-aluminium FW (“Feather Weight”) overhead-camshaft engine, first for a fire pump. Motor racing took notice at the London Motor Show, with Colin Chapman among the enthusiasts, and the FWA racing version appeared at Le Mans in 1954. The FWE powered the Lotus Elite, and the FPF 2.5-litre gave Jack Brabham the 1959 world championship in a Cooper. In 1962 its V8, the FWMV, was competitive, and Jim Clark’s Lotus was the most successful user.
Rootes asked Coventry Climax to mass-produce a version of the FW as the engine of the Hillman Imp; over 400,000 Imps were built by 1976. The company was bought by Jaguar in 1963, withdrew from Formula One when the 3-litre formula came in, and after mergers passed through British Leyland; its engine business was sold to Horstman Defence Systems of Bath in 1990. In 1964 it received the RAC’s Dewar Trophy for engines that brought British cars to the forefront of Grand Prix racing.
