Beacon Motors Ltd was a British

automobile A car, or an automobile, is a motor vehicle with wheels. Most definitions of cars state that they run primarily on roads, Car seat, seat one to eight people, have four wheels, and mainly transport private transport#Personal transport, peopl ...

manufacturer based in

Hindhead Hindhead is a village in the Waverley, Surrey, Waverley district of the county of Surrey, England. It is the highest village in the county and its buildings are between and above sea level. The village forms part of the Haslemere parish. Situ ...

, Surrey from 1912 to 1913 moving to

Liphook Liphook is a village in the East Hampshire district of Hampshire, England. It is 4.1 miles (6.6 km) west of Haslemere, bypassed by the A3 road, and lies on the Hampshire/West Sussex/Surrey borders. It is in the civil parish of Bramshott an ...

, Surrey until 1914. The first Beacon was equipped with an air-cooled

JAP ''Jap'' is an English abbreviation of the word " Japanese". In the United States, some Japanese Americans have come to find the term offensive because of the internment they suffered during World War II. Before the attack on Pearl Harbor, ''Jap ...

V-twin engine A V-twin engine, also called a V2 engine, is a two-cylinder piston engine where the cylinders are arranged in a V configuration and share a common crankshaft. The V-twin is widely associated with motorcycles, primarily installed longitudinally ...

which had a displacement of 1248 cc. The wheelbase, track chassis was a conventional one with half elliptic leaf spring suspension front and rear, but the bodywork could be specified to be made from cane basketwork. Drive was to the rear

axle An axle or axletree is a central shaft for a rotation, rotating wheel and axle, wheel or gear. On wheeled vehicles, the axle may be fixed to the wheels, rotating with them, or fixed to the vehicle, with the wheels rotating around the axle. In ...

through a variable ratio friction drive and chains. Later models had a slightly smaller engine with 1089 cc capacity, made by the French company Griffon. The later cars had

shaft drive A drive shaft, driveshaft, driving shaft, tailshaft (Australian English), propeller shaft (prop shaft), or Cardan shaft (after Girolamo Cardano) is a component for transmitting mechanical power, torque, and rotation, usually used to connect ...

and a three-speed transmission located with the rear axle. Production stopped on the outbreak of World War I.

Models

References

1910s cars Cyclecars Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of England Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1912 Defunct companies based in Surrey {{Brass-auto-stub