The Blériot-Whippet was a British 4 wheeled

cyclecar A cyclecar was a microcar, type of small, lightweight and inexpensive Automobile, car manufactured in Europe and the United States between 1910 and the early 1920s. The purpose of cyclecars was to fill a gap in the market between the motorcycle ...

made from 1920 to 1927 by the Air Navigation and Engineering Company based in

Addlestone Addlestone ( or ) is a town in Surrey, England. It is located approximately southwest of London. The town is the administrative centre of the Borough of Runnymede, of which it is the largest settlement. History The town is recorded as ''Atte ...

, Surrey. The Blériot aircraft company had opened a factory at Addlestone during World War I to make SPAD and Avro aircraft and in 1920 the ownership of the plant changed to the Air Navigation and Engineering Co. and introduced car making with a cyclecar designed by Herbert Jones and W.D. Marchant. There seems to have been no connection with the cyclecar made by the French Blériot company. The most unusual feature of the car was its infinitely variable belt transmission using expanding pulleys to a design called the Zenith-Gradua. It had originally been used on Zenith motor cycles. Power came from a 1 Litre, Blackburne air-cooled,

V-twin A V-twin engine, also called a V2 engine, is a two-cylinder piston engine where the cylinders share a common crankshaft and are arranged in a V configuration. Although widely associated with motorcycles (installed either transversely or long ...

, engine producing at 2000 rpm and mounted with cylinders one behind the other. This was modified by Jones and Marchant to have roller bearing big ends. The chassis had quarter elliptic leaf springs all round. In 1922 the belt drive was replaced by a conventional three-speed gearbox and chain drive. The chain drive car was in 1923 joined by a shaft drive model with the engine turned through 90 degrees. Two seat open bodies were standard made of plywood covered in leather cloth and came in tourer and sports versions. Later a 3/4 seat version was added to the range. The car cost GBP 300 at launch falling to GBP115 in 1924. Several hundred are thought to have been made and one was owned by

Alec Issigonis Sir Alexander Arnold Constantine Issigonis (18 November 1906 – 2 October 1988) was a British-Greek automotive designer. He designed the Mini, launched by the British Motor Corporation in 1959, and voted the second most influential car of ...

. Only one is known to survive. The Air Navigation and Engineering Company also made the

Eric Longden Eric Longden was a British cyclecar brand manufactured from 1920 to 1927, originally by the Australian racing driver Eric Longden, and from 1922 by the Air Navigation and Engineering Company from Addlestone (Surrey). ANEC also built the Blériot ...

light car at Addlestone as well as some aircraft and gliders, but failed in 1927. The factory later housed the British manufacture of fabric bodied Weymann coachwork and later Metro Cammell Weymann bus bodies, this business continuing until 1965.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bleriot-Whippet Cyclecars Defunct companies based in Surrey Defunct motor vehicle manufacturers of England Cars introduced in 1920 Vehicle manufacturing companies established in 1920

See also

References