Critchley Light Car

The Critchley Light car was briefly built by the Daimler Company of Coventry in 1899 to find a use for about 50 unwanted 4 hp engines shipped to Coventry by the German Daimler works at Stuttgart. It was named after James S. Critchley, Daimler's works manager, because it was not meant to extend the range of high powered expensive Daimlers, and it was well regarded and sold well. It had advanced features including pneumatic tyres and wheel steering, with a transversely mounted water cooled engine driving the rear wheels through a belt transmission tensioned by moving the engine forward or back. The steering wheel sat on a vertical column on the right, so it could only be turned by the driver's right hand. In 1900 a redesign was sold as the Kimberley.