M.M.C.

GB, 1897 – 1908

(1) The Great Horseless Carriage Co Ltd, Coventry, Warwickshire, 1897 – 1898

(2) The Motor Manufacturing Co Ltd, Coventry, Warwickshire, 1898 – 1907

(3) The Motor Manufacturing Co (1907) Ltd, Clapham, London S.W., 1907 – 1908

The Great Horseless Carriage Company was formed by H.J. Lawson with grandiose plans to make cars and commercial vehicles in large numbers. Premises were secured in the Motor Mills at Coventry, adjoining the works of the Daimler Company. A very small number of cars was turned out in 1897, with engines, gearboxes and frames by Daimler, bodies and wheels by the Great Horseless Carriage Co. They had 4hp engines with tube ignition, chain drive and tiller steering. In 1898 the company was reoganized as the Motor Manufacturing Company(MMC), with George Iden, previously an engineer with the London, Brighton & South Coast Railway, as works manager. Two lines of development were followed: the Daimler-based MMC cars, and motorcycles and quads with MMC-built De Dion Bouton engines. In 1899 a new rang of MMC cars designed by Iden appeared; the MMC cars had rear-mounted horizontal 2-cylinder engines, and were made in various sizes such as the 4½hp MMC  Princess two-seater, the 6hp MMC Sandringham Phaeton, or the 11hp MMC Balmoral charabanc.

During its lifetime the MMC car firm went through several reorganizations and changes of programme, and by 1901 the rear-engined MMC cars had been dropped, and replaced by a range of MMC cars with front-mounted vertical engines. These MMC cars were a 5hp with an MMC-De Dion engine, and 7, 10 and 12hp cars on Panhard lines. In 1902 the MMC car range was reduced to three, and an attempt was made to use interchangeable parts on MMC cars. The models were the 5½hp single MMC car, an 8hp twin, and a 12hp four. The MMC cars were lower in appearance, but still looked rather ungainly, with large gilled-tube radiators. For 1903 the same MMC car range was made, although the four was now a 20hp, sometimes called a 25hp MMC car. They now had lower bonnets, some with honeycomb radiators, and the MMC cars used the Iden constant-mesh gearbox. A very luxurious long wheelbase touring saloon MMC car on the 25hp chassis was shown at the 1903 Paris Salon.

In December 1903 Iden resigned, and later made cars under his own name, and there was little change in the 1904 MMC carmodels. On the 8hp single-cylinder MMC car, the buyer could have mechanical inlet valves as an alternative to automatic, but all MMC cars still used chain drive. In August 1905 the Motor Mills were sold to Daimler, and MMC cars moved to new premises at Parkside. An ambitious range of six MMC cars from a 9hp single to a 30/35hp four were listed, but few were made. Two years later the MMC car company was revived and moved to London, where they planned to make a new 6-cylinder 35/45hp MMC car, but only experimental models appeared. Alfred Burgess, the manager, then formed yet another company, still called MMC cars, with premises at Finchley, but this was only concerned with selling cars.

Source: Georgano, encyclopedia of motorcar; GNG

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