page_title: British Motor Syndicate
section_title: Collapse
hierarchical_section_title: British Motor Syndicate / Collapse
caption_attribution_description: 1896 Pennington Autocar British Edward Joel Pennington was a company promoter and charlatan par excellence. It is likely that he made only five Autocars, of which this is the only survivor in the world. It was claimed that it could carry nine people and was capable of 40mph. Advertising drawings show an earlier two-wheeled model leaping a ravine. The tyres were supposed to be unpuncturable, a great plus in 1896, if true. Cylinders: 2 Capacity: 1868cc Maximum Speed: 40mph (claimed) Price New: £157 Manufacturer: Great Horseless Carriage Company Limited, Coventry Owner: Richard and Mary Nash Housing a collection of over 250 automobiles and motorcycles telling the story of motoring on the roads of Britain from the dawn of motoring to the present day, the award winning (Winner - The International Historic Motoring Awards of the Year 2012) National Motor Museum appeals to all age groups. From World Land Speed Record Breakers including Campbell’s famous Bluebird to film favourites such as the magical flying car, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and rare oddities like the giant orange on wheels. Don’t miss exciting extra features such as the Motorsport Gallery, Wheels and Jack Tucker's Garage - A permanent, multi award-winning 1930's garage has been created within the Museum, complete down to the last nut and bolt and rusty drainpipe. Whilst the building is a complete fabrication, everything in it - all the fixtures, fittings, tools and ephemera - are genuine artefacts collected over a period of 25 years.
context_page_description: The British Motor Syndicate Limited was a company formed in November 1895 by company promoter and entrepreneur Harry John Lawson. Lawson's aim was to use BMS to raise funds from the public to establish a business with a monopoly on petrol-driven cars by acquiring as many patents as possible related to such vehicles from Gottlieb Daimler, his business associates, and other sources.
  It was never the company's intention to produce motor cars, but rather to exploit the patents it had purchased by charging substantial royalties to automobile manufacturers for the right to manufacture cars using those patents.
context_section_description: Lawson's plan did indeed have a dampening effect on the fledgling British automobile industry. Herbert Austin, for instance, abandoned the development of his first Wolseley because of its too close similarity to a vehicle the patent for which was owned by BMS. But BMS ultimately failed, most obviously because of a 1901 court decision that gutted its business model, by which time rapid improvements in technology had made the company's patents obsolete in any case.
  State of the Art 1896
caption: Pennington Autocar
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