Automotive Products

Automotive Products, commonly abbreviated to AP, was an automotive industry components company set up in 1920 by Edward Boughton, Willie Emmott and Denis Brock, to import and sell American-made components to service the fleet of ex-military trucks left behind in Europe after World War I.

In 1928, they obtained a licence for the manufacture and sale of the Lockheed Hydraulic Braking System for the British Isles and Continental Europe,[1] and in the following year they acquired a controlling interest in Zephyr Carburetors Limited which had premises in Clemens Street, Leamington Spa.

[2] The company became the UK's leading manufacturer and supplier of clutches and braking, and was dominant in the market until the end of the 1970s.

One of the most notable products of this collaboration was the unique AP automatic transmission used in the Mini and later BMC/BL compact models.

The two companies jointly owned a plant in Kings Norton to produce the transmissions, and the matching variants of the A-series engines to go with them.

This seems to be the start of the idea of an automatic clutch with a manual gear lever or paddles behind the steering wheel.

AP also signed joint development agreements with licensees for electronic controls for automotive transmissions, lightweight braking and a new limited slip differential called SureTrac.

The aviation business was going well and they extended the flight servicing to create Signature, which was finally the last part of BBA and was bought out that year.

A downturn in European automotive from the end of 1992 had reduced the OE business, while the aftermarket continued at the same level.

ACTS had now gone into production, which is believed to be due to the Renault Twingo and Cleo; SureTrac had been licensed to Fuji Univance in Japan, who are now Univance Corporation, and a mechanical parking brake for disc-braked vehicles, at the time was fitted to all Land Rover vehicles, was expected to become widespread.

AP Clutch acquired a low-cost laser cutting cell to replace press tools and provide fast turnaround.

The majority of the funding was provided by CIN Venture Nominees, along the shares bought by the staff and directors.

The acquisition was for the traditional Brake and Clutch businesses and for a BBA textile unit in Cleckheaton and Germany which became APTEC.

The TMF factory was built in 1997 for full production in 1998 - that is now the only building left on the Leamington site and is owned by Shire Foods.

They acquired the remaining 30% of AP Japan to give them 100% and 1998 ceased a low margin trading operation from them.

After a reorganisation, all of the OE Clutch and drum brake units in UK, Italy, Spain and Turkey were managed by the Italian team.

In Italy new contracts for drum brakes for Ford and Fiat had started, a new aluminium wheel cylinder facility had been commissioned and clutches for Volkswagen had transferred from the UK.

France had started a programme to supply a clutch system to Fiat integrated with the Italian business.

As well as having to put funds into the pension scheme, it was also having to repay on its secured senior and mezzanine debts from the MBO.

From that point onwards, Whitnash was dependent on income due to it, which includes the AP logo trademark.

The sales, by AP Group, in 2003 and 2004, intended to repay the secure senior and mezzanine debts, were less than expected.

Whitnash also had a lease over the Leamington site until 2018 which it sub-let to the remaining parts of AP, some of which had earlier break conditions.

He was of Indian origin and had moved into the UK for treatment, unsuccessfully, for his daughter, He then built and acquired many businesses, generally around the Midlands and involved in the automotive area.

Another was the Freestream business in Basingstoke, which was built by a couple of design and engineers involved with the McLaren F1, who decided that they could build a road-legal racing car.

Following on from that they got a contract to make F3 racing cars for Renault, but in practice had a lot of quality problems with them and lost it the next year.

Although they were still making new braking items, there never seemed to be any major customers, or sales people, for them, especially if you compare that to Alcon, who had taken several of their designers.

In 2015, the UK Caparo Industries group gradually fell apart and went into administration in Oct. 2015, followed by the death of Angad Paul in early Nov. in his penthouse; apparently by accident.

These included a bike manufacturer, later merged with a Scottish business; a specialist ex-SAS group dealing with off road vehicles in Hereford; and a business in Daventry called Shiftec, who build electronic controls for clutch, braking and throttle system, and was then relocated to Leamington.

They relieve the driver of the need for skill in operating clutch and engine speed in conjunction with the gear change.

[3] The Newtondrive system differed in making a provision for choke control and a cable linkage from the clutch operating mechanism to the throttle.