In OTL Birmingham Small Arms Company or BSA for short was a major industry combine best known as a producer of small arms, bikes and motorcycles with a few unsuccessful forays into making cars under its own name (BSA Cars) prior to WW2, during which it acquired Lanchester and Daimler with a focus on making low volume higher end cars until Lanchester was discontinued with Daimler sold off to Jaguar.
While the British Motorcycle Industry's problems mirror that of the British Motor Industry, what-if BSA survived today as a successful post-war producer of both high volume cars and motorcycles under the same marque similar to the likes of Suzuki and Honda?
Such a scenario for BSA Cars seems to have two potentially workable PODs:
1) Volkswagen/DKW-based aka War Reparations Route - ATL BSA cannily builds a car derived from the Volkswagen Beetle (or even the DKW F9) project that was then being offered by British Major Ivan Hirst to the British Motor Industry as war reparations.
Such a precedent already exists in the OTL where the DKW RT 125 motorcycle design was taken as war reparations and formed the basis of the BSA Bantam with production lasting until 1971 or how the West Germans and East Germans / Russians produced their own version of the pre-war DKW F9 prototype (as the DKW 900 and IFA F9 respectively). Also around the post-war period, plans for the Volkswagen (along with the services of Ferdinand Porsche) were being offered around, many within the British Motor Industry either hating, deriding or in some cases even laughing at the Beetle as all felt they could do better and had nothing to fear only to soon regret it by around 1954.
How would such a car built by BSA have affected the British Motor Industry let alone impacted the success of the Volkswagen Beetle?
2) Jean-Albert Grégoire’s AFG-based Route - ATL BSA acquires the rights to build a light steel based version of Jean-Albert Grégoire’s AFG (Aluminium-Français-Gregoire) design, which in OTL would later form the basis of the post-war Panhard Dyna.
The AFG design was also investigated by Simca via the Simca-Grégoire and Fiat via the Fiat Type 102 E1/E2 prototypes as possible replacements for the Fiat Topolino and Simca 5 / Simca 6, with other stillborn derivatives including the British-built Kendall by UK MP of Grantham Denis Kendall and later the Australian-built Hartnett.
Interestingly in OTL BSA (via Daimler) did later look at assembling the aluminium bodied Panhard Dyna Z during the mid-1950s in the UK as an light economical entry-level Lanchester in a final attempt to resurrect the marque, however the government precluded that option by preventing the import of readymade body panels into the UK. Since BSA in OTL did not have the capacity to produce its own such body panels in spite of its size and resources, the only solution being to design a new Lanchester that incorporated the best features of the Panhard Dyna Z resulting in the Lanchester Sprite project that was shelved in 1956 with the ouster of Sir Bernard Docker.
While the British Motorcycle Industry's problems mirror that of the British Motor Industry, what-if BSA survived today as a successful post-war producer of both high volume cars and motorcycles under the same marque similar to the likes of Suzuki and Honda?
Such a scenario for BSA Cars seems to have two potentially workable PODs:
1) Volkswagen/DKW-based aka War Reparations Route - ATL BSA cannily builds a car derived from the Volkswagen Beetle (or even the DKW F9) project that was then being offered by British Major Ivan Hirst to the British Motor Industry as war reparations.
Such a precedent already exists in the OTL where the DKW RT 125 motorcycle design was taken as war reparations and formed the basis of the BSA Bantam with production lasting until 1971 or how the West Germans and East Germans / Russians produced their own version of the pre-war DKW F9 prototype (as the DKW 900 and IFA F9 respectively). Also around the post-war period, plans for the Volkswagen (along with the services of Ferdinand Porsche) were being offered around, many within the British Motor Industry either hating, deriding or in some cases even laughing at the Beetle as all felt they could do better and had nothing to fear only to soon regret it by around 1954.
How would such a car built by BSA have affected the British Motor Industry let alone impacted the success of the Volkswagen Beetle?
2) Jean-Albert Grégoire’s AFG-based Route - ATL BSA acquires the rights to build a light steel based version of Jean-Albert Grégoire’s AFG (Aluminium-Français-Gregoire) design, which in OTL would later form the basis of the post-war Panhard Dyna.
The AFG design was also investigated by Simca via the Simca-Grégoire and Fiat via the Fiat Type 102 E1/E2 prototypes as possible replacements for the Fiat Topolino and Simca 5 / Simca 6, with other stillborn derivatives including the British-built Kendall by UK MP of Grantham Denis Kendall and later the Australian-built Hartnett.
Interestingly in OTL BSA (via Daimler) did later look at assembling the aluminium bodied Panhard Dyna Z during the mid-1950s in the UK as an light economical entry-level Lanchester in a final attempt to resurrect the marque, however the government precluded that option by preventing the import of readymade body panels into the UK. Since BSA in OTL did not have the capacity to produce its own such body panels in spite of its size and resources, the only solution being to design a new Lanchester that incorporated the best features of the Panhard Dyna Z resulting in the Lanchester Sprite project that was shelved in 1956 with the ouster of Sir Bernard Docker.