1902 MMC 10hp Twin-Cylinder Rear-Entrance Tonneau

1902 MMC 10hp Twin-Cylinder Rear-Entrance Tonneau

The Motor Manufacturing Company (MMC) was successor to The Great Horseless Carriage Company, which had been founded in 1897 by the infamous entrepreneur and latter fraudster, Harry J Lawson, and was part of his British Motor Syndicate. Lawson had sought to establish a monopoly of motor manufacturing in Britain by obtaining as many related patents as possible, starting with those of the German Daimler company. His efforts, like those of the Selden patent's owners in the USA, would be frustrated by the courts.

The Great Horseless Carriage Company shared the Motor Mills in Coventry with Daimler's British offshoot and commenced production in 1897 using Daimler engines and gearboxes, while the bodies and wheels were of its own manufacture. Reorganised as The Motor Manufacturing Company in 1898, it continued with Daimler based designs alongside rear-engined types designed by railway engineer George Iden. Motorcycles, tricycles and quadricycles were added to the portfolio and MMC also supplied its engines to other manufacturers. Simplification of the range saw only three models offered for 1902: a single, twin and four, all with front-mounted engines.

In receivership in 1904, MMC relocated to Parkside in Coventry and the company staggered on for the next few years, producing a handful of cars, before being reorganised again in 1907. MMC moved to London but its new owner's ambitious plans came to nought and it effectively ceased to exist in 1908.

Representing the marque at the height of its success, this example is powered by MMC's own 2,092cc vertical twin-cylinder engine with atmospheric inlet valves and trembler coil ignition.

Descriptions & Pictures by bonhams