Carden (cyclecar)
Encyclopedia

The Carden was a British 4 wheeled cyclecar
Cyclecar
Cyclecars were small, generally inexpensive cars manufactured mainly between 1910 and the late 1920s.-General description:Cyclecars were propelled by single cylinder, V-twin or more rarely four cylinder engines, often air cooled. Sometimes these had been originally used in motorcycles and other...

 made from 1914 by Carden Engineering originally based in Farnham
Farnham
Farnham is a town in Surrey, England, within the Borough of Waverley. The town is situated some 42 miles southwest of London in the extreme west of Surrey, adjacent to the border with Hampshire...

, Surrey but moving in 1914 to Teddington
Teddington
Teddington is a suburban area in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames in south west London, on the north bank of the River Thames, between Hampton Wick and Twickenham. It stretches inland from the River Thames to Bushy Park...

, Middlesex and in 1919 to Ascot
Ascot, Berkshire
Ascot is a village within the civil parish of Sunninghill and Ascot, in the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, Berkshire, England. It is most notable as the location of Ascot Racecourse, home of the prestigious Royal Ascot meeting...

, Berkshire.

Sir John Carden was a prolific designer who went on to work on tanks but started his career with cyclecars. His first design was a wooden bodied single seater powered by a 481 cc single cylinder JAP
JA Prestwich Industries Ltd
JA Prestwich Industries, was an English engineering company named after founder John Alfred Prestwich, which produced cinematographic equipment, internal combustion engines , and other examples of precision engineering.-History:J. A...

 engine driving the back axle by belt. There was no gearbox. At first he had built the cars at his home but demand was sufficient to warrant moving to larger premises in Teddington in February 1914. A larger machine joined the original, powered by a two cylinder V-twin engine of 654 cc and fitted with a two speed gearbox.

In 1916 the design and factory was sold to Ward and Avey Ltd who renamed the car the AV
AV (cyclecar)
The AV was a British cyclecar manufactured by Ward and Avey in Somerset Road, Teddington Middlesex between 1919 and 1924.It was one of the more successful cyclecars and was based on a design bought from Carden and built in the factory that they had previously used...

 and continued manufacture until about 1924.

Production, including those made by AV, may have reached 1000.

Carden went on to design a new cyclecar in 1919 which he sold later the same year to Tamplin
Tamplin
The Tamplin was an English automobile manufactured by Tamplin Motors from 1919 to 1923 in Kingston Road, Staines, Middlesex and from 1924 to 1925 in Malden Road, Cheam, Surrey...

 and then a further model which he sold to Arnott and Harrison in 1922 who sold it as the New Carden and made the car until 1925.
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