And now the last part for today: The 50s!
After the war, the CEO of CMT Motor Corporation wanted to go back to Germany from where he had escaped in 1933 being disgusted by the NSDAP.
When he saw the destruction and suffering in Europe in a trip 1949, he decided not to come back yet. The people especially in Germany just can not afford a car. The problem was, that a small delivery vehicle designed to help in the reconstruction was nearlly finished. But nobody would be able to afford it. It was planned to retain the old pushrod Butler engine, but now the car had to be changed for the American marked, where the car would be failing as underpowered. CMT developed a modern, 2,3 litre four in just one year. It should have an output of 100hp, and everyone was happy when it finally delivered 107. The engine was designed for utility vehicles, so the first car to get it was the underpowered Deliveroo Pickup, which improved its performance dramatically while fuel consumption remained unchanged. The modern engine was not cheap, so the rosen price had cut demand in retour. The Deliveroo Pickup did not improve its rather disappointing sales as expected, maybe also caused by the lack of redesign. All resources were needed for the all-new Express.
Express held what its name promised, with top speeds well over 160kph, another world record for a delivery vehicle. The track had to be widened to prevent the car from flipping at high speeds. The engine was over-engineered - an equally-strong (just in torque!), cheaper six would have been what the Americans wanted in an utility. Price rose too high, so the critics were good, but especially small companies did not want to spend the money that was needed for it.
CMT saw that problem coming and tried to repeat the sucess of the Deliveroo Passenger, but now with a smaller vehicle. The practicality of the 9-seater was unbeaten by any competitor, drivability was pleasant for its category. It outsold the heavily aged Deliveroo Passenger immediately. It was dropped in 1960, when its sucessor arrived.
In 1950, the Deluxe 2600 was dropped. It’s replacement, the Nestor, arrived delated in 1952, because the development of the Express Engine had priority. Originally planned for 1950, it had to meet the '51 Petoskey Indian, which offered comparable qualities at lower prices.
Due aged models sales declined, and the development of a new engine for the Nestor was too expensive. The time was used instead to improve the design, but critics considered it as too modern. But, luckily, enough people saw that extraordinary design as nice enough to pay $ 600 more than for the conservative Petoskey. The Nestor did well in the family premium segment.
In 1953, the Nestor Coupe was added, its panoramic windscreen was larger that that of the sedan to make it look sportive. It was the last car to get the legendary Iron Pig eight, and still made 200kph with it. But beside impressive top speed and reasonnable accelleration, there was no special quality. Yes, it offered quite a lot room for a Coupe, but it’s prestige was not extraordinary. Mainly former Sedan de Luxe buyers decided for a Nestor V8 Coupe. At least, that car helped binding customers.
In the mid-50s, Europe’s economy recovered. Now it was time to join the market. The Commuter was meant to compete with the Volkswagen Bug. Its front longitudinal engine was a new developement, the Lamont four, developed by Eddie Lamont, head of engineering. The Express engine would have been to large. Lamon developed 80 hp - a record for a 1700ccm commuter car engine. The car itself was much smaller than you would expect with that engine, having a weight of just around 730 kg. No doubt this was rather a city premium than a commuter car. Again, those who were able to spend $ 4000 for a car ordered larger vehicles - the Commuter had no prestige for that amount of money. In the USA, it was the car of elder rich man’s wives and sold constantly. In Europe, the Commuter “Basic” had less eqipment and the old Butler engine. With a top speed of 125 kph, it was comparable with the Bug. It was a total fail in the US, but the first CMT to be seen in noticeable amounts on European roads.
