Manganese Bronze

Manganese Bronze Holdings of Coventry is an engineering company

1960s Villiers Engineering Ltd, a motorcycle company chiefly known for its range of engines was taken over in the early 1960s by Manganese Bronze Bearings as it was.

1963 Motor Show exhibitor. Bearings and Sinterings. Manganese Bronze of Ipswich, Deans and Lightalloys and Patent Die Castings linked companies

1964 Manganese Bronze Holdings Ltd bought AMC (Associated Motorcycles) owners of the Norton, AJS and Matchless motorcycle marques in 1964. This combined with the Villiers concerns to give Norton-Villiers.

1973 Manganese Bronze absorbed BSA, best known for their motorcycles, in 1973 as part of a rescue plan initiated by the Government. The BSA interests were largely divested and the Triumph elements of the motorcycle production combined with the others to form Norton-Villiers-Triumph (NVT). The components businesses of BSA became Manganese Bronze Components Division, comprising sintering, precision casting and metal powders. This division was sold in 2003 and went bankrupt a short while later.

The classic FX3, predecessor to the FX4 was built by Carbodies, a car body builder in partnership with [[[Mann and Overton]] and Austin. The FX3 taxi with an Austin badge was produced in 1948. More than 7,000 taxis, mainly destined for London, were produced over ten years. Carbodies concentrated on producing complete taxis, starting with the FX4 in 1959. They were taken over by Manganese Bronze Holdings plc in 1973. In 1982 Carbodies took over the intellectual rights to the FX4 from British Leyland which had absorbed Austin.

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