The Swift Motor Co made Swift Cars in Coventry, England from 1900 to 1931.
See also -
1900 Originating as a sewing machine which then became the cycle company, Coventry Machinists Co, and then Swift Cycle Co, Swift made their first prototype single-cylinder car using an MMC engine.
1901 The car was put into production; it had a tubular chassis, a single cylinder de Dion engine and a two-speed back axle.
1902 The Swift Motor Co was formed. The company produced one, two, three and four-cylinder cars, first using proprietary engines up to about 1907
1904 The first Swift-engined car was the twin-cylinder 7 h.p. and later 10 h.p. This was shortly afterwards joined by the four-cylinder 12/14 which continued in a bewildering number of guises until the First World War.
1907 The cars used engines designed by their Works Engineer, William Radford, which were made in their own factory. Assisted by Robert Burns and Arthur E. Tomlinson
During the early 1900's Swift entered their cars in reliability trials and won many gold medals. Up to 1915 several models were produced each year (See Swift Models 1901-31).
1913 Exhibited cycle-car at the Motor-Cycle Show at Olympia - this was more like a miniature car than a cycle-car[1].
From 1915 to 1931 the company concentrated on producing cars.
WWI the factory produced munitions, Renault and Hispano-Suiza aircraft engines, military bicycles and other war equipment.
1919 the Company changed its name to Swift of Coventry Ltd. The Swift Cycle Car company was merged with the main company. Production was concentrated on the four-cylinder 10hp and 12hp models which were renowned for their reliability. The company then joined the new company Harper Bean Ltd[2] which took 50 percent of the shares in Swift of Coventry. Harper Bean planned considerable increase in production by the constituent companies including change to mass production by Swifts but by 1924 Harper Bean was in liquidation without having effected major change in the production of cars[3].
Late 1920's Swift's hand-built cars could not compete with the mass-produced Morris, Austin, and Fords, whose cars sold for only half the price of Swifts.
In spite of producing a cheaper 8hp model, the Cadet, with a Coventry Climax engine and a centre-change three-speed gear box in late 1930, this was insufficient to save the Company and the factory closed its doors for the last time in April 1931.