2017 Review of CAI News and Blogs

2017 has proved to be another very busy and exciting year. We have launched several new gauges, have designed and manufactured instruments for new cars, motorcycles and boats, and continue to expand our global network of distributors. Here is a summary of the news, technical articles and stories on motoring history that have featured on our website in the past twelve months.

January

The year started well with positive news from the UK automotive sector reporting a growth in car production of 9.6% between January and November. We also had great news with our Managing Director, Gavin Roberts, reporting a 6% growth in sales in 2016 on 2015.

Our first case history of 2017 focused on the gauges that we designed and manufactured for the Metisse Mk 5 Street Scrambler Motorcycle.

February

In February, we started looking back on motoring history. Our SMITHS brand of instruments has an incredible heritage which includes developing the first speedometer for King Edward VII in 1904. We also started to investigate the origin of certain instruments and features commonly seen in cars today starting with the Tachometer.

March

At the first major motorcycle event of the year, the MCN London Motorcycle Show, we were thrilled to see our gauges on the newly launched Hesketh Valiant Motorcycle.

In France, we welcomed Serial Kombi to our approved list of distributors. They have a passion for everything VW and are providing support and technical assistance to VW enthusiasts across France.

April

April was a very exciting month that began with a visit from the Aston Martin Owners Club. We then launched our new low-energy SMITHS Vacuum Gauge, which is commonly used on Classic Cars to assist with tuning for power, diagnosing engine faults, and for measuring fuel economy.

Our look back at motoring history continued with a review of the origins of the dashboard.

May

We reviewed the Hesketh Valiant Motorcycle project, discussing how the design was finalised to match the style and look of the hand-built luxury motorcycle.

Following on from our story in February about the development of our first SMITHS speedometer for King Edward VII, we looked back at our top ten customers for SMITHS speedometers in 1904-05.

June

With the Isle of Man TT races taking place in June, we looked at some of the great motorcycles that have featured SMITHS gauges and their talented riders. One of our most unusual projects was to design and build a speedometer gauge to measure the marching speed of the Royal Procession, This replicated a classic SMITHS gauge supplied several decades ago.

July/August

In July we exhibited at the iconic Goodwood Festival of Speed. The Goodwood Festival of Speed proved to be a great show and we launched a new Speedometer for the classic E-Type Jaguar.

September

At Busfest the talk was all about bespoke face designs on gauges for VW Vans.

We also launched the new SMITHS International Dual Needle Boost Gauge. The Gauge was inspired by the classic Porsche 911 and developed in line with a request from The Motorsport Partnership.

October

Our motorcycle gauges were on display on the Digital Speedos stand at the Carole Nash Motorcycle Mechanics Show in Stafford.

November

We design many different types of gauges for Supercars and in this article we reviewed working with Noble Cars on the development of the M12 GTO. The M12 was the model that propelled Noble into a truly international manufacturer of Supercars and featured our speedometer and tachometer.

December

In December, we continued expanding our global distribution network with a search for a new distributor for SMITHS Classic MG Sports Car gauges in the USA.

We hope you have enjoyed reading our news and stories in 2017. We are already researching our motoring history for 2018 and will have news on some exciting new projects for cars, motorcycles and marine applications - watch out for some new product launches soon! If you are interested in receiving further information on any of the articles or details on new or classic gauges, please contact us on:

Via the website

Phone: +44 1639 732200

Email: [email protected]