query: industry heron plastics
supports: In 1960 Heron Plastics of Greenwich , London was well established as a manufacturer of GRP bodyshells for Austin 7 specials . One of these was used as the basis for the original Diva GT in 1961 . By this time , Heron also built their own coupe , the Europa , although they did not debut it until the 1962 Racing Car Show . The car had a steel backbone chassis with outriggers fore and aft to support the running gear . Wishbones and coil spring independent suspension provided good handling , it was claimed . The front brakes were discs while drums served at the rear . The GRP body was bonded to this chassis and plywood floorpan . The engine was a Ford straight - four OHV unit with a choice of 997 cc or 1500 cc capacity . With the larger engine , a 0 to 60 mph ( 97 km / h ) time of 8.5 seconds was boasted with a top speed of 115 mph ( 185 km / h ) . The Europa was sold in fully trimmed component form at £ 580 or in partly constructed form at £ 730 . Only 12 examples were produced before the Europa was shelved for financial reasons in 1964 . Peter Monteverdi 's MBM Tourismo was based on the Europa . The Austin 7 is an economy car that was produced from 1922 until 1939 in the United Kingdom by Austin. Nicknamed the "Baby Austin" it was at that time one of the most popular cars produced for the British market and sold well abroad. Its effect on the British market was similar to that of the Model T Ford in the US, replacing most other British economy cars and cyclecars of the early 1920s. It was also licensed and copied by companies all over the world. The very first BMW car, the BMW Dixi, was a licensed Austin 7, as were the original American Austins. In France they were made and sold as Rosengarts. In Japan Nissan also used the 7 design as the basis for their first cars, although not under licence. A cyclecar was a type of small, lightweight and inexpensive car manufactured mainly between 1910 and the late 1920s. Cyclecars were characterised by their use of basic materials and sometimes fragile engineering and were largely contrived to fill a gap in the market between the motorcycle and the car. Their demise was largely the result of production economies in the manufacture of more substantial economy cars such as the Austin 7 and the consequent affordability of such vehicles. Vehicles with similar qualities produced after World WarII, are generally categorized as microcars. Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (German for "Bavarian Motor Works"), usually known under its abbreviation BMW, is a German luxury vehicle, motorcycle, and engine manufacturing company founded in 1916. Headquartered in Munich, Bavaria, Germany. BMW owns Mini cars and is the parent company of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. BMW produces motorcars under the BMW Motorsport division and motorcycles under BMW Motorrad, and plug-in electric cars under the BMW i sub-brand and the "iPerformance" model designation within the regular BMW lineup. It is one of the best-selling luxury automakers in the world. The company is a component of the Euro Stoxx 50 stock market index. An economy car is an automobile that is designed for low cost purchase and operation. Typical economy cars are small (compact or subcompact), lightweight, and inexpensive to buy. Economy car designers are forced by stringent design constraints to be inventive. Many innovations in automobile design were originally developed for economy cars, such as the Ford Model T and the Austin Mini. Gordon Murray, the Formula 1 and Mclaren F1 designer, said when designing his new Murray T.25 city car: "I would say that building a car to sell for six thousand pounds and designing that for a high volume production, where you have all the quality issues under control is a hundred times more difficult than designing a Mclaren F1, or even a racing car. It is certainly the biggest challenge I've ever had from a design point of view." The alternative approach other than innovating to build a low cost car, is build a stripped down no frills version of a conventional car. A car is a wheeled, self-powered motor vehicle used for transportation and a product of the automotive industry. Most definitions of the term specify that cars are designed to run primarily on roads, to have seating for one to eight people, to typically have four wheels with tyres, and to be constructed principally for the transport of people rather than goods. The year 1886 is regarded as the birth year of the modern car. In that year, German inventor Karl Benz built the Benz Patent-Motorwagen. Cars did not become widely available until the early 20th century. One of the first cars that was accessible to the masses was the 1908 Model T, an American car manufactured by the Ford Motor Company. Cars were rapidly adopted in the United States of America, where they replaced animal-drawn carriages and carts, but took much longer to be accepted in Western Europe and other parts of the world. , usually shortened to Nissan (or ; Japanese:, is a Japanese multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Japan. Nissan Motor sells its cars under the Nissan, Infiniti, and Datsun brands with in-house performance tuning products labelled Nismo.
candidates: automobile automobile manufacturer automotive industry engine engineering manufacturing
answer: automotive industry