industry heron plastics
An economy car is an ___MASK32___ 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 ___MASK32___ 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 . Bayerische Motoren Werke AG ( German for " Bavarian Motor Works "), usually known under its abbreviation BMW , is a German luxury vehicle , motorcycle , and ___MASK8___ ___MASK3___ 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 . A car is a wheeled , self - powered motor vehicle used for transportation and a product of the ___MASK74___ . 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 . 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 ___MASK43___ 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 . 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 . 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 ___MASK8___ was a Ford straight - four OHV unit with a choice of 997 cc or 1500 cc capacity . With the larger ___MASK8___ , 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 . , usually shortened to Nissan ( or ; Japanese :, is a Japanese multinational ___MASK32___ 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 .