Auto Products Outboards of Coventry

Very little is known about this make of outboard motor, but from what information has been found it seems that the company was a subsiduary of the old Coventry Apex engineering Ltd firm which made outboards in the 1940's and 1950's, which made outboards using not only their own engine but also J.A.P engines, they also produced the small Mallard line of Outboards for C.H.Haley & Co of Leicester.

i now have 3 examples of this type of outboard, all of which are similar but have subtle differences.



It seems that they firm was started in the very late 1950's and was based at 45 Yardley Street, Coventry. and for some reason they later moved to Bayton Road, Exhall, Coventry. This can be seen in the 2 different name plates which are in the pictures section. It seems that the Auto Products outboard firm only used the small 34cc J.A.P engine to power their motors as no other sizes of motr have been found with the AP name badge on them, it also seems that they were a very short lived firm, possibly been the remains of the Coventry Apex firm trying desperatley not to go out of business, and stopping production some time in the mid 1960's.

They offered only a couple of motors in their line up, all been called " AP Minor ", firstly a similar looking motor to the sea bee model ( of the same name ) minor mk2, with exception of a much smaller cylindrical fuel tank rather than the sloping one, and a much smaller prop. And what was previously an Apex product called the Canoe motor. this starnge looking motor is very similar in design to the Atco Boat impellor, in that it has an inclined direct drive shaft, it is fastened to the side of the canoe via an extremley well designed clamp and then points straight backwards, it has a spring from the shaft to the bottom of the clamping bracket which acts as a ballance mechanism and keeps the drive in the water unless you push on the tiller arm and lift it out of the water. the lower bearings are water lubricated so it has to be kept in the water to avoid damage.at some time during the production run of these motors (probably around 1960) they moved to Bayton Road. production of the range was altered round about 1962 with a different designed fuel tank and other bits and peices changed, however the canoe motors production was then ceased.

this is all the information i have managed to gather together about this motor, it is very similar in design to the sea bee,however as far as we can tell the sea bee firm of Austin Burrel, and the Auto Products firm were not related other than they used the same J.A.P engines, if you know otherwise then please email me with the details. Also if you have any of these motors/ manuals/ books etc then please send in pictures / details so that i can set up a register and try to put together some more info.



Auto Products Canoe MotorName Plate
Auto Products Mark 1Name Plate


The Outboard below is another version of the Auto Products outboard that has recently come to light and ended up in my collection, it is an 80cc J.A.P engine, but unlike the similar Seabee model 3 this is tatally air-cooled. Any more information on this is welcolmed.