Chrysler-Cummins Plant for Darlington IN a joint statement issued on
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11Wednesday by Chrysler Motors Ltd., and Cummins Engine Co. Inc., it was officially confirmed that a new company —Chrysler-Cummins Ltd.—had been formed to manufacture diesel engines ut a factory which is to be built on a 30acre site at Darlington, Co. Durham. This move was foreshadowed early last month (The Commercial Motor, July 5), hut at that time only very sketchy details were available.
Even now full details of this project are not being released, and a senior official of Dodge Bros. (Britain) Ltd. was reluctant to comment on the venture at this stage, but assured this journal that more precise information would . be forthcoming in the reasonably near future. It is known, however, that the engines to be built at Darlington will be V-6 and V-8 units with outputs of from 140 to 180 b.h.p., these being small-bore 3,600 r.p.m. designs of a type not at present being manufactured in the main Cummins plant at Shotts, Scotland.
It is fairly safe to conjecture that Chrysler have entered into this arrangement with Cummins partly with the object of making their production of British Dodge vehicles independent of the present suppliers of proprietary units to Kew, these being A.E.C., Leyland and Perkins. It is equally obvious, though, that to use these new Cummins engines a completely new range of chassis will have to be developed by Dodge, partly because of the engine configuration, and partly because of the comparatively high outputs of the projected power units. It could also allow Dodge more production space within their present factory area in that, having a share in an enginemanufacturing concern, less space will have to be allocated for the advance storage of bought-in units, and this in turn could mean higher vehicle production and reduced delivery delays.
The new plant, the output of which will supplement rather than replace the present Shotts production (which is concerned with high-powered, heavy-duty engines), will he marketing its products through the existing Cummins world-wide organization, and the new engines will be made available to any vehicle manufacturer. The factory is expected to come into operation late in 1964, J.F.M.