Associated Motor Cycles
| Industry | Manufacturing and engineering |
|---|---|
| Fate | Taken over |
| Successor | Norton-Villiers |
| Founded | 1938 |
| Defunct | 1966 |
| Products | Motorcycles |
Associated Motor Cycles (AMC) was a British motorcycle manufacturer founded by the Collier brothers as a parent company for the Matchless and AJS motorcycle companies. It later absorbed Francis-Barnett, James, and Norton before incorporation into Norton-Villiers.
AJS had been bought by Matchless's owners, the Colliers, in 1931 and Sunbeam was added in 1937 from Imperial Chemical Industries. The name of the Matchless Motor Cycles company was changed to "Amalgamated Motor Cycles Ltd" in 1937 and "Associated Motor Cycles (AMC)" in 1938. AMC was not a manufacturer in its own right, but rather the parent company of a group of motorcycle manufacturers which included Matchless, AJS, Norton, James, Francis-Barnett, Sunbeam and others.
In 1939 a 495 cc AJS V4 was built to compete against the supercharged BMWs then dominating racing. The bike was a water-cooled and supercharged. In 1939 the dry-sump V4 was the first bike to lap the Ulster Grand Prix course at over 100 mph (161 km/h). It weighed 405 lb (184 kg). Its top speed was 135 mph (217 km/h). Then the Second World War intervened. During the War, Matchless manufactured 80,000 G3 and G3L models for the armed forces. AMC sold the Sunbeam name to BSA in 1943.
Post-war landmarks start with the production of Matchless/AJS 350 cc and 500 cc singles, developed from the legendary war-time Matchless G3 produced for the Army. In 1946 Freddie Clarke joined AMC as Chief Development Engineer after a row with his former employers, Triumph and in 1947 AMC absorbed Francis-Barnett, followed later by the acquisition of James in 1951. In 1949 the first Matchless/AJS vertical twin (500cc) was produced, later to be joined by 600 cc and 650 cc vertical twins in 1956 and 1959 respectively. On the racing front AMC were fielding the AJS Porcupine (500 cc forward-facing parallel twin), the AJS 7R (32 bhp, 350 cc OHC single), the Matchless G50 (a 500 cc variant of the 7R) and by 1951, the Matchless G45 (500 cc vertical twin). The AJS Porcupine had been designed for supercharging, before the rules changed ending supercharged racing motorcycles, but even so, Les Graham won the 1949 World Championship on an unsupercharged AJS 500 cc Porcupine.
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