Calvy

Calvy began with Richard Calvy, who had sold NG Cars vehicles and kits before establishing Calvy Motor Car Company in Southend-on-Sea, Essex, in 1983. The new Mitchel was a two-seat open roadster deliberately similar in appearance and mechanical concept to the NG TC. Early construction was sufficiently close to produce a complaint from NG; Calvy subsequently adopted its own ladder-frame chassis rather than continuing as an unacknowledged NG duplicate. The car retained MG B running gear and normally the 1.8-litre B-series four-cylinder engine, with a Rover V8 offered for buyers wanting greater performance. Cars could be supplied as self-assembly kits or completed vehicles. Sources conflict on the first company's exact endpoint: one chronology says initial production lasted to 1986, while another says a fire ended Richard Calvy's Southend phase in 1984. Michael and Liam McGivern's Calvy Motor Company then continued the marque from Warley—described in references variously as Staffordshire or the West Midlands—through 1992, with another naming chronology also using Calvy Car Company. John Jones's Calvy Motors in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, became the final maker from 1992 to 1995. That last phase added an extended Mitchel 2+2 with rear seats and Fiat 131-derived rear suspension. Its longer structure and different rear layout justify a second model family; ordinary kits, factory builds, four-cylinder and V8 installations remain configurations. Approximately 53 Calvys were produced across all three operating phases, but no reliable split by maker, year, seating layout, engine or kit/completed form survives. The marque is unrelated to Calvi motorcycles, Caburn, modern companies sharing Calvy, and NG products other than the acknowledged design relationship.

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