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Did you know that…

…the first Perkins engines were named after animals?

By 13. January 2025 No Comments

The P series from 1937, whose 6‑cylinder engine was ini­tial­ly named “Pan­ther”, was a pio­neer­ing devel­op­ment. Today, Perkins offers prob­a­bly the widest range of engines and has pro­duced more than 22 mil­lion engines, which are used in more than 5,000 dif­fer­ent appli­ca­tions. Are you look­ing for a suit­able engine for your appli­ca­tion? Then con­tact us.

The Wolf was the first mile­stone in the Perkins suc­cess sto­ry. The Wolf was devel­oped from an ear­li­er mod­el, the Vix­en, and was offered in 1933 as an alter­na­tive to the petrol engine in the Com­mer vehi­cles of the tra­di­tion­al British car brand Hum­ber.  In 1937, just five years after the com­pa­ny was found­ed, Perkins was already tak­ing orders for almost 2,000 engines a year. In view of these good prospects, the com­pa­ny began to devel­op the sec­ond gen­er­a­tion of engines — a smoother-run­ning, more pow­er­ful six-cylin­der instead of the crude four-cylin­der first mod­el. It took just five and a half months to design, detail and build the first pro­to­type. The company’s board of direc­tors was so impressed with the engi­neer­ing team’s per­for­mance that it was approved for pro­duc­tion after just a few hours on the test bench.

A for­ward-look­ing move, as this engine, ini­tial­ly called the “Pan­ther”, would even­tu­al­ly have a sig­nif­i­cant and last­ing impact on both Perkins and the diesel indus­try as a whole — it was pro­duced until 1969. The P4 and P6 engines, devel­oped by Charles Chap­man, the company’s orig­i­nal tech­ni­cal direc­tor, were unveiled at the 1937 Com­mer­cial Motor Show. They were com­pact and light­weight engines that estab­lished Perkins as a major sup­pli­er. The P6, which pro­duced 63 kW at 2600 rpm and was adver­tised as “the light­est diesel engine in the world”, was an instant sen­sa­tion. The P4 and P6 formed the basis for many more award-win­ning engines and a suc­cess­ful com­pa­ny his­to­ry. Today, Perkins offers the widest range of engines and has pro­duced more than 22 mil­lion engines used in more than 5,000 dif­fer­ent applications.

Would you like to learn more about the his­to­ry of Perkins? Please fol­low the link.