7 Cars From Ireland That We Might Not Know About

Ireland is not only St. Patrick’s Day, beer, whiskey and James Joyce. Ireland is also a small but proud automotive industry.

In general, at different times in Ireland there were many different assembly plants and industries. And if we talk about the North, then the famous DeLorean comes from there. Ireland does not currently have its own brands. But that doesn’t mean they never existed. Carbets.com will talk about Irish car brands.

Shamrock. The car was produced in 1959-1960 in the town of Tralee and was a very patriotic project of a “true Irish car”. There were many plans, they were going to make 10,000 cars a year, but in the end everything was curtailed due to economic problems, and only 8 copies of the Shamrock have survived to this day.

GAC. The bus plant operated under license from Bombardier in Shannon from 1980 to 1986. At first, Bombardier was assembled there, but then several bus models were produced under their own brand. In the picture – GAC KR189 (1985), 226 copies of these buses were produced.

Alex. This company already exists, and its model is Alex Eroadster. The company is based in the village of Dunlier and promises to release an electric car with a range of travel on a single charge up to 300 km.

TMC Costin. One of the most unusual variations on the Lotus 7 theme – closed, with a complex lighting scheme – was produced in the town of Wexford from 1983 to 1987. 39 cars were manufactured, and the founder of the company, Frank Kostin, sold the remaining chassis after the bankruptcy to Panoz, which made the Panoz Roadster model based on Kostin’s development.

Jordan. The only Irish Formula 1 team and, accordingly, the builder of “formula” chassis. Existed from 1991 to 2005, the most successful was the 1999 season, when Heinz-Harald Frentzen became the bronze medalist of the championship, winning two Grand Prix. Pictured is a 2001 Jordan Honda EJ11.

O’Gorman. A Clonmel body shop that built buses and cars on purchased chassis from 1920 to 1943. The picture shows an O’Gorman bus on a Mercedes-Benz chassis.