The Avro Arrow jet is arguably one of Canada’s greatest aeronautical achievements. But few knew of another Avro Arrow — the car. While it lived a short, tortured life, the “Arrow car” might be the major reason why one of North America's prominent car plants — Chrysler’s Bramalea facility — is located on a certain stretch of Airport Road.

Throughout the lifetime of Avro Canada, the late Fred Smye served as its vice-president and general manager. Smye wrote a first-hand account of the Canadian Avro operation, entitled, Canadian Aviation and the Avro Arrow. In it he notes how the management of both Avro and its associated engine manufacturer, Orenda, were well aware that converting an aircraft organization into a plant that did normal commercial work would not be easy.

But what were they to do? The Diefenbaker Government was promising to kill the Arrow interceptor jet, which would leave 14,200 highly skilled aeronautical and jet-engine workers with nothing to do.

New projects had to be found, whether there were obstacles or not.

“Many avenues were explored, including that of a joint engineering and production, with an established automaker, of a distinctly Canadian car,” states Smye. The concept was pitched to American Motors Corporation in Detroit. At the time, AMC was not very active in Canada and thought the venture was worth further investigation. Smye also wrote that, “A wholly Canadian company was envisaged, which would apply the design, engineering and manufacturing experience of American Motors, Avro and Orenda.”

That dream led to a very odd-looking vehicle running around the Avro plant on Derry Rd. in Malton — a car only a few people remember. It is believed that only 10 or 12 Orenda and Avro engineers were involved.

Frank Harvey, vice-president and curator of the Aerospace Heritage Foundation of Canada, has the only known pictures of the car (three of them). One, taken during the winter of 1959, shows a bare front-drive chassis with a two-stroke three-cylinder engine.

In that era, such a chassis would have come from either Saab or DKW, as both produced cars in that configuration. I showed the picture to Saab Museum curator, Peter Bäckström. He’s quite certain the chassis is a DKW, with a DKW engine displacing around 1,000 cc.

Former Orenda engineer Ron Page, who wrote the definitive history on the Avro Arrow and the CF-100, had unique access to Avro and Orenda archives. He said, “There isn’t much known about the program except that were was a bare chassis with a strange engine setup. I was told that Spud Potacki [Avro Arrow chief test pilot] was the only one who was allowed to drive it. Apparently he would roar up and down between the engine bays testing it. But he always had to watch at the end of the bays, as the brakes weren’t that good. Like so much of what happened in 1950-60, the vehicle just vanished. Only a very few even remember it.”

Meanwhile back at Avro, the situation had gone from bad to worse. As predicted, the Arrow jet had been scrapped, and moral plummeted. As for the Arrow car, Smye noted that, “Major changes in management took place (at Avro) and the proposed cooperative venture was not pursued.”

It is hard to say definitively what part, if any, the proposed Avro car had on AMC eventually building a Canadian car plant, in 1961. The plant was built to produce the hot-selling Rambler so AMC could sell the vehicle here without import duties (this was pre Auto-Pact). But the new plant was definitely located very close to Avro’s Malton facility (just down the road in fact), and the land for it would have needed to been secured a few years before 1961. Also, the president of AMC Canada at the time was a certain Mr. Earle Brownridge; he was previously the president of Orenda, and in that capacity was the Avro/Orenda emissary that was sent down to the U.S. to originally broach the Avro/Orenda/AMC partnership.

The Avro plant has been demolished, while Orenda still exists as Orenda Aerospace; it continues to produce engines and engine parts for the aircraft industry.

As for the Arrow car, it is a very minor footnote in the greater story of the collapse of Avro Canada and many of its dreams.