Owner Tom Arnott is used to having to explain the name of the company that built his DMW model P200. “You mean BMW?” is a frequent response.
Many also confuse the initials with famous German brand DKW. But DMW is as English as steak and kidney pie. Perhaps the DMW brand is such a conundrum because in its 50 years of existence, the company produced just around 15,000 motorcycles, with precious few leaving Britain’s shores.
Dawson’s Motors Wolverhampton was formed in the early-1940s at Bell Place, Wolverhampton, in Britain’s industrial West Midlands. William Leslie “Smokey” Dawson was a well-known racer in flat track and speedway races in his native Merseyside. The story goes that in the dust, smoke and mayhem of a grasstrack race, Dawson was confused with Australian rider “Smokey” Stratton. In spite of the dubious origin, his adopted nickname stuck.
Ineligible for the enlistment in World War II because of old racing injuries, Dawson formed DMW around 1942 to market some of the innovative motorcycle components he had developed. Among these was the “Telematic” telescopic front fork, sold as an upgrade from the thenubiquitous girder type. Dawson claimed his design circumvented BMW’s own telescopic fork patents; but it’s also likely given the war, that the combatants’ intellectual property rights could be safely ignored. Dawson also designed and built a swinging fork conversion kit to add rear suspension to the
