Welcome to Thursday Trivia where we offer up a historical automotive trivia question and you try and solve it before seeing the answer after the jump. It’s like a history test, with cars! 

This week’s question: What do the following companies have in common? BMW, BSA, Honda, Maserati, Suzuki, Triumph.

If you think you know the link, make the jump to see if you are right.

Have you every considered the number of companies out there that just seem to make everything under the sun across all sorts of categories? Take Mitsubishi for example. You could watch an ad for Mitsubishi cars on your Mitsubishi TV, and those cars could eventually be delivered on a Mitsubishi cargo ship. Heck, Mitsubishi might even make the captain’s underwear for all I know.

None of the companies noted in today’s trivia question attempt quite so broad a manufacturing reach, but there is one extension that the all have in common, and that is that presently, or at one time in their existence, they all offered automobiles and motorcycles under their individual corporate brands.

Now, BMW, Suzuki, Triumph, Maserati, and Honda are easy, as those makes are famous for both their automobiles and motorcycles, but BSA ? In fact BSA, well known for their motorcycles (nicknamed Beezers that then led to BMW’s bikes being called Beemers), built a number of cars between 1907 and 1939. The most notable of those was the  Scout, a jaunty front-wheel-drive sportster that was introduced in 1935.

From Wikipedia:

The BSA Scout is a small open 2-seater front-wheel drive car, manufactured and sold by subsidiaries of The Birmingham Small Arms Company Limited, launched at the beginning of April 1935. On account of its front-wheel drive and low centre of gravity it was said to be remarkably stable taking corners in safety which would be impossible with a normal design.

The Scout featured a 1,075-cc side valve four (enlarged two years later to 1,203-cc), and was offered in a number of different body styles. Production ended in 1939 when the company decided to abandon auto production and instead focus on motorcycles. The BSA brand today is owned by India’s Tata.

Image source: RonCobb