the Howard 700 is probably more rightly called a ‘Clifford-Howard 700’ rather than its decal name of ‘Howard-Clifford 700’.
Compare to the Clifford Mk IV and the basic design history is evident,
think of the 700 as actually a Clifford MK V,
with a Yeoman type quick hitch,
and suddenly the development cost is mainly about size and power balancing,
it is not a whole new type of machine.
While its short production run is sad, the 800 is sadder,
and possibly gives us a clue as why the 700 run was short,
the 800 never went into full production because the actual cost of production was going to be too high, this implies that the similar type of machine 700 also had a high cost of production.
I also am surprised that the 700 did not continue in production for a couple more years,
considering that it was in production, and a significant portion of the market did choose to buy them.
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