Oddball engines and prototypes

[pete376403]

Love this - a car powered by an aircraft engine from a (primarily) motorcycle engine manufacturer; J.A.P V8
http://theoldmotor.com/?p=136808

[WilDun]

Wouldn't like this to fall on me.

https://youtu.be/McSikBdGghU

That's what you do when you've got time and money to spare! - Donald Trump should do something like that instead!

[husaberg]

Love this - a car powered by an aircraft engine from a (primarily) motorcycle engine manufacturer; J.A.P V8
http://theoldmotor.com/?p=136808

4X rear chain drive for those occasions when 3 is just not manly enough.

[Grumph]

4X rear chain drive for those occasions when 3 is just not manly enough.

That's actually a Frazer-Nash gearbox. Fixed sprockets on the axle and loose sprockets on the layshaft - engaged by dog clutches as required.
Quickish changes of ratios, fast action shifts, light and cheap....

There were some weird and wonderful Shelsey specials built like that one. The Bolster bros car with 4 X JAP V twins was certainly one of the most unusual with chains running everywhere.

[husaberg]

That's actually a Frazer-Nash gearbox. Fixed sprockets on the axle and loose sprockets on the layshaft - engaged by dog clutches as required.
Quickish changes of ratios, fast action shifts, light and cheap....

There were some weird and wonderful Shelsey specials built like that one. The Bolster bros car with 4 X JAP V twins was certainly one of the most unusual with chains running everywhere.

So only one chain drove the axel at any given time and you could engage other gear ratios to engage them with it, on the fly?

[Grumph]

So only one chain drove the axel at any given time and you could engage other gear ratios to engage them with it, on the fly?

Yep, but all rotated all the time the car was moving...The round casting visible in the pic is a conventional clutch to disengage the drive in normal fashion. Once engaged, you can switch from chain to chain using the dog clutches worked by a fairly conventional gear lever.The layout enforces a fairly high seat position which was a problem for the few race single seaters built.

To clarify even more - each chain you see is a different ratio drive...if they all use the same pitch chain then the sum of the sprocket teeth must add up to the same number. In practise this usually meant a very close ratio box - ideal for racing.

The Frazer Nash mob were called of course the "chain gang"....

[tjbw]

Here's a V4 engine. It has 1 crankshaft, two crankpins, 4 conrods, but only 1 carb. This is on display at the Sammy Miller museum in England.

[tjbw]

That's what you do when you've got time and money to spare! - Donald Trump should do something like that instead!

Well I think they'd need to spend even more money. Need big springs to support all that weight, exhaust and inlet redesign would be fun too.

[tjbw]

Here's a real oddball, Excalibur, by Major John Treen. This was proposed as a 'world beater' in the 60s, it was to be funded by sale of raffle tickets, but I guess they didn't manage to sell enough tickets.

In about 1967 I won quite a few books of the raffle tickets, along with a nice Bulova watch, which was presented to me by Freddy Frith, for correctly predicting 1st 2nd and 3rd in the Senior Manx Grand Prix .

I always wondered what happened to Excalibur, and was surprised to find this exhibit at the Sammy Miller museum in England.

[husaberg]

Here's a real oddball, Excalibur, by Major John Treen. This was proposed as a 'world beater' in the 60s, it was to be funded by sale of raffle tickets, but I guess they didn't manage to sell enough tickets.

In about 1967 I won quite a few books of the raffle tickets, along with a nice Bulova watch, which was presented to me by Freddy Frith, for correctly predicting 1st 2nd and 3rd in the Senior Manx Grand Prix .

I always wondered what happened to Excalibur, and was surprised to find this exhibit at the Sammy Miller museum in England.

There was talk of it in a book I read with hopes of 40-50 hp at some astonishingly high revs in 125 form.
I posted something about it on ESE but no one could add much or had heard of it..
I think he swallowed a whole heap of lottery development funds for his project world beater.........

[Grumph]

Here's a V4 engine. It has 1 crankshaft, two crankpins, 4 conrods, but only 1 carb. This is on display at the Sammy Miller museum in England.

I've got a writeup on that from Motor Cycling, Jan, 1963 that i've been threatening to send to husa as it's too big for me to scan. Has cutaways and crank pics too. Not a converted RG500 - but clever given what he had to work with...Builder was B W J Hindes AMI Mech E complete with 'tach and pipe.
There's another Brit 2 stroke four i must hunt out and send both over to Husa.
The second four is also supercharged like this one...

[husaberg]

I've got a writeup on that from Motor Cycling, Jan, 1963 that i've been threatening to send to husa as it's too big for me to scan. Has cutaways and crank pics too. Not a converted RG500 - but clever given what he had to work with...Builder was B W J Hindes AMI Mech E complete with 'tach and pipe.
There's another Brit 2 stroke four i must hunt out and send both over to Husa.
The second four is also supercharged like this one...

The Villiers 4 I vaguely remember from somewhere.........
Send it or a photocopy ya chicken.

[WilDun]

Here's a real oddball, Excalibur, by Major John Treen. This was proposed as a 'world beater' in the 60s, it was to be funded by sale of raffle tickets, but I guess they didn't manage to sell enough tickets.

I always wondered what happened to Excalibur, and was surprised to find this exhibit at the Sammy Miller museum in England.

I now vaguely remember Excalibur but had more or less forgotten about it till now! - (and Freddy Frith as well). Coming up with a 'world beater' wouldn't have been easy in those days, in the face of the Japs!
Who did win the MGP by the way? - was it Dan Shorey?

I was quite impressed with the quality of that V4 effort - wonder what Villiers though!

Talking of supercharging, have a look here, very interesting! (may have been posted somewhere on this forum before ).
http://www.elsberg-tuning.dk/supercharging.html

[tjbw]

I vaguely remember Excalibur but had totally forgotten about it! - (and Freddy Frith as well). Coming up with a 'world beater' wouldn't have been easy in those days, in the face of the Japs!
Who did win the MGP by the way? - was it Dan Shorey?

I was quite impressed with the quality of that V4 effort - wonder what Villiers though!

Talking of supercharging, have a look here, very interesting! (may have been posted somewhere on this forum before ).
http://www.elsberg-tuning.dk/supercharging.html

Dan's best result in MGP was 9th, in 1960, though his best IOM TT result was 6th!

[url]http://www.manxgrandprix.org/Mountain-Course-Database/competitors.aspx?ride_id=1992[/url


Villiers bought the V4 bike for evaluation, I'm not sure when it was first described as a Villiers though.

http://www.oldbikemart.co.uk/news/villiers-mystery-solved

Good supercharging site, thanks.

[tjbw]

This was built in 1948 by Wooler, in West London.