The Stutz.......
The Stutz.......
Bikes & sidecars......
Around the Pits & demo Laps.....last ones for Gerald
Excellent! I think that last pic should be the basis of a "caption competition"!
Love those vintage sidecars too.
photoshopped for the correct era...........
Talking about the side cars. The No95 bike had as the swinger, his wife!!!!! Joanne. Had a chat to her afterwards, as I had been talking to her Father in Law about the bike beforehand. That couple were really giving it everything......3 wheel drifts on the left-hand bends where the swinger really earns their money, and their blues. I asked her if she had ever come off.......of course, she said, but 'relatively' slowly, so not much damage to the body. The whole bike is hand built by her husband, even parts of the engine, and is a real credit to him.
The Father in Law incidentally was 81 years old and still riding......he has a collection of 15 bikes and on the day was on his Jawa.......
Also had his !939 Vellocette.....gorgeous.......and the smell........
Will comment on the pics shortly.
Last edited by AMCO72; 03-31-2013 at 12:46 AM. Reason: number change
ERC,...... Im sure there will some smart-alec comments about the MG and the Napier......ex London cab by the way. It was so SLOW.....even had to get into 'crawler' gear up the hill. So egged on by my passengers, real Roycroft girls these, we swooped majestically past with much hooting of horns and waving of arms!!!!!!!!!!
Look at the tyre deflection on the Gee Cee Ess.........he was really 'getting on with the washing' much to the delight of the 'crowd'. And no roll over bar, and an open faced helmet with goggles, which really makes it look right when photoshopped.
Last edited by AMCO72; 03-31-2013 at 04:36 AM. Reason: Addition comment
Perhaps ERC something like.......
"I say Geeves, there appears to be a UFO at 2 o'clock and closing ......better take evasive action"
or.......
"Step on it driver, that's the Wife in hot pursuit"
"That's OK Sir, we will be able to out-corner them on these new slicks"
Last edited by AMCO72; 03-31-2013 at 10:22 PM. Reason: added comment
"Hey girls, that old taxi just overtook us under braking! They fitted modern number plates and now it goes like stink..."
Or,
"Jeez! I thought Angus was in the south island this weekend."
Yeh Yeh!!!!!!!!!!
Another machine that was doing a lot better than I have seen, was the DKW engined Formula Junior.
Prior to this meet, all it seemed good at was farting vast clouds of oil smoke and breaking down. HOWEVER, yesterday it was really going extraordinarily well with not too much....ring,ding,ding,ding....ding ding!!!!!...... and very little smoke.
Chatting with Bob Homewood later I found out why. They had had a session on Bobs dyno and, wait for it, had almost doubled the HP.
Apparently this 3 cylinder 2 stroke has an unusual valve arrangement, and I didn't get the details, but coupled with the fact that it has NO torque whatever, is inclined to choke itself to death once the revs drop off. During racing if it gets slowed by another competitor, and a change to 2nd gear is necessary, its all over. They are going to find a much lower 2nd gear ratio to fit to the gearbox, and hopefully this will cure the problem.
Classic photos Martin.....
Last edited by AMCO72; 03-31-2013 at 05:26 AM. Reason: add comment
The builder/owner is Jo's dad Neville....not husband. He usually "pilots" the beast!! Goes damn fast as well.....love the pics so far.Originally Posted by AMCO72
Last edited by Haga; 03-31-2013 at 01:52 AM.
Another car it was good to see out was the RA Vanguard. The owner has done a vast amount of work since it was at the last Roycroft on display only. She was still being a bit temperamental though, as I think it always has been. The engineering in this machine is amazing but cant help thinking that Hec Green was trying to be too clever instead of having what could have been a reliable race car.
But this is how legends are made......people pushing beyond the boundary and not being satisfied with the tried and trusted.
The engine is supercharged and has the regular horizontal SU where it should be, but in addition there is another smaller SU mounted vertically adjacent to the blower, and I cant for the life of me think what it is for. At one stage it was pissing petrol everywhere, which caused a lot of spanners to be bought into action.
The car has a very sharp exhaust note through its short stubb pipes, and looked very nice on the track.....almost a mini Auto Union.
Gerald it was fantastic to see the RA Vangaurd out racing.The silver car No 15 in Martins fantastic pictures. Hec Green was such a clever guy he didnt even use springs on the front. If you had looked under the dash down to the footwells you would have seen large rubber bands similar to bungy cords. Sadly after all his hard work he had a problem with a bearing in the rear and had to retire it.
Bugger I was going to go and look, and then talked myself out of it. Those sidecars looked wonderful. And was that Denis Jenkinson pushing one of the bikes? A reliable scource told me that AMCO was being lapped! What a contrast muscle cars and F5000'S one week and the next week A7s.
Beowulf
"Drat. That NAPIER is so quick. Maybe I should have driven an Austin CAMBRIDGE?"
"Next year, I'M going to get a riding mechanic instead of trying to impress young ladies."
Last edited by ERC; 03-31-2013 at 08:13 PM.
.........'Wish Great Grandpa had been here, he would have shown this turkey how to drive'............
Beowulf, I can assure you that if it had been Dennis Jenkinson, he would have been in the side-car. But this brings up the problem of the AGE of most of the competitors at the festival, including the motorcyclists. The grey haired old gits out numbered the younger folk ten to one. Which is a bit worrying. Where are the next generation of Vintage racers coming from?? Us old fellas cant go on for ever you know.
Lapped!!!!!! My dear Beowulf, I had precious cargo on board, and those girls with the Roycroft name, perhaps they will be our future VCC competitors.
Last edited by AMCO72; 03-31-2013 at 10:29 PM.
The "twin" carb arrangement was set up like this by Hec Green with the smaller vertical SU operating first to provide high velocity air over the jet at low engine speed, the second 2" horizontal does not start to open until about half throttle, the two then are syncronised through to full throttle. I guess it is much the same arrangement as a progressive multi choke carb ie weber etc.
Good point. Same as those of us who still follow our favourite traditional jazz bands of the 50s/60s and see the average age of the audience...
We can never really predict trends but let's say, all of a sudden, some teenage pop star (sic) such as Justin Berber-Carpet, purchases an Austin Seven. Overnight, there is a massive interest in Austin Sevens and Oldfart is suddenly the man of the moment, fighting off hordes of teenaged girls, clamouring for his autograph. (He wishes...)
Currently, the 'yooth' is fixated on turbos and tyre smoke, so whereas classic racing has had a massive influx of support via the easily obtainable BMW E series, exposing the younger ones to the variety of classic cars available, because (sadly) VCC cars are never seen at Classic events, they are not really getting the exposure they need. It will be interesting to see how the VCC views the future.
Last edited by ERC; 04-01-2013 at 02:05 AM.
Thank you Nodiff for your explanation. However I need someone, you perhaps, to explain it further to a dummy like me.
You see I always thought that was the object of a variable throat carburettor like the SU, to maintain velocity over the jet, so why would you need to complicate the issue by adding another smaller carb to help at low engine speeds ? With the blower increasing the flow anyway from low revs, and the fact that this is a race car where things other than air/ fuel flow are a factor......camshaft design etc, to low engine revs, one has to ask.....what is the point?
Or was it Mr Green thinking outside the square again.
Last edited by AMCO72; 04-01-2013 at 03:07 AM. Reason: add comment
I think that your explanation of Mr Green and the rectangle is probably the answer, This is how Jack Brewer, (Hecs Partner in the venture explained it to me) However if it is not so,then I too would love to know the reason
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