For those interested in old cars.

[boxbrownie]

2 hours ago, rockershovel said:

A car which I never actually owned, but was a real ground-breaker for its day - the Ford Anglia 105E. Very loosely styled on the Ford Thunderbird and with a decent ohv engine driving through s four-Speed gearbox. Proper cars! 

Actually the true British Ford which was styled on the Thunderbird was the Corsair prototype, especially the convertible......I am sure I still have some sneaky design pics somewhere.

[boxbrownie]

1 hour ago, boxbrownie said:

Oh yes, still have my copies of Clive Trickeys Mini tuning for road and racing and one for Fast Crossflow Ford tuning.....brilliant reading and taught me an awful lot back then.

Thinking about it there were never any H&S warnings back then, I must have breathed in so much cast iron dust while gas flowing A series heads......probably only slightly less hazardous than dragging a Mini engine and gearbox into a small lift to get the whole thing up to my flat on the eighth floor where I did the dismantling and tuning 

[PhilJ W]

What made the early BMC B series a bit wheezey was that the inlet ports were squeezed in between the pushrods. As the engine was developed it went from 3 to 5 main bearings and the block was stretched to accomodate them. This gave more room for the inlet ports which were duly enlarged, this is why the MGB is better in this respect. Fords done the same with the Anglia 105E engine, originally three bearings but when the crossflow came in became five bearing and therefore longer. Fords reverted to three bearings for the Fiesta because a shorter engine was required to fit in the space available.

[jcredfer]

1 hour ago, boxbrownie said:

Oh yes, still have my copies of Clive Trickeys Mini tuning for road and racing and one for Fast Crossflow Ford tuning.....brilliant reading and taught me an awful lot back then.

 

It was all very down to earth and provided the science behind it, to back up what they said.  Do you remember the 2 guys, who shoe-horned V8s into the old Minis, around 1970? 

 

I met one of them once [if that's the right description], on the 303, just after getting across the Somerset/Devon border, on the way to Exeter.  Climbing the hill after the Dual, this sporty looking mini appeared in the mirror, just before that 90 left halfway up.  Braked, double de-clutched into 2nd and floored it round the bend, then, glanced in the mirror again to view the humiliation, but nothing to see.  Back to the road in front, to see him pulling back onto the left lane, about 50 yards ahead!!  Just visible was the silhouette of 8 intake trumpets and the exhausts to match.  A closer look at that paint job, this time, to confirm and I felt quite a lot better. 

 

Julian

Do you remember Ford claiming that they had the first production, ever, OHV Crossflow engine?  Not true, my first car was a 1932 production MG J2, with a 4 cylinder, OHV, Crossflow engine.  Quicker, too, as the first under 1,000cc car to cover a hundred miles in an hour.

 

Julian

 

[Rugd1022]

Sebring, Florida, 1967....

 

 

 

[jcredfer]

6 minutes ago, Rugd1022 said:

Sebring, Florida, 1967....

 

 

 

 

V8 Jelly on wheels.....

 

Julian

{Waits for the outraged responses.....    }

 

 

[doilum]

1 hour ago, jcredfer said:

 

It was all very down to earth and provided the science behind it, to back up what they said.  Do you remember the 2 guys, who shoe-horned V8s into the old Minis, around 1970? 

 

I met one of them once [if that's the right description], on the 303, just after getting across the Somerset/Devon border, on the way to Exeter.  Climbing the hill after the Dual, this sporty looking mini appeared in the mirror, just before that 90 left halfway up.  Braked, double de-clutched into 2nd and floored it round the bend, then, glanced in the mirror again to view the humiliation, but nothing to see.  Back to the road in front, to see him pulling back onto the left lane, about 50 yards ahead!!  Just visible was the silhouette of 8 intake trumpets and the exhausts to match.  A closer look at that paint job, this time, to confirm and I felt quite a lot better. 

 

Julian

Do you remember Ford claiming that they had the first production, ever, OHV Crossflow engine?  Not true, my first car was a 1932 production MG J2, with a 4 cylinder, OHV, Crossflow engine.  Quicker, too, as the first under 1,000cc car to cover a hundred miles in an hour.

 

Julian

 

Was it Singer who had an OHC in the thirties?

[alastairq]

Bentleys ran 4 valves per cylinder back in the1920's..

[boxbrownie]

2 hours ago, jcredfer said:

 

It was all very down to earth and provided the science behind it, to back up what they said.  Do you remember the 2 guys, who shoe-horned V8s into the old Minis, around 1970? 

 

I met one of them once [if that's the right description], on the 303, just after getting across the Somerset/Devon border, on the way to Exeter.  Climbing the hill after the Dual, this sporty looking mini appeared in the mirror, just before that 90 left halfway up.  Braked, double de-clutched into 2nd and floored it round the bend, then, glanced in the mirror again to view the humiliation, but nothing to see.  Back to the road in front, to see him pulling back onto the left lane, about 50 yards ahead!!  Just visible was the silhouette of 8 intake trumpets and the exhausts to match.  A closer look at that paint job, this time, to confirm and I felt quite a lot better. 

 

 

My cousin put a V8 into a Mini around 1970, it was a Mini pick up ( I think, could have been a van, long time ago) with the V8 in the rear driving the rear wheels, he lived down in Sussex back then.

[Northmoor]

14 minutes ago, alastairq said:

Bentleys ran 4 valves per cylinder back in the1920's..

Remember when British Aerospace bought Austin Rover and Her Majesty's opposition criticised this because "What did an aircraft company know about cars?".  Even as a teenager, I thought: Aerodynamics, multi-valve engines, fuel infection.......

 

The earlier discussion of the image of side-valve engines as low power units, well anyone who thinks that has clearly never experienced the two-stroke engine.  The last 500GP bikes were making over 360bhp/litre, naturally aspirated.

[Erichill16]

Saw something today that I haven’t seen for a long time.

A VW beetle based beach buggy driving round a council estate in Barnsley, quite weird. I was at work at the time and heard ‘something ’coming so went to the window. Wow. Making a great noise and looking in great condition. 
Owner probably can’t wait for lockdown to finish so he/she can get off down Newquay!

Unfortunately couldn’t get a picture.

Regards Robert

 

[petethemole]

1 hour ago, boxbrownie said:

My cousin put a V8 into a Mini around 1970, it was a Mini pick up ( I think, could have been a van, long time ago) with the V8 in the rear driving the rear wheels, he lived down in Sussex back then.

 

There was a mini pickup with a V8 in the bed racing at Santa Pod in the late '60s, probably '68-69. 

[PhilJ W]

1 hour ago, boxbrownie said:

My cousin put a V8 into a Mini around 1970, it was a Mini pick up ( I think, could have been a van, long time ago) with the V8 in the rear driving the rear wheels, he lived down in Sussex back then.

I know of someone who did the same with an Allegro estate, all 7 litres of Chevy grunt. Best of all from the outside it looked perfectly normal and gave many a boy racer a shock.

[jcredfer]

44 minutes ago, PhilJ W said:

I know of someone who did the same with an Allegro estate, all 7 litres of Chevy grunt. Best of all from the outside it looked perfectly normal and gave many a boy racer a shock.

 

I went to Thruxton and one of the items on offer, were demonstration laps of two Transit Vans with mid engine V8s, racing. It was absolutely awesome, not just the speed a pedantic {back then} Transit could achieve with sufficient brute force, but the angles the body would adopt when thrust at bends.  The entry to the corner initiated a lift to the inner front wheel, which resulted in the rear stepping out rather alarmingly.  {Not just for the driver, but the spectators were rather closer to the track back then.}  Not the moment to lift off!!  Amazing sights and very entertaining.

 

Julian

 

[great central]

19 minutes ago, jcredfer said:

 

I went to Thruxton and one of the items on offer, were demonstration laps of two Transit Vans with mid engine V8s, racing. It was absolutely awesome, not just the speed a pedantic {back then} Transit could achieve with sufficient brute force, but the angles the body would adopt when thrust at bends.  The entry to the corner initiated a lift to the inner front wheel, which resulted in the rear stepping out rather alarmingly.  {Not just for the driver, but the spectators were rather closer to the track back then.}  Not the moment to lift off!!  Amazing sights and very entertaining.

 

Julian

 

 

Talking of V8s in trucks, have you seen this? Shame they don't race in this country.

 

 

[tom q vaxy]

http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2007/08/worlds-smallest-vehicles.html

 

[Erichill16]

2 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

I know of someone who did the same with an Allegro estate, all 7 litres of Chevy grunt. Best of all from the outside it looked perfectly normal and gave many a boy racer a shock.

Couple of years ago I was in a car park inMatlock when an Allegro (van den plas I think) pulled up next door. The owner got out and opened the boot. I couldn’t see inside but was curious so went to have a look. Inside was a VW air-cooled engine. Bloke explained to me that it was actually a beetle with an Allegro body. Weird or what?

regards

Robert

 

[boxbrownie]

10 hours ago, petethemole said:

 

There was a mini pickup with a V8 in the bed racing at Santa Pod in the late '60s, probably '68-69. 

Aha well he did take it to the Pod a few times, mainly to get it set up as I recall........

[alastairq]

11 hours ago, Erichill16 said:

Couple of years ago I was in a car park in Matlock when an Allegro (van den plas I think) pulled up next door. The owner got out and opened the boot. I couldn’t see inside but was curious so went to have a look. Inside was a VW air-cooled engine. Bloke explained to me that it was actually a beetle with an Allegro body. Weird or what?

regards

Robert

 

 Not quite so outrageous as might be thought.....

In the world of Classic Reliability Trials, one gent had a very left field view of producing a car that 'could', so to speak.

 

The output of his shed/garage involved a lot of use of VW aircooled chassis/floorpans....[or maybe even, the sam eone, used over & over again?]

 

He shoved the floorpan chassis under, variously, a rear engined skoda [to get 15 inch wheels, and more engine capacity for trialling..a class issue....]

Then there was the MGB GT bodyshell that got the VW aircooled floorpan shoved underneath....

Followed at some point by the Reliant GTE bodyshell with VW aircooled floorpan...

 

I'm not sure what else he found  that had a similar useful wheelbase.....

The ultimate ''use/reuse/recycle'' idea, perhaps taken to extremes?

 

I mean, what else can one do, if someone dumps a kernackered MGBGT bodyshell on one's front doorstep?????

 

Guaranteed to upset the pruists more than this forum having a rivet missing???

[russ p]

12 hours ago, Erichill16 said:

Couple of years ago I was in a car park inMatlock when an Allegro (van den plas I think) pulled up next door. The owner got out and opened the boot. I couldn’t see inside but was curious so went to have a look. Inside was a VW air-cooled engine. Bloke explained to me that it was actually a beetle with an Allegro body. Weird or what?

regards

Robert

 

 

This thing was for sale a few years back,  its actually registered as a VW so has a newer reg than normal allegros.

Beats me why anyone would want to do it . Seem to remember it wasn't the best conversion 

[Phil Traxson]

20 hours ago, jcredfer said:

 

It was all very down to earth and provided the science behind it, to back up what they said.  Do you remember the 2 guys, who shoe-horned V8s into the old Minis, around 1970? 

 

I met one of them once [if that's the right description], on the 303, just after getting across the Somerset/Devon border, on the way to Exeter.  Climbing the hill after the Dual, this sporty looking mini appeared in the mirror, just before that 90 left halfway up.  Braked, double de-clutched into 2nd and floored it round the bend, then, glanced in the mirror again to view the humiliation, but nothing to see.  Back to the road in front, to see him pulling back onto the left lane, about 50 yards ahead!!  Just visible was the silhouette of 8 intake trumpets and the exhausts to match.  A closer look at that paint job, this time, to confirm and I felt quite a lot better. 

 

Julian

Do you remember Ford claiming that they had the first production, ever, OHV Crossflow engine?  Not true, my first car was a 1932 production MG J2, with a 4 cylinder, OHV, Crossflow engine.  Quicker, too, as the first under 1,000cc car to cover a hundred miles in an hour.

 

Julian

 

Plus the fact that Ford didn't seem to notice that almost all multi cylinder OHV motorcycle engines had the inlet one side of the head and the exhaust the other. Is that not crossflow? 

[PhilJ W]

The pre-war Riley's were crossflow as well. With twin cams in the cylinder block and hemispherical combustion chambers.

[boxbrownie]

1 hour ago, alastairq said:

 Not quite so outrageous as might be thought.....

In the world of Classic Reliability Trials, one gent had a very left field view of producing a car that 'could', so to speak.

 

The output of his shed/garage involved a lot of use of VW aircooled chassis/floorpans....[or maybe even, the sam eone, used over & over again?]

 

He shoved the floorpan chassis under, variously, a rear engined skoda [to get 15 inch wheels, and more engine capacity for trialling..a class issue....]

Then there was the MGB GT bodyshell that got the VW aircooled floorpan shoved underneath....

Followed at some point by the Reliant GTE bodyshell with VW aircooled floorpan...

 

I'm not sure what else he found  that had a similar useful wheelbase.....

The ultimate ''use/reuse/recycle'' idea, perhaps taken to extremes?

 

I mean, what else can one do, if someone dumps a kernackered MGBGT bodyshell on one's front doorstep?????

 

Guaranteed to upset the pruists more than this forum having a rivet missing???

The beauty of the beetle floor pan is that it can be lengthened and shortened (which it was for some buggys) quite easily, just a flat pan with a few strengthening sections welded on and a small centre tunnel which was the main longitudinal stiffener.......ooo er missus!

[johnlambert]

17 hours ago, Northmoor said:

The earlier discussion of the image of side-valve engines as low power units, well anyone who thinks that has clearly never experienced the two-stroke engine.  The last 500GP bikes were making over 360bhp/litre, naturally aspirated.

 

I may have missed something but side valve and two-stroke are not the same thing.  Some two-strokes breathe through ports in the cylinder wall and some have conventional valvegear but I don't think I've ever seen a two-stroke with a sidevalve layout like you'd see in an old Ford.

 

I'd like to ride a sporting two-stroke 'bike although I understand the power delivery is very peaky.

[Rugd1022]

Another American flavoured intermission - Watkins Glen, 1972, it all looks very casual not to mention basic....