For those interested in old cars.

[alastairq]

Mine was on an F plate....and probably on its third set of strut tops too, by the time I sold it on.

[Oldddudders]

2 minutes ago, alastairq said:

Mine was on an F plate....and probably on its third set of strut tops too, by the time I sold it on.

Mine had a low-ratio back axle, from the estate/van, I think, so was quite quick off the line. And that was before the dealer I bought it from secondhand had found it necessary to replace the carb with a Weber 28/36 DCD..... 

[PhilJ W]

The crossflow engines were also longer, due to their having five bearings instead of three. But they reverted to three bearings when they introduced the Fiesta as the five bearing engine would not fit transversely.

[boxbrownie]

21 minutes ago, alastairq said:

Mine was on an F plate....and probably on its third set of strut tops too, by the time I sold it on.

So you sold it at just one year old then? 

[jcredfer]

36 minutes ago, alastairq said:

Mine was on an F plate....and probably on its third set of strut tops too, by the time I sold it on.

 

I spent some years teaching in Ilford and took the Yr 11s to a skating rink, once a week, next to the Dagenham Salt Flats.....  which was where Ford parked their nice newly produced cars.

 

Julian

 

[Rugd1022]

I've never owned a classic Ford but do have a soft spot for them - particularly Mk2 Cortinas, Mk1 Escorts, Mk1 Capris, Mk1 Granadas and Mk3 Cortinas, examples of which have been owned in period by various relatives. If I ever shake off this Mini / Italian affliction I might own one myself some day.

 

 

 

 

[steve1]

1 hour ago, alastairq said:

I once owned a 1967 Escort 1300 GT

 

That was the car I really wanted when I was about 17-18 and they were introduced.

 

No way I could have afforded to insure it, let alone buy it in the first place.

 

Dreams...

 

steve

 

PS Still couldn't afford one now either.

[Phil Traxson]

3 hours ago, Oldddudders said:

I thought crossflow arrived with the Mk 2 Cortina "New Cortina is more Cortina".

A small point, most ohv motorcycle engines were crossflow , from way before Ford did it to car engines. They also used the "hemi-head" combustion chamber a long time before it was heralded as something new and wonderful by the car manufacturers too. Just saying!

[alastairq]

Everybody seems to be ignoring the once famous so-called ''Le Mans'' Bentleys....16 valves, cross flow?  The heads were not removable..

 

There were multi valve engines before WW1...

 

The one thing that really held back small engine development in the UK was the system of RAC taxation..[based upon a formula to decide the horsepower, or HP..hence Ford sidevalve engines before  &  after WW2 were either 8HP or 10HP...the 10HP being the 1172cc engine, the 8HP being 933cc.

The small Standard saloons of the 1950s were referred to as the Eight or Ten.....as a hangover of the RAC horsepower rating tax system.

WHat this meant to manufacturers was, the need to design long stroke engines....Something  that the French for many years were not hindered by,........hence French makers such as Amilcar could have high revving short stroke small capacity engines...

The problem with long stroke engines was one of piston speeds....and the consequent cylinder wear. Ford sidevalve engines were reckoned to be 'good' for around 20-25 thousand miles before needing a rebore. Ford did a good trade in exchange engines a low costs.

[MJI]

1 hour ago, alastairq said:

Everybody seems to be ignoring the once famous so-called ''Le Mans'' Bentleys....16 valves, cross flow?  The heads were not removable..

 

There were multi valve engines before WW1...

 

The one thing that really held back small engine development in the UK was the system of RAC taxation..[based upon a formula to decide the horsepower, or HP..hence Ford sidevalve engines before  &  after WW2 were either 8HP or 10HP...the 10HP being the 1172cc engine, the 8HP being 933cc.

The small Standard saloons of the 1950s were referred to as the Eight or Ten.....as a hangover of the RAC horsepower rating tax system.

WHat this meant to manufacturers was, the need to design long stroke engines....Something  that the French for many years were not hindered by,........hence French makers such as Amilcar could have high revving short stroke small capacity engines...

The problem with long stroke engines was one of piston speeds....and the consequent cylinder wear. Ford sidevalve engines were reckoned to be 'good' for around 20-25 thousand miles before needing a rebore. Ford did a good trade in exchange engines a low costs.

 

And in the 70s went the other way, the Rootes 1600 was very oversquare and could rev pretty high.

 

I think the OHC Ford 1600 was also oversquare

[PhilJ W]

The Ford Kent engine was very much oversquare in its original 997 cc 105E form. With a bore of approx 80 mm and a stroke of approx 50 mm. To increase capacity only the stroke was lengthened which meant that the 1600 with a stroke of 80 mm was 'square'. The original Consul/Zephyr/Zodiac engines were also oversquare.

[MJI]

9 hours ago, PhilJ W said:

The Ford Kent engine was very much oversquare in its original 997 cc 105E form. With a bore of approx 80 mm and a stroke of approx 50 mm. To increase capacity only the stroke was lengthened which meant that the 1600 with a stroke of 80 mm was 'square'. The original Consul/Zephyr/Zodiac engines were also oversquare.

 

I remember getting my Sunbeam up something like 7200 rpm in top once, it just ran off the top of the power curve.

[Rugd1022]

Mrs.Rugd1022 has been trying to steer conversations towards replacing our eight year old Alfa Giulietta with a new electric / hybrid of some sort, quick as a flash I said ''yeah ok darling, if you can find one that looks like this I'll buy one....''

 

 

[Oldddudders]

I fear that Mrs.Rugd1022 might be swayed if she thought she was getting a free blond hunk with the car.....

[peanuts]

ok enough is enough 

[boxbrownie]

1 hour ago, Oldddudders said:

I fear that Mrs.Rugd1022 might be swayed if she thought she was getting a free blond hunk with the car.....

You beat me to it 

[Richard E]

Ford actually produced the 107E as a four door alternative to the 105E. It used the 105E engine, gearbox and axle (how do I know? I had one as my second car, my first car was a 100E) but the 100E front suspension and half shafts/drums to allow 100E wheels to be used all round. Mine soon acquired 105E halfshafts and rear brakes along with Classic front struts (disc brake upgrade), a 1200 Cortina engine and Lotus Cortina steels.

 

The 105E engine was part of the Kent family, non-crossflow initially and 997cc, 1198cc, 1340cc and 1498cc. There was a very short lived 1298cc non-crossflow engine found, along with the 1498 version in the first year of Mk2 Cortina production. When the crossflow cylinder head was introduced the engine range changed to 940cc (Europe only), 1098cc, 1298cc and 1598cc.

 

My third car was a Mk1 Escort. Started life as an 1100 repmobile and when I sold it it was a Mexico replica. And it was rallied, almost to death needing a new shell in 1976 after arguing with a very, very solid gatepost.

Edited August 31, 2020 by Richard E

[Rugd1022]

Quaker Street in London, 1970, near Shoreditch High Street underground station, the Vauxhall looks a bit lonely but what a lovely photo....

 

 

 

 

 

 

[big jim]

looks a bit different now!

 

of course if that building was still standing, being shoreditch it would be a rustic vegan artisan bakery run by a man, sorry metrosexual non binary person with a swirly moustache, lumberjack beard, turned up dungarees and clogs 

 

 

 

Edited August 31, 2020 by big jim

[Rugd1022]

Spot on Jim...!

 

In some car related news just in, I've got my eye on some tasty Radford / Wood & Pickett Mini goodies on ebay, fingers crossed my luck will be in - I was outbid on some Mk3 Innocenti doors last week, the posh sort with opening quarterlights etc.

[PatB]

21 hours ago, Richard E said:

Ford actually produced the 107E as a four door alternative to the 105E. It used the 105E engine, gearbox and axle (how do I know? I had one as my second car, my first car was a 100E) but the 100E front suspension and half shafts/drums to allow 100E wheels to be used all round. Mine soon acquired 105E halfshafts and rear brakes along with Classic front struts (disc brake upgrade), a 1200 Cortina engine and Lotus Cortina steels.

 

The 105E engine was part of the Kent family, non-crossflow initially and 997cc, 1198cc, 1340cc and 1498cc. There was a very short lived 1298cc non-crossflow engine found, along with the 1498 version in the first year of Mk2 Cortina production. When the crossflow cylinder head was introduced the engine range changed to 940cc (Europe only), 1098cc, 1298cc and 1598cc.

 

My third car was a Mk1 Escort. Started life as an 1100 repmobile and when I sold it it was a Mexico replica. And it was rallied, almost to death needing a new shell in 1976 after arguing with a very, very solid gatepost.

I've always thought Ford missed something of a trick by not offering a "GT" version of the Anglia, with 1500 engine (the existence of the 1200 Anglia suggests it would have fitted easily) and Classic derived disc front brakes. A sort of proto-hot Escort if you will. However, the impression I get is that they weren't that performance orientated pre-Escort, the Lotus Cortina being something of an outlier.

[Oldddudders]

What about the Mk 1 Cortina GT, available in both 2- and 4-door versions and a cracking drive without the Lotus insurance premium? 

[PhilJ W]

I had an Anglia 1200 estate, it out performed many larger 'sporty' models except in top speed. 

[Richard E]

Well, all sorts of things were done with the Anglia by way of engine swaps.

 

I knew of 1340 and 1500 GT swaps, they were literally a bolt in job, the Lotus Twin Cam and a friend of mine had a 1760 crossflow in his. That was used for road rallying until he built a Dutton kit car for stage rallying (!) and then a Mk2 Escort RS2000 to replace the kit car.

[PhilJ W]

Another conversion I've heard of is a 100E to 107E conversion. All it needed was a 107E cross-member and a few mods to the transmission tunnel. If you used the 105E back axle though the spring mounting pads had to be altered.