Had a nice day out at Kop Hill on Sunday, getting there and back in a Caterham too. Lots of old car (and bike) variety both in the 'paddock' and 'show' bits of the field.
Thsi looked like some sort of lap counter on the steering wheel.
Paddy Hopkirk's first car fresh from restoration.
Why fit two carbs to your GN special when four can go?
Local Mercededs dealer was there with a display of its latest models.
Champagne saftey for Hispano Suiza owners.
Wrong lens on for a decent photo of this quite iconic car.
Model Ts
Including one racer with twin carb 16 valve engine.
But even this wasn't my favourite engineering on display.
Ooh, downdraught SUs.
Paddy Hopkirk in a Mini.
A couple from the hill.
So, my favourinte engineering on display was definitly this LaFitte.
Not only does it have a 3 cylinder radial engine...
but instead of having a gearbox it has a variable friction drive by use of a cone clutch. In order to change roadspeed the whole engine pivots to alter the relative diameters of the cone that are engaged.
The carb throat is at one of the pivots so the carb is hard fixed to the chassis.
To solve the issue of hooking up a flexible exhaust they got around the problem by just having a very short exhaust which moves with the engine.
There's a videe of here where you can see how it works.
Crazy but brilliant solutions to problems that didn't really need solving if the car had been more conventional. I mean, where the hell did he decide to source three cylinder radial engines for a start?!
)
