The Temptress

Sounds good.

With that level of performance available, from the original state of tune, I would have thought that a man with your experience should be able to achieve 200bhp one way or another. From what I can see the factory twin carb option made quite a difference, and that wasn’t exactly an exotic spec.

I suppose much will depend on the state of the engine, and what it will cost to bring it up to running condition. It appears to have been a robust and reliable unit, so would likely be quite capable of withstanding some increase in output without becoming hideously unreliable. Your experience with LPG, and all the various sensors/controls etc will no doubt add a level of safety margin to things. It would be really cool to get true modern day performance out of the original powertrain.

With regard to running a second gearbox backwards, to provide an overdrive, would you have the ratios selectable on the move, or would they have to be chosen when at a standstill?

My old Rover P4 has a very clever selection of limit switches, throttle switches and relays that meant that you could only engage overdrive on a trailing throttle, you could only knock it out if you took power, and when “in” you could floor the throttle and it would drop out automatically, and come back in when you backed off. It made driving the car very smooth, and changing down to overtake a simple case of flooring it.

Big drums are surprisingly good.

As for axles, if you can identify your stud pattern then you may find other big stuff of the period that shared it had higher gearing, although 4:1 is higher than a lot of stuff you’d find with big wheels and tyres. A 5000 rpm and 100+ mph capability was like warp speed for the time.

Quick bit of photoshoppery, as i can never resist. Sure you wouldn´t fancy a coupe?

very nice . thank you Horrido , i would have the rear window higher so the roof to window line stayed the same.... the lowering and slamming really accentuates those lovely deco curves ...


i can only assume some time travelling romantic throwback from the purple era was hired to design the car , then he went off to the south of france with a rich italian heiress , and the roof was designed by the local conservative mp.

i think it was so they could sit in there with thier big snooty iambetterthanyoudontyouknowiwenttoeaton#richdaddy...hat on .

A temptress indeed! I was watching this on ebay as I've always really liked these Armstrong Siddeleys and thought it had probably gone for banger racing, so will be following this thread with great interest! If it's of any help to identify some of those parts or how things should look, I have quite an extensive collection (approx 1GB) just of Sapphire 346 photos. I can also recommend a couple of good AS books if that's any help? Alterntively, would be happy to scan any pages as needed.

Yes, the roofline height is almost certainly so that passengers can still wear hats - this was the product of the early '50s, and the (vastly underrated) baby Sapphire 234 / 236 was blighted by an overly tall roof for the same reason. The big Sapphire always carried it off better though.

Also, I'm very glad to see that it still has its twin jet engined Sphinx

Oh, and a Jaguar MkVII was more Terry-Thomas' style - much more caddish!!

How about going the other way to a roof chop . . .- this popped up on the MIG welding forum:

Lovely project. The photoshopped chop is spot on.
If anyone wants a tough o/drive have a look at Gear Vendors in California. Been going years and the o/D's have huge power handling capacity

1.48” is 7/8” WW (1”BSF).

I would suspect that a lot of the fasteners are Whitworth or BSF if they’ve not been disturbed by previous owners.

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Almost 4 day old thread, Nearly 3000 views.



Must be doing something interesting.

To me a lot of the technical stuff that guys like glenanderson sprout, and that inhabits Roberts ivanhoew head just sounds like WOOOOOSSSSHHHH.

But I find these builds absolutely addictive.