Friday, 10 February 2012
Friday, 21 August 2009
Brooklands racer
T. A. RHODES’ RACING MORGAN
Tom Rhodes, who owned a garage in Liverpool, had made a name for himself in the late 20s racing at Southport and Morecambe, gaining the ‘novice’ award in 1927, and the ‘Morgan’ cup in 1929. His Morgan was a B–type Aero with a straight crosshead, but with inverted rear springs to lower the chassis, and a hump on the tail to clear the back wheel. The motor was a Blackburne ohv, which could push this rather tatty looking racer over the flying kilo in 28 secs (80 mph). It is from this unlovely trike that the elegant YY49 was developed.
In 1931 the Light Car Club formulated the Relay Grand Prix, a race at Brooklands for cars up to 1500cc. For the first time since Ware’s accident in the 1924 200 Mile Race, threewheelers were eligible to compete with the fours on the Outer Circuit. The race was a handicap event for a team of three cars, where each racer began with 29 laps to complete, but if the A car failed, the B could take on the remaining laps plus his own 29, and so with the C car. However if the latter failed the whole team was out.
G H Goodall entered the Morgan ‘works’ team comprising H C Lones in his own car, A C Maskell in a 200 mile race Aero, and Tom Rhodes in 1C, a ‘new’ racer, being the B-type Super Aero chassis with a new body, gratis from the ‘works’ and a Baragwanath tuned JAP 1096cc air-cooled motor. The bright red Morgan team was on scratch, giving a lead of around five minutes to the supercharged Midgets and Ulsters, and nearly an hour to some of the lesser teams. After a splendid start, one of the worst downpours ever seen at the track soaked the ML magnetos, and Rhodes, the last man in, limped home on one cylinder to bring the team in 12th at an average of 71.84 mph against the victorious Austin Ulsters’ 81.77.
July 1932 found the Morgan Relay team comprising Lones, Rhodes and G C Harris. Rhodes car, now 2B, was unchanged with split rim wheels, single carburettor, a streamlined metal hump over the rear wheel, and an air deflector for the driver, but nothing for Albert Kneave his intrepid passenger. It was a bad day for Morgans! R R Jackson in the Cambridge University team managed five laps before breaking a valve, although the B Alvis and C MG brought the team in at 74 mph for 7th place. Meanwhile H F S’ team, only 1min 30secs from scratch, showed the way with lap speeds of 98 mph. Then after an hour or so Lones’ big-end gave up, so Rhodes took the sash but soon broke a rocker and the same fate befell Harris in his 1096 Super Aero just twelve minutes later. The E W Wolsely Hornets took the honours at 77.51 mph.
August 1932 saw the opening of England’s first road-racing circuit at Donington Park where Rhodes saw off the side-cars, but could only manage a second place to Clive Lones. Later in the year at the Southport MRC September meeting on Birkdale sands, Rhodes redeemed himself by winning a very fast 10 lapper against both solos and sidecars.
Although the car always belonged to Tom Rhodes, the relationship with the Morgan works was very close, particularly in the provision of new or experimental parts, which were not invoiced or were ‘insurance jobs’.
So March 1933 saw J H Fell sprinting the car at the Inter-Varsity Speed Trial at Gopsall Park minus the Brooklands cans but sporting cycle mudguards for the road. In the same month at Donington Park, on Easter Monday Morgans took on the outfits in the 1100cc event. Lones lost a cylinder when lying second to Collet’s 600 Norton and gave this place to Henry Laird. Rhodes, number 99, whilst running well, overturned at Starkey Corner - I think I know how it feels - without too much damage.
The car was substantially rebuilt at the works in time for the Relay race in July. It appeared as 5A, the lead car, with a new C-type frame, very low and strong with steel bar in place of tubes, the well-based wheels had cast 8” drums, and the body now had a canvas cover over the rear wheel. A new 996cc JTOR engine was tuned by Booker and Millington to run on RD1 fuel via twin Amal TT10 carbs.
Morgan’s team, heavily handicapped at 12 minutes, comprised Rhodes, Laird in a sister ‘works’ car, and Lones in his 731cc ETOR water-cooled racer. They had to wait 28 minutes before starting to chase the twentytwo runners already on the track, then Rhodes was lapping in the high ninetys, the fastest on the track, and reaching 102 mph. It could not last, and after an hour the engine failed so Laird took over to move into third slot at 90 mph. Lones completed the run in the rain at 89 mph, but could not quite catch the leading MG Magna. The Morgan team finished second at 89.01 mph against the MG Car Club’s 88.62.
In August on Southport sands Rhodes was unplaced in the 20 mile race, but was noted for the acrobatic efforts of his passenger. He again had no success at the Donington meeting.
1934 found Rhodes back on the outer circuit for the May BMCRC meeting where he won from a Norton at 97.08, gaining a Gold Star for a lap at 103.76 mph. The Relay race in July presented the old team of Rhodes (4A), Laird and Lones, each doing his thirty laps high on the banking in the rain, to average 90.91 mph, the fastest in the race, and a second place on handicap to the supercharged Austins. Later in the year at Southport he was timed over the flying kilo at 95.60 mph.
The 1935 season opened at Brooklands with the May BMCRC Cup Day when Rhodes won his 10 lap race at 98.62 as a preparation for the Relay Race in July. The car had been back to the Morgan works, and now had a special D-type 3-speed box with close ratios, a wide Magna rear wheel carrying a 475-18 tyre, controlled by twin Hartford shockers, pressed steel front brake drums and twin bracing wires on the front crosshead. It usually rained for the Relay race and 1935 was no exception, Laird started well lapping at 94, but came in on the 16th circuit with collapsing front wheels ( ? cast-iron drums - I had a similar experience at Oulton Park ). Rhodes in 3B took on his team-mate’s laps, plus his own thirty, at a steady 98 mph before handing the sash to Clive Lones. Bad luck continued to dog the team, and Lones’ JAP stripped its timing gears, leaving the Singers to win at 85.13 mph from a 40 minute start. Joe Huxham, in his Matchless Sports, carried the flag for threewheelers with a 13th place at 77.13 mph in a mixed MG- Morgan- Singer team.
That was the end of the factory involvement with Brooklands, and the last year of racing for Tom Rhodes. Morgan’s advertising now concentrated on the F-Type and different cars with four wheels. However the redoubtable Huxham turned out again in 1936, with a Zoller supercharger to assist his MX2, and came home sixth in a mixed team at 74 mph.
The old car languished in the back of Rhodes’ garage until after the war, when J. Gordon King acquired it in 1952. These were the days of austerity and rationing, but nevertheless the MTWC started it’s sporting programme with a ½ mile Sprint at Madresfield in May 1953. King drove the racer down from Garston with cycle-wings, a headlight and a horn, and on the very bumpy track gained a second place at 33.4 secs to Cyril Hales 30.2. The JAP, on twin TT carburettors, subsequently needed attention before he could appear at the Chester MC Sprint in June for another second slot at 33.0 secs.
1954 brought King back to Madresfield and a 32.1 run, which lay second to Les Bolton’s 31.2. Perhaps tiring of all these second places, King put the car up for offers, but there were no takers, and so he embarked on a major refashioning and ‘improvement’ in the footsteps of
Messrs Hale, Bolton and Woods. Morris 8 front brakes and wheels were clumsily grafted on, and the slim body replaced by a rough all-enveloping streamlined alloy affair on a tubular steel frame.
At the Honeybourne sprint in1955 King now managed a 30.8 against Bolton’s 28.1 secs equalling Ernie Wood’s 30.8 on the ‘Mogrudge’.
It was almost the end of the road for the Rhodes racer. Old threewheelers in poor condition were hardly worth advertising in the Exchange & Mart, so King broke the car up. The special JAP JTOR found a new and worthwhile home in Lones’ car, then being rebuilt by NW G.O. John Lindop, the Super Aero body in Valspar green was screwed onto an MX Family chassis, and Wallbank collected the rest of the bits in 1956!
I took a long time restoring all this, but I managed to reunite the body and chassis with a suitable J-Type motor, and have presented it at disparate meetings since 1973. Registered as YY49, and now blue, you may have seen the old girl over the years at Cadwell, Mallory or Donington and a scattering of sprints and hillclimbs. She has romped round the Nurburgring, and in July 1977, following Tom Rhodes example, I stupidly overturned her at Oulton Park. For me the most memorable race was the 1992 VSCC Oulton Mograce. I seized the JAP driving down the Chester Road and so had to return home, rip it out, and screw in the spare cooking motor. This meant an 11 second penalty for not arriving at the morning practice session. I sat alone on the line feeling rather like the scratch man in a Relay Race, and expecting Angell or Bibby to ram my backend before they waved me off! Anyway, later, to complete the comparison, I found six broken spokes in the nearside front due to my inept cornering. I have always preferred to drive to meetings, but nowadays this limits my range, and my last sprint was at Kemble in 2001.
The car is fun, and nice to drive on the road, where it will do a bit over 80mph (4500 revs) but of course it is not a serious competitor in the Racing Class ( nor is the driver), - our best time for the ¼ mile was 19.86 at Long Marston in 1984, - but that is because I don’t like to develop or modify old motorcars. The chassis is the original strong low C-type with a close-ratio D gearbox ( 4.5 – 6.7 – 10.9 ). Rear springs are cord bound and controlled by twin B&D friction shockers, whilst the late pattern M-type wheel has a wide 18” rim. Front suspension is damped by Newton, and the wheels are laced to special 8” cast iron drums with Girling innards applied via the original and elegant compensating pulleys and handbrake. The electrics are of course not original, but are all Morgan 6v plus an extra battery to give me a button start! The J-Type JAP aircooled engine is a special Eric Fernihough / Noel Pope protoype ( FJ 1 ), 80 x 99 mm, which should really grace a quick Brough. It has ball bearing camwheels, a caged big end, but only a 1” mainshaft. Sparks to the 18 mm plugs (always a problem!) come from a BTH TT magneto, and mixture is courtesy of a single 1 5/32” 10TT9 carburettor. The original body, with canvas hump, has an aero screen instead of the wind deflector, and is painted blue because I don’t have much luck with red Morgans!
That is the history to date, it is not the most significant car in the Club, but I hope the old Rhodes racer is giving as much joy to an MTWC member after the next half century.
APPENDIX
Date Event No. Mph / Secs Place
T A RHODES -
1931 July Brooklands LCC Relay 1C 71.84 12
1932 July Brooklands LCC Relay 2B ret
Aug Donington 2
Aug Brooklands BMCRC
Sept Southport 10 lap 1
1933 Mar Gopsall Park Inter-Varsity (J H F)
Apr Donington 88 overturned Starkey
Jul Brooklands LCC Relay 5A 88.90 2
Aug Southport 20 mile 4-
Aug Donington
1934 May Brooklands BMCRC 10 103.76 lap 1
Jul Brooklands LCC Relay 4A 90.91 2
Sep Southport Flying kilo 95.60
1935 May Brooklands BMCRC 10 lap 98.62 1
Jul Brooklands LCC Relay 3B 98 ret
J G KING -
1953 May Madresfield MTWC ½ mile 60 33.4s 2
Jun Queensferry Chester MC 33.0s 2
1954 May Madresfield MTWC 32.1s 2
1955 Honeybourne MTWC ½ mile (Davis Cup) 12 30.8s 2
B WALLBANK –
1973 Jul Curborough MSCC 91 53.0s
Sep Syerston VMCC ¼ mile 107 21.23
1974 Jul Curborough
Aug Nurburgring Old Timer 116 71.00 kph 13
Sep Cadwell Park VMCC (M Greene) 22 48.00 5
Oct Donington Twisty sprint MTWC 35 45.59s 3
1975 May Cadwell Park (M Greene) 22
Jul Mallory Park VMCC 6 11
1975 Jul Curborough VOC 128 51.53s
Aug Nurburgring Old Timer 197 76.64 kph 12
1977 Jul Oulton Park VMCC (M Greene) 27 overturned Druids
1978 May Syerston ¼ mile 41 21.23s
Jun Prescott long 21 73.30s
Jul Loton Park (M Greene) 11 92.15s
Jul Mallory Park Renault Challenge 6 48.2 11
Aug Mallory Park BRSCC 11 1-20-1 lap 16
1980 Jun Prescott BOC 20 ret
Jul Goodwood MTWC Twisty sprint 7
1984 Jul Long Marston ¼ mile 14 19.86s
1987 Jun Blyton MTWC ¼ mile (Davis Cup) 76 21.70s 1
1991 Jul Silverstone ( F Law-Turner) un-timed
1992 Aug Oulton Park VSCC ( F Law-Turner) 17 55.47 11
1993 May Donington VSCC ( D Blair ) 6 52.49 8
1994 Jul Lyme Park Hillclimb 106
2000 Oct Avon Raceway NSA 20.76 17
2002 Jun Kemble VMCC Twisty sprint ¼ mile 23.17 7
Tom Rhodes, who owned a garage in Liverpool, had made a name for himself in the late 20s racing at Southport and Morecambe, gaining the ‘novice’ award in 1927, and the ‘Morgan’ cup in 1929. His Morgan was a B–type Aero with a straight crosshead, but with inverted rear springs to lower the chassis, and a hump on the tail to clear the back wheel. The motor was a Blackburne ohv, which could push this rather tatty looking racer over the flying kilo in 28 secs (80 mph). It is from this unlovely trike that the elegant YY49 was developed.
In 1931 the Light Car Club formulated the Relay Grand Prix, a race at Brooklands for cars up to 1500cc. For the first time since Ware’s accident in the 1924 200 Mile Race, threewheelers were eligible to compete with the fours on the Outer Circuit. The race was a handicap event for a team of three cars, where each racer began with 29 laps to complete, but if the A car failed, the B could take on the remaining laps plus his own 29, and so with the C car. However if the latter failed the whole team was out.
G H Goodall entered the Morgan ‘works’ team comprising H C Lones in his own car, A C Maskell in a 200 mile race Aero, and Tom Rhodes in 1C, a ‘new’ racer, being the B-type Super Aero chassis with a new body, gratis from the ‘works’ and a Baragwanath tuned JAP 1096cc air-cooled motor. The bright red Morgan team was on scratch, giving a lead of around five minutes to the supercharged Midgets and Ulsters, and nearly an hour to some of the lesser teams. After a splendid start, one of the worst downpours ever seen at the track soaked the ML magnetos, and Rhodes, the last man in, limped home on one cylinder to bring the team in 12th at an average of 71.84 mph against the victorious Austin Ulsters’ 81.77.
July 1932 found the Morgan Relay team comprising Lones, Rhodes and G C Harris. Rhodes car, now 2B, was unchanged with split rim wheels, single carburettor, a streamlined metal hump over the rear wheel, and an air deflector for the driver, but nothing for Albert Kneave his intrepid passenger. It was a bad day for Morgans! R R Jackson in the Cambridge University team managed five laps before breaking a valve, although the B Alvis and C MG brought the team in at 74 mph for 7th place. Meanwhile H F S’ team, only 1min 30secs from scratch, showed the way with lap speeds of 98 mph. Then after an hour or so Lones’ big-end gave up, so Rhodes took the sash but soon broke a rocker and the same fate befell Harris in his 1096 Super Aero just twelve minutes later. The E W Wolsely Hornets took the honours at 77.51 mph.
August 1932 saw the opening of England’s first road-racing circuit at Donington Park where Rhodes saw off the side-cars, but could only manage a second place to Clive Lones. Later in the year at the Southport MRC September meeting on Birkdale sands, Rhodes redeemed himself by winning a very fast 10 lapper against both solos and sidecars.
Although the car always belonged to Tom Rhodes, the relationship with the Morgan works was very close, particularly in the provision of new or experimental parts, which were not invoiced or were ‘insurance jobs’.
So March 1933 saw J H Fell sprinting the car at the Inter-Varsity Speed Trial at Gopsall Park minus the Brooklands cans but sporting cycle mudguards for the road. In the same month at Donington Park, on Easter Monday Morgans took on the outfits in the 1100cc event. Lones lost a cylinder when lying second to Collet’s 600 Norton and gave this place to Henry Laird. Rhodes, number 99, whilst running well, overturned at Starkey Corner - I think I know how it feels - without too much damage.
The car was substantially rebuilt at the works in time for the Relay race in July. It appeared as 5A, the lead car, with a new C-type frame, very low and strong with steel bar in place of tubes, the well-based wheels had cast 8” drums, and the body now had a canvas cover over the rear wheel. A new 996cc JTOR engine was tuned by Booker and Millington to run on RD1 fuel via twin Amal TT10 carbs.
Morgan’s team, heavily handicapped at 12 minutes, comprised Rhodes, Laird in a sister ‘works’ car, and Lones in his 731cc ETOR water-cooled racer. They had to wait 28 minutes before starting to chase the twentytwo runners already on the track, then Rhodes was lapping in the high ninetys, the fastest on the track, and reaching 102 mph. It could not last, and after an hour the engine failed so Laird took over to move into third slot at 90 mph. Lones completed the run in the rain at 89 mph, but could not quite catch the leading MG Magna. The Morgan team finished second at 89.01 mph against the MG Car Club’s 88.62.
In August on Southport sands Rhodes was unplaced in the 20 mile race, but was noted for the acrobatic efforts of his passenger. He again had no success at the Donington meeting.
1934 found Rhodes back on the outer circuit for the May BMCRC meeting where he won from a Norton at 97.08, gaining a Gold Star for a lap at 103.76 mph. The Relay race in July presented the old team of Rhodes (4A), Laird and Lones, each doing his thirty laps high on the banking in the rain, to average 90.91 mph, the fastest in the race, and a second place on handicap to the supercharged Austins. Later in the year at Southport he was timed over the flying kilo at 95.60 mph.
The 1935 season opened at Brooklands with the May BMCRC Cup Day when Rhodes won his 10 lap race at 98.62 as a preparation for the Relay Race in July. The car had been back to the Morgan works, and now had a special D-type 3-speed box with close ratios, a wide Magna rear wheel carrying a 475-18 tyre, controlled by twin Hartford shockers, pressed steel front brake drums and twin bracing wires on the front crosshead. It usually rained for the Relay race and 1935 was no exception, Laird started well lapping at 94, but came in on the 16th circuit with collapsing front wheels ( ? cast-iron drums - I had a similar experience at Oulton Park ). Rhodes in 3B took on his team-mate’s laps, plus his own thirty, at a steady 98 mph before handing the sash to Clive Lones. Bad luck continued to dog the team, and Lones’ JAP stripped its timing gears, leaving the Singers to win at 85.13 mph from a 40 minute start. Joe Huxham, in his Matchless Sports, carried the flag for threewheelers with a 13th place at 77.13 mph in a mixed MG- Morgan- Singer team.
That was the end of the factory involvement with Brooklands, and the last year of racing for Tom Rhodes. Morgan’s advertising now concentrated on the F-Type and different cars with four wheels. However the redoubtable Huxham turned out again in 1936, with a Zoller supercharger to assist his MX2, and came home sixth in a mixed team at 74 mph.
The old car languished in the back of Rhodes’ garage until after the war, when J. Gordon King acquired it in 1952. These were the days of austerity and rationing, but nevertheless the MTWC started it’s sporting programme with a ½ mile Sprint at Madresfield in May 1953. King drove the racer down from Garston with cycle-wings, a headlight and a horn, and on the very bumpy track gained a second place at 33.4 secs to Cyril Hales 30.2. The JAP, on twin TT carburettors, subsequently needed attention before he could appear at the Chester MC Sprint in June for another second slot at 33.0 secs.
1954 brought King back to Madresfield and a 32.1 run, which lay second to Les Bolton’s 31.2. Perhaps tiring of all these second places, King put the car up for offers, but there were no takers, and so he embarked on a major refashioning and ‘improvement’ in the footsteps of
Messrs Hale, Bolton and Woods. Morris 8 front brakes and wheels were clumsily grafted on, and the slim body replaced by a rough all-enveloping streamlined alloy affair on a tubular steel frame.
At the Honeybourne sprint in1955 King now managed a 30.8 against Bolton’s 28.1 secs equalling Ernie Wood’s 30.8 on the ‘Mogrudge’.
It was almost the end of the road for the Rhodes racer. Old threewheelers in poor condition were hardly worth advertising in the Exchange & Mart, so King broke the car up. The special JAP JTOR found a new and worthwhile home in Lones’ car, then being rebuilt by NW G.O. John Lindop, the Super Aero body in Valspar green was screwed onto an MX Family chassis, and Wallbank collected the rest of the bits in 1956!
I took a long time restoring all this, but I managed to reunite the body and chassis with a suitable J-Type motor, and have presented it at disparate meetings since 1973. Registered as YY49, and now blue, you may have seen the old girl over the years at Cadwell, Mallory or Donington and a scattering of sprints and hillclimbs. She has romped round the Nurburgring, and in July 1977, following Tom Rhodes example, I stupidly overturned her at Oulton Park. For me the most memorable race was the 1992 VSCC Oulton Mograce. I seized the JAP driving down the Chester Road and so had to return home, rip it out, and screw in the spare cooking motor. This meant an 11 second penalty for not arriving at the morning practice session. I sat alone on the line feeling rather like the scratch man in a Relay Race, and expecting Angell or Bibby to ram my backend before they waved me off! Anyway, later, to complete the comparison, I found six broken spokes in the nearside front due to my inept cornering. I have always preferred to drive to meetings, but nowadays this limits my range, and my last sprint was at Kemble in 2001.
The car is fun, and nice to drive on the road, where it will do a bit over 80mph (4500 revs) but of course it is not a serious competitor in the Racing Class ( nor is the driver), - our best time for the ¼ mile was 19.86 at Long Marston in 1984, - but that is because I don’t like to develop or modify old motorcars. The chassis is the original strong low C-type with a close-ratio D gearbox ( 4.5 – 6.7 – 10.9 ). Rear springs are cord bound and controlled by twin B&D friction shockers, whilst the late pattern M-type wheel has a wide 18” rim. Front suspension is damped by Newton, and the wheels are laced to special 8” cast iron drums with Girling innards applied via the original and elegant compensating pulleys and handbrake. The electrics are of course not original, but are all Morgan 6v plus an extra battery to give me a button start! The J-Type JAP aircooled engine is a special Eric Fernihough / Noel Pope protoype ( FJ 1 ), 80 x 99 mm, which should really grace a quick Brough. It has ball bearing camwheels, a caged big end, but only a 1” mainshaft. Sparks to the 18 mm plugs (always a problem!) come from a BTH TT magneto, and mixture is courtesy of a single 1 5/32” 10TT9 carburettor. The original body, with canvas hump, has an aero screen instead of the wind deflector, and is painted blue because I don’t have much luck with red Morgans!
That is the history to date, it is not the most significant car in the Club, but I hope the old Rhodes racer is giving as much joy to an MTWC member after the next half century.
APPENDIX
Date Event No. Mph / Secs Place
T A RHODES -
1931 July Brooklands LCC Relay 1C 71.84 12
1932 July Brooklands LCC Relay 2B ret
Aug Donington 2
Aug Brooklands BMCRC
Sept Southport 10 lap 1
1933 Mar Gopsall Park Inter-Varsity (J H F)
Apr Donington 88 overturned Starkey
Jul Brooklands LCC Relay 5A 88.90 2
Aug Southport 20 mile 4-
Aug Donington
1934 May Brooklands BMCRC 10 103.76 lap 1
Jul Brooklands LCC Relay 4A 90.91 2
Sep Southport Flying kilo 95.60
1935 May Brooklands BMCRC 10 lap 98.62 1
Jul Brooklands LCC Relay 3B 98 ret
J G KING -
1953 May Madresfield MTWC ½ mile 60 33.4s 2
Jun Queensferry Chester MC 33.0s 2
1954 May Madresfield MTWC 32.1s 2
1955 Honeybourne MTWC ½ mile (Davis Cup) 12 30.8s 2
B WALLBANK –
1973 Jul Curborough MSCC 91 53.0s
Sep Syerston VMCC ¼ mile 107 21.23
1974 Jul Curborough
Aug Nurburgring Old Timer 116 71.00 kph 13
Sep Cadwell Park VMCC (M Greene) 22 48.00 5
Oct Donington Twisty sprint MTWC 35 45.59s 3
1975 May Cadwell Park (M Greene) 22
Jul Mallory Park VMCC 6 11
1975 Jul Curborough VOC 128 51.53s
Aug Nurburgring Old Timer 197 76.64 kph 12
1977 Jul Oulton Park VMCC (M Greene) 27 overturned Druids
1978 May Syerston ¼ mile 41 21.23s
Jun Prescott long 21 73.30s
Jul Loton Park (M Greene) 11 92.15s
Jul Mallory Park Renault Challenge 6 48.2 11
Aug Mallory Park BRSCC 11 1-20-1 lap 16
1980 Jun Prescott BOC 20 ret
Jul Goodwood MTWC Twisty sprint 7
1984 Jul Long Marston ¼ mile 14 19.86s
1987 Jun Blyton MTWC ¼ mile (Davis Cup) 76 21.70s 1
1991 Jul Silverstone ( F Law-Turner) un-timed
1992 Aug Oulton Park VSCC ( F Law-Turner) 17 55.47 11
1993 May Donington VSCC ( D Blair ) 6 52.49 8
1994 Jul Lyme Park Hillclimb 106
2000 Oct Avon Raceway NSA 20.76 17
2002 Jun Kemble VMCC Twisty sprint ¼ mile 23.17 7
BSA maintenance VE 8629
B S A Maintenance
Engine
Oil Castrol : GP 50
Control tap : Feeds cylinders [No. 1 has restrictor in the feed pipe : BW ] and the big ends. Two turns [ approx.] open to give a slight blue haze at the exhaust.
Dipstick : Nearside crankcase
Filter : Steel mesh, Crankcase drain plug
Drain and refill every 1000 miles
Plugs : KLG M50 or Champion 7 or modern NGK equivalent
Gap 28 thou.
NB. Nearside is No. 1 cylinder
Tappets : 2 thou clearance at tdc firing stroke
Carburrettor
Filter in fuel line banjo
Distributor
Easiest to remove – [ see small locating bolt on timing case boss ] – before setting points at 12 thou.
An off-centre spigot ensures this will not upset the timing.
Clutch
Cork plates must run in oil - [will drag when cold ]
¼ Pint SAE 40
Adjust operating shaft on off-side of crankcase to give ¼ inch free movement at pedal.
Gearbox
Castrol D 140 - level plug on nearside
[NB there is only a ‘thrower’ on the mainshaft to seal oil, so it tends to drain into the diff-housing.]
Differential
Castrol D 140 -fill to bottom of level plug behind front number plate. Do not overfill or oil will reach the brake
Chassis
Grease all nipples every 500 miles
Adjust Hartford shock-absorbers quite tight
Brakes
Front brake acts through the diff. Rotate both wheels when adjusting wing nut on the rod.
Rear brake has a compensating spring in the rod.
Starting
Check petrol - 4 gallons unleaded
Check engine oil
Check diff. oil level if car has not been used for some time - - empty if necessary
Turn on petrol
Switch on ignition
Choke full if cold. NO Choke if warm
Full retard
Hand throttle ¼ open
Declutch
Press starter
It should start immediately
Close choke button
Set hand throttle
Engage gear
Half retard before driving away
Oil pressure will be 15lbs cold, it must fall to 2-5lbs when warm. If not stop and check control tap and pipes
Charge at 8 – 10 amps when no lights are on.
Best cruising speed is 42 mph [ 2800 rpm]
HAPPY MOTORING [ We did ! ]
Engine
Oil Castrol : GP 50
Control tap : Feeds cylinders [No. 1 has restrictor in the feed pipe : BW ] and the big ends. Two turns [ approx.] open to give a slight blue haze at the exhaust.
Dipstick : Nearside crankcase
Filter : Steel mesh, Crankcase drain plug
Drain and refill every 1000 miles
Plugs : KLG M50 or Champion 7 or modern NGK equivalent
Gap 28 thou.
NB. Nearside is No. 1 cylinder
Tappets : 2 thou clearance at tdc firing stroke
Carburrettor
Filter in fuel line banjo
Distributor
Easiest to remove – [ see small locating bolt on timing case boss ] – before setting points at 12 thou.
An off-centre spigot ensures this will not upset the timing.
Clutch
Cork plates must run in oil - [will drag when cold ]
¼ Pint SAE 40
Adjust operating shaft on off-side of crankcase to give ¼ inch free movement at pedal.
Gearbox
Castrol D 140 - level plug on nearside
[NB there is only a ‘thrower’ on the mainshaft to seal oil, so it tends to drain into the diff-housing.]
Differential
Castrol D 140 -fill to bottom of level plug behind front number plate. Do not overfill or oil will reach the brake
Chassis
Grease all nipples every 500 miles
Adjust Hartford shock-absorbers quite tight
Brakes
Front brake acts through the diff. Rotate both wheels when adjusting wing nut on the rod.
Rear brake has a compensating spring in the rod.
Starting
Check petrol - 4 gallons unleaded
Check engine oil
Check diff. oil level if car has not been used for some time - - empty if necessary
Turn on petrol
Switch on ignition
Choke full if cold. NO Choke if warm
Full retard
Hand throttle ¼ open
Declutch
Press starter
It should start immediately
Close choke button
Set hand throttle
Engage gear
Half retard before driving away
Oil pressure will be 15lbs cold, it must fall to 2-5lbs when warm. If not stop and check control tap and pipes
Charge at 8 – 10 amps when no lights are on.
Best cruising speed is 42 mph [ 2800 rpm]
HAPPY MOTORING [ We did ! ]
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