Art & Inspiration Aero-Engined Vintage Racers

Found on another site - a 1913 Vauxhall, fitted with an 11 litre 1918 Wolseley Viper engine, as used on the SE5a (WW1 biplane fighter).






The Goggo at the top of the page has now been driven under its own power.

 

That is a neat car. Do you have any pictures of it with the hood closed?

 

Couple more...





And some Cirrus powered thing - just how traditional would you like your seats?

 

If I'm not mistaken, "sea planes" held all the top speed records back then, because their pontoons were more streamlined than landing gear on struts (before retractable gear, anyway). Gary

 

JamesD, I love the wicker seats!

 

Does anyone know what the GN lettering means (from a guy who's initials are GN!). Gary

 

GN was the make of car. Don't know who GN was, or what it stands for.

 

Does anyone remember the dragster with 3 Air Research turbine starter motors. they were run on compressed air.took about 2 hrs to fill the air tanks. when the starter said GO, the rear slicks would start spinning and smoking, no noise. I think about 180 mph early 60's I saw it run at Fremont

 

The GN was a British cyclecar made in Hendon, North London, between 1910 and 1920, then moving to Wandsworth, London. The name derives from its founders, H.R. Godfrey (1887-1968) and Archibald Frazer Nash (1889-1965).

 

A couple of Aussie mades....

 

Wonderful! Thanx. I tried some searches, but never came up with anything substantial... some images of GN cars with other engines, etc, but no clues to the origins. Would you happen to know if the GN painted on the car I referenced is the factory emblem, or an emblem of one of their marks? Thanx again, Gary

 

it appears to be the company "emblem", or atleast it is what is painted on "Kim II".



here is another good pic:

 

good bit of GN history:

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.ameshillantiques.com/Site/History_files/GN_artist_bookb.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.ameshillantiques.com/Site/History.html&usg=__jsf9Cict7fkSk_XT3nF2FzEG9LU=&h=319&w=192&sz=13&hl=en&start=45&um=1&tbnid=XY9sCSqhAc0b6M:&tbnh=118&tbnw=71&prev=/images%3Fq%3DGN%2BCyclecar%26ndsp%3D18%26hl%3Den%26rlz%3D1T4DMUS_enUS225US232%26sa%3DN%26start%3D36%26um%3D1

 

James,

Do a google search to see what WWI plane seats are made out of- you'll see some similarities

 

I had a matched pair of wicker buckets that went with mt '15 T speedster back in 1978, they were aircraft items. That is one project I'd like to have back again. Roof Liberty 8 equiped 20" Buffalos, Ruxtel.................

 

Geez Bob, are you the Bluto of the Great Northeast ???

 

Thanx again... a good read. I must might have to "recreate" a version of the emblem for myself some day!!! Gary

 

................................no, but he is a roll model

 

Kurtis, any more pics of the underslung Fiat?

 

Wow, this is really bizarre I actually saw both the GN V8 JAP and the Vauxhall Viper racing today at Curborough speed trials. Other aero engined cars there included a Hispano/Delage (27 litre!!) and the most beautiful sounding Napier powered Bentley a mere 24 litre.
The most interesting car there for me was the Hardy Special, a 1 litre V twin JAP mid engined, supercharged special that was completely barking mad.
In all honesty I felt like the sanist person there, watching 70 year old guys racing cars built in the teens, smoking the tyres and getting their priceless cars all out of shape! Superb.
I hope that Nutrocker posts photos of the cars we saw today.

 

Vintage racing in the UK is in a different world than over here. PLEASE POST PHOTOS!!!!!!

 

Mrs B's Dad has a racer with a wicker body WHOLE THING

On the was to Berlin there is a full size truck woven of reeds

I think if wicket ever replaces bomber seats Poland's economy may un-depress!

 

a couple more of the lycoming special. engine is upside down

 

Is that a Ford "crab" style distributor on that? Sure looks like one.

 

Four-cylinder with two plugs per cylinder, I'd expect, for redundancy in aircraft use.

That's an interesting car. Lycomings and Continentals are good sources of cubic inches for the weight. I had a brief fancy to base a motorbike engine on Lycoming or Continental pots, but the heads aren't really what one would want on something like a bike. Though light, these engines are built to run days on end at 3000rpm, producing relatively little power for their capacity.

But here's a thought. How about air-cooled Porsche heads on one of these? The aircraft engines have a bore around 130mm and the Porsche is around 95mm, so it might be difficult to engineer, and there might not be any percentage in it after all breathing-wise, but who knows?

 

Many FIAT parts used throughout. Powered by a de Havilland Gipsy Major from a Tiger Moth.

 

Here's another:

I've had it as my wallpaper for months now.

 

Look at the pointed nose GN on the cover of Cyclecar magazine and you get the feeling that Chip Foose took inspiration from this car for his '32 roadster.

 

I was thinking the same thing. Thanks to Kurtis and Ned Ludd for the pics of the Fiat. It is beautiful.

 

Ok I found them, sorry they're not brilliant.
Hrer's one of the GN JAP

Here are a few of my favourite the Hardy special