History Auto racing 1894-1942

Follow the link below to a great article by David Traver Adolphus on Hemmings blog about Lewis Strang along with good photos.

http://blog.hemmings.com/index.php/2010/05/31/how-strang-met-his-death/#more-24481

 

Another BUICK underslung, is this the same car that is seen in other photos?

 

I have the book about Walter Marr, Buicks engineer at the time which tells all about his racing efforts for Buick.

The first Buick underslung was created on the way to a race in a special railroad car he had built with a fully equipped shop on board. He had a machine shop, stock and a forge and blacksmith along with machinists and mechanics. They could work on the cars while traveling between races. If he came up with a new idea they could put it into effect as soon as they could make it.

 

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Hammond's racing car in the second photo looks like a Maxwell race car or copy with a different radiator and artillery wheels.

His car in the second photo sure looks like the early style Maxwell racing body with the distinctive gas tank and exhaust. Could it be one?

 

A really neat photo just surfaced, I can't place the car, can anyone positively identify it and tell us if the caption is correct?

 

If the caption is correct, then it's Harry Cobe's Jackson, which retired on lap 2 of the Vanderbilt Cup race.

 

Vitesse........Thanks.

 

Has a GN shaped shell, and cylinders hanging out the hood side as any respectable GN should--but GN's had a wood chassis and the car in the pix looks to have a metal one. I would say that it is a GN based special.


Herb Kephart

 

Herb......Good ID, I think you are right about that being a GN. I had one here two years ago for quite a while that was one of the three Brooklands 200 Mile GN team cars. It was a fun car to drive and very fast.

That car and some other GN racing specials had a drilled metal frame just like this car. Did the production GN's have wooden frames?

 

T-H.....Race car with wooden frame




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Herb...... The GN shifted just like the Frazer Nash you mentioned and was a blast to drive other than the steering being a little to direct. If you sneezed you were in a ditch. It had a top speed of right around 100 MPH (we clocked it) with the sprockets that were in it .

Very racey engine with very radical cams in the four valve SOHC heads driven by shaft and bevel, not chain like you see in the photos of the bare chassis. The GN was very quick and accelerated like a rocket and with the quick shifting you could get up to top speed fast.

 

Photos of a 1922 GN Vitesse chassis, this car came out of the Stafford East Collection in the UK a year or two ago.

 

T-H

Details of the Auction


The collection of long-retired garage owner, Stafford East, was well known but had been kept out of the public eye for some time, with many of the lots having been stored away in an ivy-covered barn for the last 20 years. These rare barn-find motor cars and bikes all required restoration and re-commissioning.


Star of the collection was a historically important 1920 chain-driven GN, ‘Kim II’ which sold for £65,300. The car was the fastest under 1,100cc racing car in its day, with over 100 first places in its long racing history. ‘Kim II’ was one of three GNs in the collection, built in Wandsworth, London, which together made £184,900. The others,‘Vitesse’, a 1922 GN 1,086cc Two Seater Voiturette sold for £63,100 (double the estimate), and ‘Akela’, built by GN in 1922 as one of a team of cars prepared for the 200 Mile Race at Brooklands that year sold for £56,500.


Keith

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Darracq 200hp
















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T Head-

I thought that all GN's had an ash frame, but re-reading "The Chain Drive Frazer Nash" by David Thirlby, I see that it was only the pre WW1's had wood. Thirlby says "The ash frame that had been standard wear was dropped, not because it had been unsatisfactory--in fact it had been completely successful-- but because a steel channel section frame was regarded as being more likely to impress the purchasers."

Also, from the same source--"The wire and bobbin steering was also dropped at this time, and a conventional steering box with a drop arm arrangement was substituted. The wire and bobbin was direct, simple, and when it needed repairing the cables fraying gave the owner several thousand miles of warning before they became dangerous."

"The wire and bobbin steering gave Godfrey and Nash much pleasure. If they did not like a customer they would re-wrap the wire around the bobbin in the opposite direction, this meant that the steering wheel worked the wrong way. As the customer departed the principals of G.N. Ltd. would rush to the door and apply their eyes to spy-holes to watch the almost immediate accident, usually at very low speeds."

There is no record of floor mats causing throttle pedals to stick however--in fact there is no record of floor mats.

I would have loved to had a chance to drive the car in your photos. The multiple chain transmission, which shifts like a dream, combined with a lusty V twin engine would be the perfect combination--a motorcycle with four wheels!

In 1966, I had just bought a new Dodge van- $2100 as I recall. A friend who regularly brought cars back from trips to Europe, came back with a 1934 Frazer Nash with a Byfleet II body, and asked if I was interested in it. I took it for a blast around some back roads, and can honestly say that I never, before or since, driven a car that was so much fun. Once rolling, the clutch was not needed, as perfect snap shifts could be made due to the large dogs on the sprockets. Corner coming up? Just think for an instant about going around, and it happened. Stuck to the road like chewing gum to the underside of a diner table. Came back and asked how much--then realized that with mortgage, Dodge payments, and family expenses there was no way I was going to afford the $1500---yeah $1500 ---dream car. I still get sick thinking about it. Sad part is that the guy that bought it, drove it head first into something, ruining everything form the engine forward. Don't know what became of it.

Just one of the regrets that I have.


Herb

 

Herb...... The GN shifted just like the Frazer Nash you mentioned and was a blast to drive other than the steering being a little to direct. If you sneezed you were in a ditch. It had a top speed of right around 100 MPH (we clocked it) with the sprockets that were in it .

Very racey engine with very radical cams in the four valve OHC heads driven by shaft and bevel not chain like you see in the photos of the bare chassis. The GN was very quick and accelerated like a rocket and with the quick shifting you could get up to top speed fast.

 

A beautiful 1913 Stutz Bearcat a friend owns, it is a very nice restoration.

 

Here's a link to photos of Babe Stapp at the 1936 and 1937 Vanderbilt Cup Races:

http://www.vanderbiltcupraces.com/index.php/blog/article/friday_june_4_2010

Enjoy,

Howard Kroplick
East Hills, New York

 

T -Head was the GN you drove the old Bill Leath car?

 

No it was not, but Bill did call me when he heard about it.

The car was always in England up into a few years ago.

What a fun car other than starting. It has a removable kick starting handle which goes in from the side to the differential. If you get the routine down it is OK but with the high compression kicking it over is a chore.

It has a real neat sound that is just like a Ducati racing bike with a lopey idle because of the racing cams.

 

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This is a 1916 Stutz Bearcat that was smuggled out from Cuba maybe about 20 yrs. ago. Whoever got it traded a load of news print paper for it. It first went to a dealer in the UK and a friend of mine bought and had it restored here in the US. I was fortunate to be able to take care of it for him while he owned it.

The Stutz had a 389 CI Wisconsin engine, some of the racers were 450's. This car has a set of the bigger cylinders on it which bring it out to 450 also and the extra power is very noticeable. It climbs hills like they don't exist.

 

The legendary Stutz collector A.K.Miller from Orange, Vermont in his 1916 Bearcat before he restored it.

 

Two more photos of the 200 Mile GN racing car and a photo of the SOHC four valve twin spark engine as restored by Charlie Smith in the UK.

 

Did you guys see this on the vintage photos thread? Armory racing? Any ideas? Gary

 

Red hot GN...

 

Thats how they fumigate racing cars in the UK to get the bugs out of them.

 

Who can tell us about these unusual wire wheels on this Stutz speedster from 1914. The photo was taken in Sidney Australia in 1914.

 

They are the same you would find on a King Alfonso Hisso. Love the looks of them.