It was American built, and never shipped overseas as the war ended. Sat in front of a Legion Post for years--then went to scrap yard, where Jerry bought it. It had no weaponry when he bought it, so Jerry put a piece of appropriate sized pipe in the turret. A WW1 armor "expert" visited and after inspecting it said that it was a fine piece, but the pipe looked ridiculous. Jerry told him "it's better than YOUR tank" and he left.
Here's a picture of two FT 17 "dummy tanks" with a cycle wheels underneath: Now, hopefully I've redeemed myself and brought us back to cycles... cars... whatever
Is this Model T "on track" enough for you? If not, I'm sure I've seen a Bedlia with machine guns somewhere on the net, used by the French military during WW1. Can anyone help? There's most likely a pic of it already on this thread.
The WW1 theme fits well with cyclecars. If I do get around to building one, I think I'll be looking for an old 1200 VW engine, removing the cooling tins, and mating it to a front engine/rear wheel drive gearbox. Ford 10 springs to mind, with shortened torque tube and narrowed rear mounted to the frame, chain drive to vintage Harley sprocket/drums. GN style front end. Then I'd be looking to the aircraft of the era for body styling, lots of copper and brass and a fabric body, maybe a touch of steampunk. The German aircraft are particularly cool, IMHO. This pic is stolen from http://thevintageaviator.co.nz/
I love the planes. If I could get my local laws to allow custom coachwork (they say I have to build a replica) I'd be basing the body on a WWI aircraft fuselage. But the VW engine plan could turn out badly. Those tins are VERY important and I've seen engines overheat and start throwing parts to the pavement just because two pieces of sheet metal no more than 3 inches square were left off in assembly. Having had to rebuild many VW motors due to bad tins, be careful what you remove, or at least make sure you can still properly direct the airflow across all cylinders evenly. And everyone, keep the pics coming. I'm especially fond of the engineering diagrams.
I'm also wondering if the flat-four is really an appropriate type for something inspired by WWI aircraft, as the dominant types were in-line, and a few V8s. How about a Fiat 500/126 vertical twin? They're quite gutless in stock form but have been built to about 800cc using VW barrels and pistons. The VW-like port arrangement isn't quite precedented in aircraft use, but somehow the exhaust pipes emerging from the front and rear of the head look the part: I once had the idea of building a motorbike in the Sunbeam mould around one of these.
VW engines are used in aircraft and motorcycle conversions without the tins. But that's why I only considered the 1200. They don't make much power, so shouldn't take much cooling. The engine would be fully exposed in the front, not tucked away in the rear like a stock VW. With the parts available these days you can build a large displacement, high HP VW, but I wouldn't consider running one of those without the tins. Besides, a 1200 would be dirt cheap, maybe even free if you're lucky.
About 30 years ago I saw parts of a half VW engine that was being built for a home built airplane. The block was cut in half and a plate bolted on only useing numbers 2 and 4 cylinders. Crank was cut and tapered ground for the propeller. The engine started life as a 1600 dual port, making the head cut easy and still retained an intake port. One mag ran out of the distributor opening, other ran off the front crank where the belt pulley should have been. No tinwork was used.
I've never seen a "bike" with a VW engine other than a trike. Still, if it's mounted like a typical bike the engine would be in the airstream while moving. That's the clincher.... "while moving". Sitting and idling would build up heat fast, especially stuck in traffic. It's air cooled, but not designed to run without air moving around the cylinders like a bike engine is. Which also explains why it works in an aircraft conversion -- plenty air flowing around it and not many long idle conditions. Even when it is just running on the ground there's the prop washing air over it all the time, as stealthcruiser pointed out.
Do you think a big, exposed oil cooler could do enough to lower the temps on a tinless VW cyclecar? I'm kinda stuck on the idea now. Didn't buggies and baja bugs run with exposed engines?
The new (current) Formula V cars run ducting without a fan, I haven't seen a pancake 4 VW run anywhere without cooling tin except at the drag strip. Not the best plan for durability to be sure. IIRC Hot VWs had an article where a guy had put an Aircooled VW into his touring bike. It looked crazy, the front rider's foot pegs were forward of the engine, must have been "interesting" to have your legs runing above the cylinders, between the webbers.
No, on the oil cooler deal, and most V W's that run with no tin are drag cars only.......Crank it, burnout, stage, run, and shutdown till the next round.
Webley-Vickers was a VW engine in a slightly-stretched BMW frame: The exceedingly ugly Amazonas used to be manufactured in Brazil: It reminds me of the time Harley-Davidson were trying to patent the sound of their engines and described it in the documents as "potato potato". We all know what a VW Beetle engine sounds like: "spud spud spud spud ..."
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