Had noted that being associated with velorexes despite big language issues - and google seems to struggle with hungarian too (try Velorexadventure.com and see for yourself) I just think I knelt us to get more car in the shot.
Gary, I always thought of you as a rational individual, but now I have my doubts. What about the cool factor?
Let's see if this image gets you gents any higher resolution.... Ok ...the dimensions of the image in post #2592 are 488 X 312 and a total of 49744 this image is 829 X 539 and a total of 178642
Seeing the Sizaire-Naudin in post #2617 reminds me that we recently recorded the death of the owner of this 1907 Sizaire-Naudin - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1907_Sizaire_%26_Naudin_2.JPG He had acquired the remains of the car in the late 1950s and, after finding a correct engine for it around 1960, restored it in time to compete in the 1965 Haast Rally, the first International Vintage Car Rally to be held in New Zealand. He subsequently toured all over NZ in it (on it?). For a time in the 1970s he lived not too far from me and on occasions I followed him along the road with the Sizaire cruising comfortable at55mph. At the time he was restoring it, Maurice Sizaire, the original builder of the car was still alive and Bob corresponded with him and learnt all there was to know about the car from the very best source. The S-N is unique in having sliding pillar front suspension and instead of a gear box has a three speed differential with three pinion gears which meshed with the single large crown wheel. The single cylinder engine is only about 1300cc but performs well because of the car's light weight.
Great thread. Not to get too off subject but what more accessible V8 engine could be used in lieu of the JAP 5 litre? 2 siamesed straight 4's vintage motorcycle straight 4's perhaps? I can't think of anything that gets even close to this. Especially considering it's an air cooled V8. Let's hear some suggestions.
Thanks LGS126VEMS112 for the wikimedia link.Great image of the 1907 Sizaire & Naudin single cylinder.
Thanks for the nice comments about my Velorex project. It drives and handles quite good. You really don't know it has only one rear wheel while driving. I haven't tried really flogging it around corners yet, but I have driven on twisty mountain roads and apart from the front suspension being quite bumpy, it works very good. The front suspension is from a 1968 Beetle. The top torsion leaves were removed and replaced by a 3/4" swaybar. This is a trick the Formula Vee guy's do to increase roll stiffness and soften the springing. The rear springs are stock Honda and work just fine. My front tire choice is all about the right look and probably has something to do with the rough ride in the front. The heavy Model A wheels aren't helping ether. I keep working on improvements. My latest thing is to try to get a nice exhaust note out of it. When driving you can only hear the mechanicals of the engine. Right now it has a two into one with a long glasspack. I might try twice pipes!
John- That Velorex is pretty damn cool. What did you use for the body fabric? Weren't they French? Also that seat is quite nice and thin. I don't recognize it off hand- MG? You should post a video of it driving. Nice job.
You beat me to it! though I was about to suggest eight knucklehead barrels and heads on a fabricated 90° crankcase.
That sounded all wrong until I realised you'd have to rotate the assemblies 90° to get the porting to work. All these have the disadvantage that the pushrods would sit between successive cylinders, making for complexity and a long engine. But what about eight Continental/Franklin/Lycoming/etc. barrels and heads on that crankcase? Used upside-down the porting would all be in the right place.
Very interesting ideas here. I was thinking large bore VW cylinders with replica heads cast and a custom cast block. Fab up some rockers on bearings and keep the oil in the block. It would be nice to find an existing crank to use if that is possible.
Velorex makes sidecars in the Czech Republic, and has for decades. The original 3-wheelers ran Jawa two-stroke engines. I used to own a Jawa 350 (model 638) with a Velorex 560 sidechair on it. While pretty basic, it was well-designed and quite rugged. You're thinking of Velosolex, Erik, manufacturers of the quintessential French moped. (I have a restored '59 model 1700 in my collection that I've owned for almost 25 years.)
Don't know why I didn't think of it sooner: Porsche 911 heads. They do have a single overhead camshaft stringing them together, but they will certainly work. I was already considered a middle-aged walking automotive encyclopaedia by those who know me when I first learned that real air-cooled 911s have six individual cylinder heads: The cam-box is a single piece over the top of them, though, which opens the way for a cobbled-together open rocker arrangement instead.
Would love to see more Velorex pics posted to your Flickr account. Here is a neat modded Velorex I found, which has CX500 wheels up front: http://www.flickr.com/photos/theadventurouseye/5686266893/sizes/l/in/photostream/
I have to chime in on the fabricating ( cobbling) a V8 air cooled motor. Here's an idea on the VW cylinder theme. I made this bike motor using a VW 1200cc top end. The pictures explain it pretty well. Honda 125 crankshaft, top of the rod cut off and then I welded the top of a VW rod on. Super short stroke. Half of a B&S cam, atmospheric intake valve. Fabricated crankcase. It's about 260cc, and about 2HP. A V8 could be made with this same top end idea. I would use 1600cc parts, and a real inlet valves. Maybe you could use the VW rods narrowed on a wide rod journal inline 4 crankshaft. Flat crank, air cooled, fabricated crankcase V8. It may not be a good idea, but it's a thought. Cheers, John
I'm curious to know how this version of your project worked out. Was the VW front suspension a success?
I've been ill for a while though I'm on the mend now. Once better weather gets here with the Spring season I will be busy with setting my workshop space to rights so I can get back to work on my projects. While I was ill the garage became a general dumping ground for things nobody could think of a better place to put them so a good clearout will be a must before I can do very much in the way of cyclecar building.
Thanks Bob, - it's good to be back Having spent a fair bit of time in bed lately due to being ill I've had a lot of time to think and review just what bits and bobs I have stashed away with a view to creating a basically simple, but useful vehicle in the 'cyclecar' mould. Three wheels is first on the list because then it's a motorcycle for registration purposes. Avoiding major metal bashing is on the list because I'm still going to have to be careful about what I take on for a while yet. Practical, disability friendly and simple have to be high on the list too. Years ago I owned and rode sidecar outfits and loved it, - only I'm no longer physically able to manage a sidecar outfit anymore and more weather protection than one gets on a motorcycle is very necessary. Following on from all of this using what I already have available as major assemblies is essential in order to avoid anything engineering related that falls outside of 'light duties' in order to keep my doctor happy. All of which means that I'm strongly considering building something like this The S.E.A.L. (Sociable, Economic And Light) was essentially a sidecar outfit that was driven from the sidecar and some models were relatively large 4 seaters, but the one in the old photo is a smaller 2 seater. Other makers such as AJS made Sociable sidecar outfits too, and of course there is the famous Scot Sociable which abandoned pretending to be a sidecar outfit completely and was more identifiably a true cyclecar. Since I own a somewhat down on its luck sidecar rickshaw already I thought it would be great fun to build a Sociable replica using most of its frame and mechanical parts with various elderly heavyweight bicycle, aged motorcycle and light car fittings I already own thrown into the mix just to help it all along. I do have the original wooden rickshaw sidecar body which is in good enough condition to use after a little repair work and a decent coat of paint so I seem to have most of what I'll need already. The 2 seater sidecar body is basically cyclecar-like in shape and with a new plywood nose and a door on the left hand side it should look every inch the part Believe me when I say that my rickshaw looks waaaaaay better in the photo than it does in real life. It had a hard life and needs work, but nothing too serious fortunately. I will be using a convertible top on my Sociable, but not that one as it's not in good shape and the stays and bows need replacing.
The Jalopy Journal
