Let's Talk Cyclecars

I am confused by this statement. Unless I am misunderstanding it, how could a portal axle work? Or a HUMMV? Or a VW microbus? (They all just substitute gears for chains.)

 

Tires, fuel and oil have always been expendables.

Unfortunately in some of my previous vehicles the transmissions and rear axles have also fit into that category.

 

Portal axles are always in engagement, be it by gear or chain. Each gear or chain serves one wheel, all the time.

In GN/FN chain transmission, only one chain is in engagement at any time. That one chain serves both rear wheels, but only while it and no other chain is in engagement.

It is the same principle as a constant-mesh gearbox. In that, all the driven gears ride on the output shaft, but are free to rotate about the output shaft. Each successive gear is engaged by locking it to the output shaft by means of a dog clutch, which may or may not incorporate some kind of speed-synchronizing device.

Likewise, in GN/FN chain transmission, all the driving sprockets ride on the countershaft, which has the right-angle bevel box in the middle of it. Each driving sprocket is free to rotate about the countershaft, and is brought into engagement by locking it to the countershaft by means of a dog clutch. It doesn't matter if any given chain-and-sprocket set is on the left or the right of the bevel box. The countershaft is a single, solid shaft from one end to the other. The bevel box needn't even be in the middle: it only is due to the layout of the engine in the frame.

I think this is where the misunderstanding comes in. The bevel box does not split drive between the left and right wheels in any way. It just drives the countershaft.

The rear axle and the driven sprockets also form a single, solid piece, no part of which can move relative to any other part. My proposal is not to touch any part of the above operation, and only to introduce a differential and side axle shafts inside the rear axle.

Another way would be to have the differential just inboard of one rear brake, with a single axle shaft running through the hollow axle to the opposite rear wheel. One would have to incorporate a stiff volute or watch spring on the short side, though, to compensate for axle wind-up and thus counteract torque steer.

 

If you want a diff get a different car , part of the charm of a frazer Nash or GN is the narrow rear track and solid rear axle, which requires a different style of driving , steering with the throttle, ,
In my opinion nobody in their right mind would meddle with one of these historical cars ,

It was an interesting yet fruitless aside from the important issue of extolling the virtues of the church of the cyclecar ,

 

Agreed!!! but at the upside of 70,000 pounds for a FN, it is a touch out of my price range...

http://www.prewarcar.com/index.php?option=com_caradvert&view=ad&section_id=1&id=70506&Itemid=432

never seen a GN or the remains of one on the west coast of california...the differential question was posed to see if the GN/FN tranmission could be adapted to other applications.

All that said, I agree...what makes the GN/FN (or supposed to make them) fun is the handling and shifting!

 

This is a set of pictures of the ac race car they seem love the adage there is nothing lighter than a hole

 

Cast aluminium car

 

The wind car just what we all need

 

More interesting cyclecar stuff light car and cyclcar magazine

 

This is a description of the vitesse special another car that held records in the j class under 350 cc same as the jappic infact some of the records still stand today ,

I would love to find some pictures of this car

 

Ade, the intention was not to modify an existing GN or Frazer Nash, but to show how the same principle of transmission might be made to work in quite another sort of application.

 

I love the picture of the Colombe three wheeled cyclecar.

And radiators made from copper plated macaroni, - well that would explain the readiness to leak

 

Hey Ned no problem , I had been thinking of a solution to the problem using one way bearings/ spag clutches , then realised how stupid I was as there would be no engine breaking amongst other problems

 

http://www.thatchamhistoricalsociety.org.uk/podcasts/2010/history-month-fact-10-bryan-gush

Also this at http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-clive-windsorrichards-1195440.html

Between the wars, many drivers made a profitable business by taking British and International class records at Brooklands. Successful attempts produced substantial bonuses from the firms who supplied the fuel and oil and made the tyres and other components used. In the spring of 1933, Gush realised that the record speeds set in Class J for cars up to 350cc capacity were very low, so, collaborating with Windsor-Richards, he built a car with an angle iron frame and crude body, using a JAP motor-cycle engine.
This car, nicknamed "Mickey Mouse", successfully attacked the British and International Class J records over distances up to 500 km, and took the International 12-hour record. Gush and Windsor-Richards shared the driving with several others, including Gush's sister. Gush then built a twin machine, called "Vitesse", using a Blackburne engine, and this was duly used to take the records held by "Mickey Mouse".
This breaking and re-breaking of the records by the two cars went on profitably throughout the summer of 1934.

And........

Mr G B Cush ( son of a solicitor and holder of all the international Class J records at Brooklands ) has designed a midget car for racing on speedways - it is an 845cc Vitesse-Gush capable of 105 mph - Midget-car racing is to be introduced at the West Ham Speedway with the speedway riders driving - Harold ( Tiger ) Stevenson ( captain of the West Ham team )

 

Not a hair out of place, pipe, no dirt on the suit, who is this man!?!

 

Spent the last couple of hours in my neighbor's wood shop cutting and planing the hickory wood I'm using for my frame. Last week I was in Austin and got the 2"x4" frame connectors built from two pieces of rectangular metal tubing from my stepdad's shop. I have what I need to put the frame together and figure out where and how to mount the springs, shocks, axles, engine, tranny and .....

Next step is to treat the wood with penetrating epoxy.

 

It's Mr Bryan Gush

I had a play about with the photo in an image editor and it's plain to see that the car has a chassis made from angle iron and steel plates bolted together like a big kid's Meccano set. The front axle looks like it's made from steel channel section.
Sorry, I'm not good enough with an image editor to get rid of the branding in the middle of the photo though. Or I should say I'm not bad enough to remove the branding since it's a copyrighted picture.

 

Who knows what a "Prop Rod" is?

 

great!

 

Here is the current jappic drawing ,

 

The folk law test of a frazer Nash owner was the ability to change a chain at the roadside in a dinner suit without getting dirty

 

Looking good, Ade. Cant wait to see it screaming around the track.

 

Marc is making a new intake manifold for his one of a kind supercharged 1927 Lombard.notice the bronze cylinder head.Marc pics.

 

How does that thing manage to get both drive (chain, I think) as well as steering to the front wheel?

 

Couple of shots of the Curtiss-leZebre. Braking on rear wheels only('nuff said).

 

It looks to have centre-pivot steering. A single Hooke joint might most probably have been used between the driven sprocket and the wheel, vibration resulting from which being mitigated by steering lock being limited to 10° or so.

The dog-leg in the swing-arm to accommodate that is quite plain:

 

This is what the Colombe front suspension system looks like. I think this is from a later car than the little cyclecar in the first pictures though.

 

The later Villard cyclecar used the same front wheel drive setup as the Colombe.

 

thanks!!!!!