Let's Talk Cyclecars

The Ardennes run looks great, but it says it's for Pre 1919 cars , jappic was 1924 shame I havnt got the chater lea still

 

Hardly a cyclecar, as I should not be surprised if the "6.6-litre ohc six" shares the same 100x140 internal dimensions as Bentley's and Hispano-Suiza's; but this Farman I came across looking for something else is rather redolent of the era in question:

 

On the site of the Ardennes run, if you click 'vehicle categories', you then have to click on the arrow on the bottom of the page. Category D is for vehicles between 1920 and 1930. Everything is well organized, and you will not be mixed up with vehicles a lot younger than yours (on the last 4 occassions they run on a different day). No fear to be overtaken by a Jaguar E-type, but there might be Bugatti 35 or Bentley Blower coming fast from behind. Albeit I have to admit I was driving a Bentley 3 ltr in 2011 but was overtaken by a very fast Morgan 3-wheeler!

 

Wow. They were trying for aerodynamics on this one. It looks like the trunk unlatches.

What is the purpose of these fenders? It looks like they'll keep mud and rocks from flinging straight up, but not behind.

 

The trunk could be the way to acsess the inside as there is no door this side, suspect the mudguards are there to make the car road legal , maybe it was after a road legal record of some kind

 

Lots of great pics guys. Thanks!

There are a few fun ones here:

http://www.rmauctions.com/results/r...w=list&currency=&toYear=&fromYear=&make=&lot=

 

The Renault 5 ("Le Car") is another possibility: a good decade younger and presumably therefore more numerous, and five-speeds were available.

 

Yes Sir, I thought about the R5 briefly, but remembering the couple of years I spent as a factory-trained wrench on those cars I held my breath!

But, you make a good point. It was a pretty good motor. Sleeved, you know, easy to rebuild.
The things that made it dreadful in the Le Car, (like snapping off assy drive shafts, or having to pull the head to change the starter) wouldn't be an issue here.

 

1936 Georges Irat MM. www.vintage-revival.fr

 

1937 Georges Irat MDU. www.vintage-revival.fr

 

1938 Georges Irat BDU. www.vintage-revival.fr

 

Check out www.PreWarCar.com for the rest of the story on this car built in 1922 by Fernand Maratuech.

 

My neighbor had something similar to this. It was an ultralight aircraft that he was buying form another guy a bit at a time. He never did pay enough to get the wings but he had enough that he would blast around on the back country roads pulled by the prop.

 

1936 Sanford FT5 . www.vintage-revival.fr

 

Not strictly a cyclecar, but it seems there is a connection to Amilcar:

Tracta type E, 1½ litre

Front-wheel-drive, but I nevertheless like the look of the thing.

 

Tracta's are big car from what I can remember, shares the same design clues as the Bucciali's: Big wheels, low body. Bitchin lookin cars.

 

Another cyclecar

 

OK, Hurray!
I made it through the entire thread.
I wanted to see if anyone had discussed my question:

Has anybody modified a Yamaha V-Max motor for use in a light car?
I want to cut the gearbox away, add a bell housing, and hook it to a SAAB transmission.

Any comments welcome!

Also, here's my favorite little car, a Rolux...


http://rmauctions.com/lots/lot.cfm?lot_id=1057140

 

There was a Dwarf car that raced in Colorado back in the mid '90s that ran a V-max.

 

The simplest way would be to gut the V-Max gearbox of everything except the gear closest to direct drive, and then couple the car gearbox to the shaft drive. I'd agree that cutting down a block to a non-unit configuration and adding a bellhousing flange (which could be a bolt-on affair as on a BMC A-series) would be more elegant.

I'd expect that the crankcase and gearbox share the same oil, though, and therefore lack a (complete) wall between the two cavities. Perhaps there is opportunity for a convincing flat bolt-on cover like the pushrod covers on many inline engines.

That Rolux is cool:

Built by the lawnmower manufacturer? It wants a front engine, though. I wonder how much room there is.

(There is always a way around the stuff web admins do to make images unborrowable. We'll see if this one stays put. Otherwise I'll go to Plan B. Never forget about Plan B.)

 

Yes Sir, they do have common lube. I was thinking maybe weld in a wall after cutting away the unwanted part. And there are things on the left side (which would become the rear) that-when removed-would allow a bolt-on plate.

One little snag would be that the clutch & flywheel would have to be fitted to the end of the crankshaft formerly holding the dynamo on a taper. I am all ears as to how that could be done well....

 

Well, if you're turning it into a car engine the obvious thing would be a belt-driven generator off the crank nose and coil ignition. Is there any opportunity to run a distributor off the back of one of the cams?

 

TQ midgets use inline MC engines with the gearbox milled off and the crank adapted to a direct drive driveline. I rekon someone with plenty of machine tools, time and money could figure out a way to include a flywheel/clutch/starter/bellhousing etc.

 

I'm wondering why you wouldn't just use the existing V-max transmission.

 

Unless you have your heart set on a V-Max, you would probably be money ahead using a modern Triumph Rocket 3 motor (2300 c.c./140 c.i.). While the drive line turns counterclockwise, that shouldn't be much of a problem to solve for someone who wants to adapt a car tranny to a V Max. They ain't cheap but you could make your money back pulling stumps on the weekends.

 

Being basically a car dummy, I've never heard of this marque. But the pre-WWII models are very nice looking, eh? Sort of a Deco Austin? I did find some images of the dash and interiors that were very classy, but I wasn't allowed to copy them. Anyone have detail shots? Gary

 

Ahhh.. I had not thought about the ignition
Yes I think a distributor could be run off a cam. (although it occurs to me the Max has an odd firing sequence that could be problematic...)
The "front" end of the crank (right side in the bike) doesn't project out, but rather runs the water pump, oil pump, and clutch basket.

I don't have the space for the Max trans. Or for an engine with more than about 14 inches of length.
And, I got a motor from a wrecked 41k mile bike for $200! I'm hoping I might be able to use it.

Rootie, is the crank in your photo a custom billet piece?

 

Don't believe so, here's the oufit that makes the parts:

http://www.acroracing.com/index.html

 

Looking for identification.