Let's Talk Cyclecars

The engine is a 2.5 liter four cylinder from an S10 pickup, with T5 trans. It has a reground cam, custom built exhaust, and dual one barrel carbs on a modified manifold. Oh, and I dressed it up to look like a hotted up banger.

 

Cool. I've always dug the four cylinder era of dry lakes racing.

 

Some interesting stuff at the Reims show and swap meet from this week end.


from the swap area 2 unidentified cycle car frame, one has a single sprocket in the middle of the rear axle, the other 1 on each end of the rear axle, the seller was a real dick...




There was this gorgeous boat tail also in an other area, it's roughly 1/2 scale, it was a graduation project from a student, I didn't see any evidence of any weld except for the junction of the rear and bottom of the tail, it seems it was build from a single sheet of steel, firewall and subrails copper riveted flush, all the edges have a rolled wire, it could be used as a single seater cycle car with that grille sitting below it.


a row of MG


Salmson


Amilcar


Then these 2 were described as cycle cars, I don't remember the brands I never heard of before... Names are on the grilles if you can figure them out.



I remember this one has a 750cc overhead cam engine

 

Hello Chris,​

Thank you on interesting information and nice photos!

Similar old-timer show and swap-meet we had in nearby town of Fribourg and next jubilant 40th will be this year for weekend of 21/22 March...

Sellers of old "junk" are often similar to one that you described: mostly couldn't know what they are selling but ask high prices - combination of arrogance and ignorance!

That old rusted tubular chassis could be interesting for me: a base for some kind of DIY light auto – free interpretation of cycle-car...

Ciao, Zoran​

 

Hello everyone.

I have not been on the forum for a while, but i wondered if any of you might be interested in helping me solve a mystery.

I was invited to have a look at a car that has some very strange chassis castings, and I was hoping that with the vast knowledge lurking on this forum, someone might have some ideas about this.

The castings do not belong on this car! Currently its is AC powered.

The nearside casting holds the steering box.


Offside


Both castings then move backwards under the scuttle. Nearside holds the steering column, whilst the offside has the hand pump attached to it.


I do have some knowledge of the car, and can post more information, but not to cloud the subject, I was hoping that someone might have some ideas about these strange castings.

Thanks in advance!

(p.s. - if this is not the correct forum, please let me know.)

 

No ideas on that one, but I'm hoping that the castings are at least made of aluminum and not cast iron. It does seem a bit over engineered. More like something you would see on a steamship.

 

Well, having had a little scratch,! the castings would appear to be either aluminium or magnesium.

 

Rolls Royce was using aluminum castings in the 20's and early 30's for their firewall and other parts, but no clue if that would be from one. I believe Lagonda and Daimler did too.

 

I have never seen this casting.

 

Normally pattern makers would put larger fillets and radius in the corners of the casting so it's possible this casting is a homemade part.

 

It doesn't look cut down from anything. I suspect someone made it in a homebuilt effort to boost the chassis' rigidity.

 

Hello,​

Velocar or cycle-car?
But, cute anyway!

Ciao,
Zoran​

 

...another more:

The same fellow, the second auto:

Something modernised?
Zoran

 

...cyclecars are alive?
All films are a little too long, but some details could be seen:

Zoran

 

... the first variant had simple front suspension and steering! Something as Bedellia?
Zoran

 

Yes, I was also looking for some detail of the mechanics of it.

 

Thank you for the replies however, as I think that to really discover where these castings come from will be a matter if elimination, rather than positive identification!



Currently the chassis and castings are to be found on an AC engined, MG K3 bodied Frazer Nash.



Here.





b





The chassis rails are very narrow for this car as shown here.







And again here.







And therefore, I was wondering if the chassis may have originally been this car?







I have found an advertisement in Motorsport advertising a Frazer Nash Special for sale, saying that it is built up using parts of an Eldridge Special. The advertiser is Booth and Croft.



Could this be the car?



Thank you once again.



Alex

 

Well I am back. Started at page one and ended up back here. Had a few diversions along the way. Took the link to the micro car museum, been and had a look at the cycle karts and all other sorts of wonderful things. Now not only do I want to build a three wheeler but also a four, a two, a one and even one with none. Just one problem. I have sold my business. So no longer do I have lots of lathes and mills and drills and all sorts of wonderful things for metal fab. The up side is I have lots of room. Not for long though. Went out and bought a new inverter welder for stick and tig welding today. So now I need a new bandsaw, a mill, bought another lathe last year and I am keeping that, so a few other odds and sods and I should be right. Let the games begin. Possibly should build a cyclekart first, just for a bit of practice.

 

The Old Motor recently ran a post on the 1908 Grand Prix de Voiturettes held in Dieppe, France. The voiturettes were a predecessor to cyclecars but had higher weight limits, both in taxation and in racing regulations. One oddity of the regulations for the Dieppe race was an attempt at equalizing cars with different numbers of cylinders by limiting bore sizes, with stroke left free. It didn't work and the race was dominated by single cylinder cars with freakishly long strokes. Definitely worth a read: http://theoldmotor.com/?p=139175

 

No, it is very unlikely that it is based on that car. Other than the chassis rails being roughly the right size, nothing lines up. The cockpit is in the wrong place, the suspension is completely different. The steering is much lower on the Eldridge, so the castings don't line up either. I looked through Boddy's Story of Brooklands. There is only one car listed as an Eldridge Special. Very interesting car. It had a supercharged 1.5 liter side-valve Anzani engine with a DOHC conversion. Eldridge entered two Eldridge Specials in the 1926 500. Here is a photo that shows the front of the chassis of what appears to be the car driven by Douglas Hawkes.

Notice that it is underslung.
Here is the other:

Hope they remembered to remove the pliers & wrench before the race...
Neither car finished.

 

"The Beast of Turin". Here is a new video of it running at Goodwood.

There was supposed to be a movie about it to be released this yeat; anyone have an update?

 

My son jst showed me this new video at Easter, oh what a noise !

 

... no need for rev-counter? Just to count puff of smoke or fires from cylinders!
Zoran

 

I saw this speedster on an old Model T forum while looking for something else. It was described as a Chevrolet, but the chassis doesn't match any Chev I could find. The rear motor brace (A-frame) visible in the rear ¾ shot does look like it is from a 490. Any ideas what chassis it is? It looks like a great speedster base.

 

definitely chevrolet 490 with quarter elliptic springs

Kume

 

...something as on attached photos?

If modified in modest way, it could pass as over-grown cycle-car on steroids!

Zoran

 

-----------------------------------------------------------

Hello SR100 and thank you on interesting input about voiturettes class racing. ​

They were magnificent machines, some developed from so-called baby-cars and some were developed into baby-cars (this term was probably used later, influenced by Peugeot-Bèbè, from the same class). Such cars were built in a style of ordinary bigger automobiles (often more modern), but much smaller in size: quite sophisticated compared to cycle-cars...
Of course, almost all of successful racing specials were quite different from production family voiturettes, having single-cylinder engines with 100 mm bore and much longer strokes. Maybe, only Sizaire et Naudin was similar in racing and touring variant (I think that term sports-car wasn't used in those years?). Being less competent in racing, cars with 4-cylinder engines were more successful in development to ordinary small cars, even to excellent small sport cars as was Bugatti T-13...
In any case, nice fun for designers, manufacturers, racers and motoring public for a few years, before The Great War started and brought new preoccupation for people...

Ciao,
Zoran​

 

The reason I ruled out the 490 is that the rear springs are in line with the chassis rail. 490 rear springs are similar to the fronts, at an angle to the rails The 490 chassis photo below shows it clearly.

The early Saxon roadster, amongst a few others, had similar leading quarter-elliptic front springs.

 

Looking closer at the pictures of the speedster, it looks like the same chassis, but they flipped the spring mounts on the frame rails (and swapped them side to side) to move the spring mounting above the rails to lower the ride height.

 

------------------------------
SR100,
Beautiful chassis - I would like to have it in my backyard (if I have backyard) - good base for something to build on it!
Zoran