Art & Inspiration Aero-Engined Vintage Racers

How about some moving pictures ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oKvsVHDDWow

 

Yes. Well into the 50s and maybr early 60s you could see 440 cubic inch air cooled Ranger six cylinder sprint cars. The Arfons Bros. also ran one at the drags in a sidewinder car. I saw a '47 or so Pontiac sedan on the street with a Ranger. Hole in the hood and a large fan sticking out to push air over it. Faveriot name for a Ranger powered car? "The Lone Ranger"

 

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DANG!
You blokes sure know how to have fun in the rain!
Thanks for sharing the pix


Herb Kephart

 

I just splooged the screen

 

Those things are awesome!

but aren't hot rods supposed to have the valves in the block? Crazy Europeans always want to put them in the heads!

 

Thank you for sharing! Would it be too much to ask for a video with sound?!

 

That GN-JAP is one of the coolest cars I`ve ever seen!

 

GN Wasp

 

More GNs:

 

GN Spider:

 

2500 cc Hornet:



This is the car in Banjeux Bob's avatar.

 

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/odgie633/VintageRacersWellCool#

 

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Hi nash37

A video is beyond my capabilities but I'll see if a mate can do it!

 

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Oof! Yes please!!

 

Glenn Curtiss ran 136.6 with his bike at Daytona in 1907

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9Nz13SosIM

 

someone PLEASE get some video of these running, I image the sound of those engines is beyond words.

 

awesome!

 

Yes, I'm sure when they are running they pop, snort and drip because they should!

 

Edit: Please stay on topic. This is a great thread and it shouldn't be derailed.

 

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Not strictly 'Aero Engined' the WWII 1/2 track engined Steyer Allard







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The thread is about aero engined vintage racers, or so I thought, until opening up this page...

 

From : http://knolik.com/article0003559.html

The production of the ultralight aeroplane in 1923 brought motor-cycle engines into use for aircraft. Converted engines were the 2¼- h.p. A.B.C. and the 3½ and 6 h.p. Douglas flat-twin, and the 5 h.p. Blackburn and J.A.P. V-twin engines. Then came the 20 h.p. Bristol Cherub flat-twin specially built for aircraft. These engines were succeeded by the 4-cylinder in-line air-cooled 70 h.p. Cirrus made by the Aircraft Disposal Co., Ltd., from parts taken from the 70 h.p. Renault engines left over from the First Great War; this powered the first Moth in 1925. The Cirrus Minor and Major engines made later by Blackburn Aircraft Ltd., developed 90 h.p. and 150 h.p. and were inverted 4-cylinder inline air-cooled engines. De Havilland made their first Gipsy engine in 1927: the 1944 range included the 90 h.p. Gipsy Minor, the 130 h.p. Gipsy Major I and 140 h.p. Gipsy Major II, all with the same lay-out as the Cirrus. Four-cylinder De Havilland engines were followed by the 200 h.p. Gipsy Six, the 205 h.p. Gipsy Six II, and the V12-cylinder 525 h.p. Gipsy Twelve, four of which powered the D.H. Albatross airliner. All the later D.H. engines were inverted and air-cooled.

About the beginning of the Second Great War aero-engines in the lowest-powered class included the 33 h.p. Carden water-cooled 4-cylinder developed from the 10 h.p. Ford car engine; the 35 h.p. air-cooled V-twin Anzani made by Luton Aircraft Ltd.; and in the U.S.A. the 40 h.p. flat-four Continental, the 40 h.p. Aeronca flat-twin, and the 50 h.p. Menasco flat-four, all air-cooled. These five engines weighed 130 (dry), 110, 154, 121, and 164 lb., all showing a marked advance on the earliest Wright engines.

Close enough for me!

 

Ah: I now see the logic...
So if this http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yMqOBkfi5Ek has an aeroplane engine, then this is an aero engined racer. Of course!



My apologies

 

I only found this thread recently and have spent some time going through it. Some fascinating vehicles. I think many of the specials competing in the UK are quite recent confections - something some posters may be unaware of. There are a couple of aero-engined cars I have not seen mentioned. I read a magazine article - maybe 10(?) years ago about a Chitty-style car which had been built (I think in Scandinavia somewhere) using some genuine WW1 era bits - inline 6 from an airship and a chain drive chassis. Another car is the Benz-Mercedes which I think Peter Helck owned at some time. The other one is the machine built here in NZ in the 1960s with a WW1 Mercedes aero engine mounted in a 1907 chain drive Mercedes chassis and is now in the Southward Museum. Various local enthusiasts got to ride in it and all were very impressed. It has so much torque that wheels were a problem. It has 1930ish Stutz wires with the spokes welded in place to prevent them falling apart. I think the original chassis was the biggest offered by Mercedes in 1907.