Onelung I had the opportunity to photograph these three together at the NZVCC 50th rally in 96, 2 NZ and 1 UK car. The NZ cars both participated in the Allandale hillclimb and sounded great getting wound as the got to my vantage point near the top of the course.
Fantastic thread BTW thanks to all contributors. These shorpy pics of Miss Elinor Blevins and the Weightman Special intrigue me, wild looking woman and car. Does anybody know any more about them?
Kurtis, I found this it may be of use Keith <TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR><TD vAlign=bottom><TABLE><TBODY><TR><TD>Cyrus </TD><TD>Patschke </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></TD><TD vAlign=bottom> </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><TABLE border=0 cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=0><TBODY><TR><TD> </TD><TD>Born </TD><TD>6/7/1889 </TD><TD>121 years ago. </TD></TR><TR><TD> </TD><TD>Died </TD><TD>6/5/1951 </TD><TD> 59 years ago, aged 62 </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE><TABLE align=center><TBODY><TR><TD>Cyrus Patschke was born and lived his whole life in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. He was a mechanic and in the very early days of auto racing he was a well known racing driver and a close friend of Barney Olefield and Eddie Rickenbacher. In June 1908 he drove an Acme at Jamaica, Long Island, in the Gasoline Cars races, winning both the two mile and the one mile events. Then in the September at Fairmount Park, Philadelphia he came second in the Acme in a 195 mile race which he completed in a time of 4:14:54. In October he entered the Brighton Beach 24 Hour race. Driving with C.B.Rogers their Acme went out after 11 hours. The next year, 1909, he won the Brighton Beach 24 hour race with Ralph Mulford in a Lozier and returned the next year to win again with Al Poole in a Stearns-Six. He was due to copete in the AAA race on the road course at Lowell in the Acme that year but did not arrive. In 1911 Indianapolis decided to run a 500 mile race. Marmon had entered two single seat Wasps for Ray Harroun and Joe Dawson. As there was no provision for a riding mechanic, for the first time a rear view mirror was installed. Near the halfway point in the race, Harroun turned the wheel over to Patschke, who drove relief for about 100 miles when the Marmon was working its way through the field. Harroun returned for the final stint and won the very first Indianapolis 500 in a time of 6 hours, 42 minutes, at an average speed of 74.602 mph. Cyrus who also stepped in to help Dawson in the other Wasp was pretty much forgotten. In October that year he raced a Marmon in the Dick Ferris Trophy on a road course in Santa Monica in a AAA sanctioned event where he finished second. He raced a couple of times more that year but failed to finish either event. In 1914 he finished 3rd on the dirt oval at Sioux City again in a Marmon. Cyrus only competed in 11 major races scoring 3 wins, a second and 2 thirds. In later years, Cyrus Patschke was also a motorcycle racer and ran an auto parts shop and an 'Overland and Will Knight' dealership at 1101 Cumberland Street in his home town of Lebanon. </TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE> . .
Onelung, I don't have many photos. I do collect originals and good qaulity reproductions when they are available for a reasonable price. Mostly it's just stuff that's of interest to me and nearly all are from the earlier French and Italian races. Unfortunately i don't have any of S&N. Someday i'll invest in a scanner and share some of them here. I've seen many photos of Georges Sizaire since i pinched that image with the description from the web a long time ago. I am in agreeance with you that is not him. Could you post any info or links as i've only read about the earlier S&N history at the time the rules regarding the engine displacement was changed and i've seen snippets of info of the partnership with F.W. Berwick.
Ehdubya, with a name like that you could be mistaken as being from Texas. Elinor Blevins was a movie star from the teens and twenties that just happened to have an infatuation with racing. Lots of stuff on the web. As to the car it was built for millionaire W.Weightman III and is a 1915 Stutz fitted with a Wisconsin engine, pretty much a copy of the GP Delage. It won once or twice at the Thanksgiving Day races at Washington in 1916. I think it's still around.
Thanks Keith. As you can see there isn't alot written about Patschke. I've found a small article in an Indy 500 book in a chapter dedicated to the forgotten racers and mechanics and i've read many The New York Times articles but all are race orientated. There is some good stuff about the Marmon race cars , maybe we could start a discussion around the time of this years Indy 500 race. Cyrus Patschke bio....... www.thevintageracer.com/articles/cyrus-patschke.htm
onelung and LeeStohr thanks for the great photos. I have always been amazed by Christie photos. Does anyone have a good image of the great photo of one of the Christie's under construction in the work shop? I found this photo with a bunch of photos identified only as being from Berlin. From the looks of all of the banners and advertisements this must be a known event. I am very interested to find out more and am especially interested about the car with the grille carved like a pumpkin. Looks to be to be a clever way to intimidate the other teams.
Kurtis, Thanks for the link, a good read, Seems to be a man that had his '15 minutes of fame' and then faded away. . . Keith
Kurtis - The 1915 Weightman Stutz currently resides in Salt Lake City in the John Price collection along with a brace of other sporting and competition vehicles including Ab Jenkins Mormon Meteor III. Bob.
Without looking anything up, I believe the "pumpkin-faced" car to be a Fafnir. I also believe the car in the Miss Blevins pic is not the Weightman/Stutz, but a Sunbeam. And it should be pointed out that there was only one single-seater Marmon, nicknamed "the wasp" - Dawson drove a regular two-seater.
"Does anyone have a good image of the great photo of one of the Christie's under construction in the work shop?" I have this one-From Eastman IIRC
kurtis, ehdubya and Rapid Robert are all correct about the Weightman/Stutz. It is not a Sunbeam. The car was driven by D. Bradly Gish a Washington DC area auto dealer who is pictured in the car with her. The car was owned by William Weightman an eccentric millionaire. The car is based on a Stutz chassis and has a SOHC Stutz Wisconsin engine. The photo is one of many that were promo photos taken by the National Photo Co. in DC for the car and the Benning track it raced at out side of DC. It actually took several wins there and was a successful car with Gish driving it. Somewhere I have another in the set of photos that were taken of her oiling the valve train of the engine with the hood open which clearly identifies it. At the time there was a series of 10 or so photos of the car with her and Gish along with both of them driving it on the track. The car survived intact and was restored by the Harrah Collection who changed its appearance to that of a Stutz team car when they restored it. It was then in a private collection until a few years ago in Calif. Then it was sold and it ended up in the Price Collection. The photo shows an identical engine and a similar Stutz which Harry Hartz ran for Durant at Tacoma in 1919. When the Weightman car was built the exhaust header went thru the firewall and exited out of the cockpit. When the car was restored by Harrahs it was changed to look like a Stutz team car which they thought it was at the time. Thanks for your ID of the Fafnir.
I stumbled across these photos that are related to some I found from the LA area. I have not had time to check Dees Miller or Whites Offy books but I am thinking this maybe the driver Shorty Cantlon with a Miller Marine engine in the early thirties along with a photo of it in his car? Who is the strong man in the staged photo, he looks familiar also? Or is this later on in Offenhauser's shop after the buy out?
Jim,<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-comfficeffice" /><o></o> Sorry you think I'm such an ass hole. As you know I only collect early race cars so, why you think I would want your chopped 40 is beyond me. I have never asked you about your car so I'm guessing you have me confused with someone else. (Justin Mozart perhaps) <o></o> Regarding the ONO, The car raced Green. When I restored the car for Herb Prentice in the 80's he asked me to return the car to it's original color. I have hundreds of photos showing the original paint complete with the gold stripe. Not my cup of tea but what the owner wanted.<o></o> I do a lot of business in your part of the world, I'll be sure to look you up the next time I'm over there.<o></o> <o></o>
Hi, I use to own this car. If you would like any photos just let me know what you are looking for and I will dig them up. Bill Evans
Welcome Bill. The ONO was discussed here before but i didn't have a chance to find more about the car. I do remember someone mentioned it spent some time in Australia, is this true? And who was the Owner? I don't ever remember it being on these shores.
Welcome Bill! It has been several years, I think, since we spoke. This is a great thread and I have no doubts you will be able to shed light on many topics that surface here. By the way, how is Teddy's Fiat and Isotta and that Big Benz? Bob. Salt Lake City
Thanks , Dubya - yep, the UK car was sold a year or so ago to a well-known old car pair of brothers in the UK and was sold on quite promptly to a new owner somewhere in France, with whom I have yet to make contact. It's frustrating when a link to an individual vehicle is lost.. here's a shot of its motor, which is "au naturel", unlike the NZ car (an earlier model..) in the centre of your photo.. The centre NZ car in your shot comes from down South in Aotearoa, but runs an SU carb from which the throttle butterfly has been removed, and has been fitted with twin ignition, a 10(?)mm plug taking the place of the primer cock. Somewhat non-kosher, but it is rumored to be capable of 70 miles per hour (!!!) The third car has changed hands since '96 and is in Auckland. There's an interesting story involved here ... it has a single cylinder engine in what is actually a 4 cylinder S-N chassis, yet the gentleman who restored/rebuilt this car also put together a 4 cylinder S-N (it now lives in a museum at Keri Keri, Nth Island..) in a single cylinder frame. Too late now, but I fantasise about the two owners getting togther to do an engine swap, thus resulting in a more "correct" car for each. Here's the Keri Keri 4cyl.
I align bored a Mercer T-Head Raceabout crankcase and caps this week and today as I was machining new insert bearing shells for it I thought some of you might be interested in the oiling system. The first photo shows how it works. It is basically a splash system with a little pump to bring oil out of the sump and up to the crankcase. Each main bearing has a trough above it that collects oil. It flows down from the trough and into the notches in the center of the insert. It then flows through the bearing and what comes out of the ends get thrown out by centrifugal force and gets caught by the aluminum scoops. What the scoop catches goes into the hollow crankpin and oils the rod bearing, see 2nd photo. The 3rd photo shows how when Porter designed them he made sure the babbitt could not come out even if it lost its bond with the insert. The left one is a 1914 filled with anchor holes that locks the babbitt in and keeps it from turning. The right one is a 1912 still with anchors but less of them. It was this kind of attention to details that kept the cars running to the end of the race. The 4th photo shows the aluminum scoop insert out of the crankpin. The connecting rods also have small windows in them to let in additional oil. In normal use it worked OK but for racing they overfilled the crankcases to provide more splash oiling. The mechanic also kept adding more to the crankcase as the race went on to replace what leaked out or burned.
Very clever system! Thanks for showing those of us who never see the insides of the engines details like this.
Hi Kurtis - about the best source for an overview of what I call the three "chapters" in the Sizaire story.. Sizaire et Naudin (singles & fours), Sizaire Berwick (veteran through vintage) and finally, Sizaire Frères would be Automobile Quarterly, volume 18 #2. It dates from 1980, but may be available through the Victorian State Library system ... Otherwise, there is a (French language) web site which is not particularly well up-dated, but here is a link to the list of known survivors. http://www.sizaire.com/Inventaire.htm If you can get hold of a copy of Racing Voiturettes by Kent Karslake it'll give you a good deal of info re the "long stroke" era .. and in this, my favourite has to be the Peugeot Lion VX 5 narrow angle V-twin, 80 x 280mm. Sadly, I think not one engine from this monster has survived. Quel Domage!
T-Head, I can look at your posts all day. It gives someone who has never seen the insides of a vintage engine a better understanding of the technology and how each designer tried to overcome many problems. I think auto racing helped speed up some of the advancements. I have been busy lately looking at all the different t-head designs and comparing them to each other. In the earlier version of this engine many authors state that there is a problem with the valves being damaged after a short distance with some manufacturers providing new valves with the price of purchase. Have you encountered any such problem?
Thanks for the info onelung. It's been a while since i visited the State library, i might have to spend a weekend there sometime soon. I did find a book or two with articles explaining the company's failure when the 4cyl. was adopted in hopes of more sales that ultimately never eventuated. I have a feeling Sizaire had some chassis left over from before the war and tried to utilize them into the new design. As to the Lion-Peugeot, i think there is at least one surviver. www.flickr.com/photos/ajspo/3559115505/in/pool-1005707@N21. Some more pics of S-N. 1st- Geoges Sizaire @ Rambouilette-1906. *sorry for the qaulity* 2nd-Louis Naudin @ Sicily-1907. 3rd-This is at Brooklands-1908. Driver is listed as Scantlebury?
Well in San Diego: Gil Klecan has/had one, ER. Bourne and Joel Naive had one (collectively) too. There was one in the Bay Area too. You mention the one in the Harrah Collection, so that would be 4 prior to '90. I have a copy of Karlslake book...kind of a let down. Neat reading, but limited technicals.
The Sizaire et Naudin name carried right through to around 1921, but by then about the only thing left was the name: it had semi-elliptic front springs and had lost the 3 speed diff, going to a 4 speed conventional transmission. The earlier follow-up to the monos was essentially a 4 cylinder motor dropped into the mono frame, although the rear brakes were quite different. S-N's with the 3 speed diff ended production around 1911 or 12, I think... if survivor numbers are an indication, the earlier 4 cylinder car was indeed a sales flop, as there are many more monos (around 32..) remaining world wide. The flickr link car is a re-hash done, to my eyes, to look like the twin cylinder car such as I posted earlier (that shot was taken at Brooklands..), but the motor, although so far as I know a genuine Lion Peugeot item, is a 100 x 250mm single, 1908 example. (where did he find it!) Here's how I think it should look. The Brooklands shot you posted is familiar to me (can't find it on my hard drive) but I can't vouch for the driver name. They had for a time at Brooklands "Sizaire only" races, and the track clerk of course had one for many years as a track hack (so to speak).
Gil Klecan's car is the one which was in Harrah's. I'm interested to hear more about the Bourne/Naive car - please PM me if you wish. The Bay area car (Frisco..? - sorry, I'm an ignorant Aussie) may well have been one owned by John Gillette. I think the numbers stand at three (after 1996, as I've said) although there is one other I've tried to chase up to no avail although it's a van bodied later type 4 cylinder. Here 'tis.
The Jalopy Journal
