Haha, if only i could. When the Michelin man made it's public debut it was given many nicknames by the public but when Andre Michelin attended the Paris-Amsterdam race, Leon Thery shouted 'Here comes Bibendum'. Michelin liked it so much it stuck from then on. BTW, That's the original Michelin Man in the poster. Bibendum is latin for 'time to drink'. In this poster he is drinking a cup full of bolts, nails, spikes, glass, etc. It was to show that it's product was tough and could withstand the rigors of the open road.
This 1908 Brasier is a recreation of a Richard Brasier Gordon Bennett team car of 1904. The incomplete remains were found in Australia minus it's engine and shipped back to Europe. When the owner realised that an original engine couldn't be found {he most probably never will find one} he installed a 220hp Hispano Suiza aero engine. It's onto it's second owner in this configuration and is said to be geared for 120mph.
The last two photos I have taken by Lartique of the 1906 French GP. The first photo shows Cagno's Itala at his pit. I am sure the tire posters on the wall in the foreground will produce a few chuckles in certain areas of the world. Speaking of horse shoes and nails earlier, I looked for a photo of a nail puller for the rear tires that were sometimes used in early racing. Does anyone have a photo or illustration of one? Last image of period ceramic tiles of Duray in his racer.
Those are really neat !! What I was thinking of is the oval shaped metal device that you sometimes see fixed really close to a rear tire on an early car. They were there to hopefully knock the nail off before it punctured the tire.
This may be slightly off-topic since it is about motorcycles, but it is the best film I have ever seen showing racing on a 1920's board track. This film happens to be of the Daytona board track and shows the remarkable size, banking and quality of the track as well as the speeds I hope you enjoy it. http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu...ideoid=5561686 __________________ JG
Quote Kurtis: You mean like the one's on the Renault's? Yes, just what I was thinking, this is a photo you posted last week. The white colored devices near the rear tires are for knocking off horse shoe nails, hopefully before they puncture the tire.
This film happens to be of the Daytona board track and shows the remarkable size, banking and quality of the track as well as the speeds I hope you enjoy it. http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fu...ideoid=5561686 __________________ JG, I can't get that link to work. Board track bikes here; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pyvd_hF8Clw I would have loved to see them go 120 mph at Sheepshead Bay Paul
latin 'nunc esl bibendum' let's toast, that's to say for your health Michelin tires drink obstacles. He was a real bad egg 1907 twice the trouble world famous 1911
All my Bugatti books are scattered around here, so I can't comfirm my thoughts that the early INDY cars had the "Banana Tappets" like the Type 23 Brescia models. Bob
JG, The video of the board track with the Indian motorcycles has been debated on a couple other threads on the JJ. To the best of the people who are board track historians, (of which I am NOT one) there never was a board track in Daytona. I think it was determined it was taken at the Beverly Hills board track. The only Florida board track was at Miami and only one race was ran there before a hurricane destroyed it. there are several photos of the Miami track before and after the hurricane on the JJ. HG
So that is that, and I agree with you but until someone comes up with some concrete evidence and photos proving our theory it is only that. Jim, what do you think about all of this? The Automobile Magazines description just does not describe what is in the first picture or in the photo of the previous year either (photo 4). Could they have been wrong? It would not be the first time the printed word was incorrect. T Head, That is an understatement..... Perhaps the answer to the inconsistant description and photos is that there were two Maxwell engines. Borgeson talks about the 1914 SOHC Maxwell with rockers in "The Golden Age", and a 1916 DOHC Maxwell in "Twin Cam" with a shaft cam drive. Sometimes "Twin cam" can be irritating because it was clinically scrubbed of all SOHC referrences. Since Rickenbacker didn't join Maxwell until 1915, maybe the photo is of the later engine. I saw a photo of Rickenbacker at the 1906 Vanderbilt Cup in this thread. Does anyone have a photo of Harry Miller at the same race ? Paul
DG and the group, Here is a url to board tracks on the JJ. Rootie has a list of the tracks. The photos of the Miami/Fulford track destroyed are on there also. Good thread, Hope you enjoy. HG http://www.jalopyjournal.com/forum/showthread.php?t=362482&showall=1
Bob, Those curved tappets are pretty weird. My Conway book says the six 5 litre cars "had rockers between the cams and valves (unlike the 8 and 16 valve cars)" I wouldn't call them rockers if they didn't change the direction. He suggests this was the beginning of the three valve head and they began in 1912, but later Bugatti claimed 1908. One was at Indy in 1914 around the time of the Frontenac "iron engine". Two are still missing maybe they are in Planche's shed. The U-16 aero engine had "roller" finger followers, but that was not in NJ until 1917-18. Paul
Paul and David to be honest, you got me. David you give me a bit of credit I may not deserve on my knowledge of Maxwells. I have collected a bit of Maxwell info here and there and copied the pics out of the early magazines. Although I think the cars were pretty cool they were never on the top of my list as to being any world beater and I never really researched them-just stumbled on stuff. One of the reasons I quoted the article in The Automobile is to kind of give you a play by play of what they say. I have a couple of articles on the engine and they claim it is one shaft. It does kind of look like a DOHC and the shot you include of the frontal view seems to show a DOHC. The talk of them being staggered thew me as well but I thought maybe they were referring to them being staggered from right side to left-it kind of makes one shake their head. I would have thought that Ray Harroun would have straightened out the discrepancy as there were several articles written on the one cam. When I get some time I will have to go back through some stuff. It is not at all out of the realm of being a mistake. Now I will have to keep my eyes open a little wider I suppose. I need more mysteries like another hole in my head. Paul as to Borgeson and the Charlatan Mystery-good luck. I like Borgeson's stories but he seems to come to conclusions at times that maybe I would not (that is why I go with the quote routine at times-to cut down with total egg on my face). Nevertheless he did spend a great deal of time digging up good info and wrote some good stuff overall. Paul, also where are the pics you refer to of the Iron Frontenac engine? Also is there any decent sources that go into Chevrolet's iron engine-pre 1915 (other than Borgeson in the Golden Age)? I really like the early Frontenacs but have never found anything of value on the iron engine. Sorry for the delay in responding. Lately work has had me swamped and this week is shaping up to be a nightmare with a lot going all the way through next Monday. Will try and post as I find time-thanks-Jim
Don't know much about this photo but it is one of my favorites. The days when you raced what ever you had available.
[Paul, also where are the pics you refer to of the Iron Frontenac engine? Also is there any decent sources that go into Chevrolet's iron engine-pre 1915 (other than Borgeson in the Golden Age)? I really like the early Frontenacs but have never found anything of value on the iron engine. Jim, The only photo of the iron engine I've seen is in Borgeson's "Twin Cam". The story he tells is Planche designed the DOHC iron engine, not much happened, they went to the SOHC aluminum engine. After they finished 7th and 9th at Indy in 1919, Van Ranst updated the iron DOHC and they won Indy. Here is a photo of the 1920 engine. If you look at the cam carriers you can see the little fulcrum plates for the finger followers, like on the later Delages. If this engine is only an updated copy of the early iron engine, I would expect to see those plates on it. It sounds like Maxwell went the other way, an MB like SOHC first, then a Peugeot like DOHC. Paul
Does anyone know more about the 1913 Chalmers engine in the Speedway Museum ? http://www.museumofamericanspeed.com...lphaE011.shtml A DOHC six, three years before the 1916 Sunbeam ? With enclosed valve gear. Does anyone know what kind of tappets it has ? Paul
Is this the MONROE engine in the INDY collection? If so it was built by the late Ed Roy, he only had the original block, and fabricated all the remaining bits for a display unit.
That's right, there never was a board track at Daytona, but I'm pretty sure that the film is actually from Sheapshead Bay in New York. The best way to determine locations is looking at the grandstands, and the one visible in the film looks very much like Sheapshead Bay.
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