History Vintage race car fires up after 100 years!

A friend sent this to me and I think my HAMB friends will enjoy it too. Check it out!

https://grrc.goodwood.com/festival-of-speed/latest/video-legendary-28-

 

thanks for sharing!

 

Been here before I think but still vibrating to hear it run, about 1740 cu in..

 

Very cool! Thanks for sharing.

 

That was cool! They weren't babying that monster, either.-MIKE

 

Too many giggle like a girl moments there ... especially the guy yard sale-ing to the tarmac on the push start. Can't comprehend that size and noise on such an early car. Sounds like a big bag of heavy artillery. Good"wood" for sure. Love it.

 

I've watched that a half dozen times from different sources and it's always fun to watch that monster roar down that road.

 

What a Beast! Belching smoke and fire, if you didn't see it you would think it was an aircraft of some large cubic inches. I'm thinking a chain guard might be a good idea.

 

As I've posted elsewhere about this video.... it's not a four banger, it's a FOUR BOOMER!

 

Cool car, but it looked to me like it didn't run worth a shit. Anytime they tried to rev it a little it would just pop and sputter, the rest of the time they were lugging it so bad all it would do is chug and smoke. Personally, I'd be embarrassed to be seen in a video driving that great car that way.

 

Remember that not very much of what you see is 100 years old.

 

Now that's an engine.

 

That's a blast to drive....thanks for the link....

 

Wow that's incredible. Wonder what it looked like when they found it.

 

Well I enjoyed it ! Thanks for the link.
Maybe the lack of exhausts and no back pressure has something to do with the way it ran, but those flames looked good either way.
And yes, probably a lot of it is not 100 years old.
That was one lucky rabbit !

 

Cool !! Thanks for sharing.

 

Thanks for sharing.

 

Great video, made me smile.

 

That thing is so cool, peak torque for that engine was at 900 rpm or so, not like modern engines at all. The fellow near the front/right of the engine looks alot like the guy with the Darraq. If so, he knows how to make them run well

 

Notice how they started it? The guy cranked it to prime a cylinder and stopped just past top dead center then the guy standing along side turned on the ignition firing the charged cylinder and the rest followed suit...

 

At first, I thought the coolest part of that video was the fire and smoke belching from the hood sides. In the end, it was how much younger those guys looked after the ride. Amazing automobile.

 

"Embarrassed"? Are you kidding me?That is one of the coolest things I have seen in a long time.Any car of that era was a handful to drive what with all the levers for timing,throttle,etc.and then add in the racing temperament ,and you got yourself a handful.The Go -pro down low gives you an idea of what all is going on.Thanks for the video.

 

Just a short jaunt around the estate.
Its real fun to men turn into 9 year olds. No matter who they are.

 

And it's traditional....................................................

 

Thanks. Not often you get to hear old race cars run. It was worth watching.

 

LOL! Well it ain't exactly a SBC with a Q-Jet...

 

Now we know what a "time machine" looks and sounds like. Great video, thanks for posting it.

 

Remember, there were thousands of Model T's around by then and I'd bet most of them could outrun this fancy race car in it's current state of tune. All I'm saying is get it running correctly and figure out how to drive it before making a video that goes out to the world.

This little video shows the car making a speed run and there's no smoke or flame that I can see.
https://grrc.goodwood.com/race/hist...empting-land-speed-record#U6TIPj4w2K21myoM.97

 

Huh. Loud pipes really do save lives!

 

I have been around these old race cars for years and have driven and ridden in number of them and I do not agree with your opinion that it is so far out of tune. The car was built to set a land speed record and not run to the corner store. Many race cars built throughout time till the present may run rough at idle but run great at wide open throttle. We have not seen how it runs at WOT and you would need a pretty big set to try it today. It may very well run like a Swiss watch at speed.

Whether they have replicated everything exactly I cannot state with any certainty but gasoline then and the explosive properties of each are different and the cars back then had less compression and were not cars that revved very high. Most were all done at no more than 3000 rpms and are very different from the high winding engines we are used to. Also almost all smoked and if you watch the old films you will see the smoke. It was not only a lack of gaskets but they often had large oil tanks under the cowl (some 5 gallons) and they constantly lubricated the engine at speed and oil and smoke went everywhere.

As to the flame you have to remember that an internal combustion engine is all about flame and explosion as that is how it operates. You have a very hot spark with the old magnetos and an extremely large combustion chamber. What do you expect? Maybe headers would help but they were not worried about noise, they were concerned with top speed.

I have watched the film you referenced I seem to see some smoke which I say is perfectly normal. When Buck Boudeman built his replica of the Miller Golden Sub back in the 80s I asked him why so much smoke and he said he wanted it to be like the old days. I told him it was maybe a bit much and others may have told him as well as he eventually tightened up the clearances and it only had some minor smoking.

All of the these old racers from this era have their own way of running. I have a racing engine built in 1916 and led the Indy 500 for around 100 laps in 1919 and when I have started it without the headers it belches flame. It also carried a 5 gallon tank under the cowl and smoked with all of the oiling/lubrication etc.

Additionally, the Model Ts were built from 1908 to 1925 I believe but with the new Ford assembly line in 1913 there were not really large numbers in 1913, at the time of this event and they were anything but fast. They were utilitarian and were a car for the masses but all in all they were pretty slow. We had some in my grandfather’s car collection and they were the last cars I wanted to drive. If I wanted fast there were many cars I would choose but never a T. They were not really used for racing until the late teens (with the Roof heads) and then in the 20s with Frontenac heads and others to follow such as Cragar etc.

The accomplishment of the guys that built this Fiat is flat out cool. Some of these early racecars sound like racecars and some sound like stock cars with open headers. This car sounds to me like it means business and no wonder it set the records particularly back in 1913. If it purred like a kitten it would probably run more like a Model T speed wise, more than likely. At least that’s my opinion.