Brotherly love - Riley 9

The chassis of the Riley 9 was designed by Stanley Riley while the hemi head 1087 cc 66 cui was designed by his brother Percy. Riley 9s were produced from 1926 - 1938 with a variety of body styles.



The twin cam engine with short push rods operating the 45 degree inclined valves proved particularly suitable for tuning and Riley 9s were raced with great success into the mid 1950's. This version, seen at Prescott top and Loton Park bottom, is owned by B Wildsmith and driven in VSCC events by Tim Hopkinson is a Special dating from 1929/34.

Hope you have enjoyed today's brotherly love edition of Getting a lil' psycho on tyres and that you'll join me tomorrow for a look at another quintessentially British motor car. Don't forget to come back now !

2 miles a minute - 1905 Darracq 200hp

Using the profits from the sale of his Gladiator cycle factory, Alexandre Darracq founded Automobiles Darracq S.A.in 1896.



In 1905 he built a 200hp V8 specifically for setting Land Speed Records.



Straight out of the box Victor Hemery set an LSR on the V8 Darracq at 109 mph at Aries in France.



The Darracq was then shipped to Ormond - Daytona where Hemery's belligerent behaviour did not go down well with officials so Louis Chevrolet was drafted in to drive the car to a 1 mile petrol powered LSR of 117.65 mph only 10 mph slower than Frank Marriott on his Stanley Steamer ! Finally Victor Demogeot set a 2 mile LSR beating the Stanley Steamer with an average speed of 122.5 mph becoming the first vehicle to cover 2 miles in less than 1 minute.



Sir Algernon Lee Guiness of the famous Brewing company became the next owner of the Darracq and he used it to set many records in the UK and France until 1909.



The car then fell into the hands of someone who scrapped the axles for no particularly obvious reason and somehow Sir Algernon retrieved the remaining car which was kept stored until 1956 when his widow sold the car to Gerald Firkins who recreated the vehicle as we see it today.



When the pistons were replaced it was found that the engine volume was 25400 cc / 1495.1 cui not 22.5 litres as had been thought for nearly 100 years !



Mark Walker purchased the vehicle in 2006 and has campaigned it regularly in hill climbs and races ever since. Notice anything missing from the front axle ? This vehicle has never had brakes acting on the front wheels yet still gets driven competitively in the rain !



Despite having no front brakes, or reverse gear, a rear axle recreated from a drawing in a 90 year old book and being well known for spitting flames the Darracq is road legal and Mark drives it to and from competitive events.

Hope you have enjoyed todays Edwardian edition of Gettin' a lil' psycho on tyres, looking forward to Ferrari Friday when I'll be presenting a Ferrari that allegedly served time as a mini van on the dark side of the moon ! Don't forget to come back now !

The father of BMW, Jaguar, Bristol and Lotus cars - Austin 7 Part 2/2.

Today I'll be looking at the legacy left by the humble little Austin 7 on the European Automotive industry, if you missed my introduction to the Austin 7 here is a link to yesterdays post.

The Austin 7 deserves it's place in British automotive history simply for being it's first mass produced car, but it's real standing becomes clear when one considers the Austin 7 was manufactured under licence by the Automobilwerk Eisenbach car factory.



Above Joe Tisdall, 1930, Austin 7 Ulster, VSCC Prescott,

Their Dixi variant of the Austin 7 supplied in kit form initially in 1927 was so successful that within a year BMW bought the company after its own primogenitor vehicles proved less than viable. So the Ausitn 7 saved BMW from ruin as its aeroplane engine manufacturing business began to fail after shady dealings with the USSR came to light.



Above Mark Groves, 1930, Austin 7 Ulster, VSCC Loton Park.

This next bit traces the development of engines if you stick with it you'll see the blood line from Austin 7 through BMW to Bristol.

In 1932 BMW used the 4 cylinder 747 cc / 45 cui Austin 7/ Dixi engine as the starting point for their own 4 cylinder 788cc / 48 cui motor used in first all in house designed BMW 3/20

By 1933 BMW built a 1182 cc / 72 cui six cylinder version of the 3/20 engine called the M78 for their 303 model.

In 1934 a larger 1,490 cc 90.9 CUI six cylinder engine was developed from the M78 for use in the BMW 315/319 series of vehicles, which was superseded in 1936 by the hemi head 1971 cc / 120.3 cui six cylinder engine for the 328 model of 1936.



Above Miss Katherine Everett, 1930, Austin 7 Ulster, Prescott.

The plans for the 328's engine first built in 1936 were appropriated as war reparations by HJ Adlington who was both in the British Army and Managing director of BAC Cars in 1947. The 328 engines designer Fritz Fiedler was also persuaded to move to England where he continued to develop the engine for the Bristol Aeroplane Company cars sold under the new 'Bristol' brand, thus the Austin 7 747 cc / 45 cui engine can be seen to be of the great, great, grand father of the Bristol marque which used hemi head 6 cylinder engines derived from the 1936 BMW 328 from 1947 to 1961.

I hope that wasn't too convoluted or painful.



Above Edward Williams, 1930 Austin 7 Rolt Ulster, Supercharged, VSCC Prescott.

Rewinding back to 1927, Sir William Lyons took the basic Austin 7 and made a high end body for it which sold as the Austin Seven Swallow, moving the Swallow Sidecar Company from side car manufacture into motor car manufacture. In 1945 the Swallow Sidecar Company was renamed the Jaguar Car Company.



Mark Lance, 1930 Austin 7 Ulster TT Replica, VSCC Loton Park.

After WW2 many Austin 7's were converted into specials as there were not enough new cars to meet demand in England. One of those converting an Austin 7 into a special was Colin Chapman who gave his special a now popular and familiar name Lotus Mk1.



Above Ms Penny Jones, 1931, Austin 7 Ulster Replica, VSCC Loton Park.

The Austin 7 leant it's name to another influential vehicle the original Austin Mini in 1959 which was originally marketed as the 'Austin Seven' and 'Morris Mini Minor'.



Above Benjamin MARCHANT, 1928 Austin 7 Chummy, supercharged, VSCC Loton Park.

I respectfully suggest that the humble little Austin Seven, which the Austin board only reluctantly agreed to back, became, through it's role in the development of four prestige automotive manufacturers, one of the most influential vehicles of all time.

Thanks to Roger French and Julian Hunt at TNF for their help identifying a couple of these vehicles, to Tim Murray for his assistance identifying the Chummy and to everyone else for their time and patience, tomorrow I have the first instalment of another two part blog about an absolutely stunning replica of a vehicle which shines in one of my favourite stories about Le Mans, debutantes & underdogs, wishing everyone a fabulous Friday, don't forget to come back now ! Class Dismissed :-)

The father of BMW, Jaguar, Bristol and Lotus cars - Austin 7 Part 1/2.

The father of BMW, Jaguar, Bristol and Lotus cars - Austin 7 Part 1/2.



Above, Chris Smith, 1925 Austin Brooklands Replica, Loton Park.

Today I'd like to introduce a very special little vehicle, the Austin 7 in my humble opinion the influence of this vehicle is so far reaching that I am going to make this my very first two part blog, I hope you'll bear with me and consider the time and space I have dedicated to this model well spent. I'll start today by introducing the model and tomorrow I'll consider it's bewilderingly far reaching legacy on European automotive history



Above, Ms Hannah Enticknap, 1928, Austin 7 Ulster Special, Loton Park.

The truth is so much stranger than fiction. Consider the humble little Austin 7 with a 6'ft 3" wheel base and track of 3'6" powered by a 10hp 747 cc / 45 cui sidevalve engine that complete weighed less than half that of a Model T Ford when it hit the streets in 1922 with rear brakes operated by foot and front brakes operated by hand !



Above, Frank Hernandez, 1928 Austin 7 Brooklands Streamline, Loton Park.

Sir Herbert Austin acting against the wishes of his own board threatened to take the '7' concept to rivals Wolseley before putting his own money into the development of the '7' which was completed with draughts man Stanley Edge at Sir Herberts home Lickey Grange.



Above Matt Johnson, 1928, Austin 7 Ulster Supercharged Special, Loton Park, 2010.

Investment repayments and royalties on Sir Austin's patents arising from the Austin 7's innovations amounted to £ 2.10 on every vehicle sold on what emerged to be Britain's first mass production car.



Above Doug Bukin, 1929 - 1932, Austin 7 Ulster Special, Prescott, 2010.

Over the 14 years the Austin 7 was in production 40 different body styles were introduced including 2 and 4 seaters using aluminium, fabric and steel in tourer, saloon, cabriolet. sports, vans and a Coupe style.



Above Tom Hardman, 1929, Austin 7 Ulster B & Q Special, Loton Park, 2010.

In 1927 2500 Austin 7's were made small fry in terms of the Model T, and when production ceased 290,000 units was hardly hot potatoes in terms of numbers against Detroit's finest yet the Austin 7 deserves it's place in British motoring history for being Britain's mass production car.



Above Gary Bishop, 1929, Austin 7, Blaue Maus Special, Prescott, 2010.

Thanks for popping by, look forward to sharing Part 2 on the Austin 7's legacy and it's tomorrow, don't forget to come back now !