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Post by simplyloco on Jan 11, 2021 11:12:41 GMT
I just saw this on Facebook. Amazing! EDIT: I thought it was an early steam car, but I was wrong.  |
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Post by andyhigham on Jan 11, 2021 13:28:40 GMT
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Post by 92220 on Jan 11, 2021 18:04:29 GMT
I just saw this on Facebook. Amazing! EDIT: I thought it was an early steam car, but I was wrong. What is it? Any more details that could make it findable on the web? The engine looks like some kind of simple Vee-4 but it would be interesting to find out more about it! Bob. |
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Post by chester on Jan 11, 2021 18:18:29 GMT
The motorcycle equivalent what a beast beautiful
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Post by andyhigham on Jan 11, 2021 20:01:23 GMT
I wonder why the front right has two tyres
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JonL
Elder Statesman
WWSME (Wiltshire)
Posts: 2,909
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Post by JonL on Jan 11, 2021 20:14:14 GMT
It's a Christie V-4. 1907 French Grand Prix competing car.... 20 Litre engine.... (american made I think)
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Post by ettingtonliam on Jan 11, 2021 21:14:58 GMT
That twin front wheel is, I think, a Stepney rim. Instead of having to remove and replace a punctured tyre by the roadside the Stepney rim, complete with tyre just clipped on to the wheel rim, to allow the journey to continue. Goodness knows what it did to the handling charactaristics.
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JonL
Elder Statesman
WWSME (Wiltshire)
Posts: 2,909
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Post by JonL on Jan 11, 2021 22:14:14 GMT
I've never heard of a stepney rim, I can understand the concept, but as you say it must have made things exciting!
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Post by 92220 on Jan 12, 2021 9:12:27 GMT
Thanks for that info Nobby. I have just checked it out on the web and that double front wheel is permanent!! If you check out this website crankhandleblog.com/articles/the-brutal-american-20-litre-v-4-front-wheel-drive-christie-racing-car-of-1907/ it shows the car without the right hand wheels. They cover a massive wide brake drum. There is also another picture of someone else at the wheel and the photo still shows a double right hand front wheel. As said, this must have made it a pig to control!!....and yes, it was American made. Bob. Edit: I forgot to also mention that there are other photos of the car, or one like it, with only single wheels all around. |
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Post by 92220 on Jan 12, 2021 9:37:02 GMT
I miss-read the photo, and didn't read the whole story on the website. What I thought, with a quick look, was a brake drum is not. The whole bulge on the front axle area is actually a front wheel drive........so the mini wasn't the first one??!!! So the second rim might be an extra. However, if you google Stepney rim for cars, it shows a picture of the rim and the way it is fitted doesn't look like the double rim in the photo. I also found another website that shows an arial view of the car and driver that is in the phot on the website I noted above, and there is a specific reference to the double front wheel on the front, but it doesn't say why it is there. Definitely a weird motor!!!!!
Bob.
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kipford
Statesman
Building a Don Young 5" Gauge Aspinall Class 27
Posts: 566 
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Post by kipford on Jan 12, 2021 9:48:51 GMT
Very interesting, what a monster. If you look at the article it has photographs showing the car both with and without the double front tyre. So I wonder if the double front tyre was used for early oval racing? The American oval often run anti-clockwise and that would be the most highly loaded tyre.
Dave
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Post by 92220 on Jan 12, 2021 10:21:04 GMT
Hi Dave.
That sounds like a very logical reason for the double tyre. In all the photos, it is only on that front right side. It would definitely help the traction on an anti clockwise oval circuit.
Bob.
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Post by d304 on Jan 12, 2021 10:25:23 GMT
The designer J Walter Christie was quite an inventor. Front wheel drives, flying tanks and the Christie suspension as used on the Russian T34 tank.
David
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Post by ettingtonliam on Jan 12, 2021 13:28:42 GMT
Quite an inventor and a total eccentric apparently. We do have him to thank for modern tank suspension, used in some UK tanks from just before WW2, enabling much higher cross country speeds.
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JonL
Elder Statesman
WWSME (Wiltshire)
Posts: 2,909
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Post by JonL on Jan 12, 2021 14:27:43 GMT
The front axle certainly has more than a whiff of Sherman about it.
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uuu
Elder Statesman
your message here...
Posts: 2,811
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Post by uuu on Jan 12, 2021 16:43:56 GMT
Do you think that, like a steam engine, the crank goes up and down with the wheels? Hence the huge crankcase.
Wilf
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JonL
Elder Statesman
WWSME (Wiltshire)
Posts: 2,909
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Post by JonL on Jan 15, 2021 16:49:57 GMT
Do you think that, like a steam engine, the crank goes up and down with the wheels? Hence the huge crankcase. Wilf It seems to have uprights that suggest some form of individual springing, but if so the wishbones would be very short. It's a hard one to fathom. I suspect its on swingarms like the rear of a beetle. |
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kipford
Statesman
Building a Don Young 5" Gauge Aspinall Class 27
Posts: 566
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Post by kipford on Jan 15, 2021 19:45:43 GMT
Nobby
Could be swing arms but looking at the other photos there does not seem be anything to locate it axially. So does it have a sliding pillar setup similar to a Morgan?
Dave
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Post by andyhigham on Jan 15, 2021 19:49:24 GMT
That will be the upper location for the steering, there will be a similar one at the bottom.
As this is FWD there needs to be a space for a CV joint so a king pin or sliding pillar is out
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