OK, maybe this would be better in the speedster thread, but it's kinda died. http://www.popularmechanics.com/car...oop)&utm_content=FeedBurner&utm_reader=feedly
What were they burning in it, leaves? I'm impressed that it started on the handle, I would have thought a tow rope would be necessary.
It didn't start "on the handle"; I posted this on another thread about this engine. "Did you guys notice that they don't start it with the crank? They use the crank to turn it over enough to draw some combustible mixture into the cylinders. If you watch closely, a guy on the right side of the engine reaches in and does something and the engine starts. What he is doing is moving the manual spark advance, which causes a spark to generated which fires the cylinder. If you know how much to turn the crank, and where to leave it, the engine will pretty much start every time. When I was a kid, I had a friend with a stock model "A" that did this all the time. He would get in, give the spark lever a quick pull and sometimes the engine would start. As to cranking an engine of this size to start it, I believe it would be impossible. I have a '48 Seagrave pumper with a 468" Pierce Arrow sourced V12. After I got it, one of the ignition systems didn't work. I went through both systems (two dual coil distributors and 24 spark plugs) and rebuilt the carburetors and got it running very well. Surprisingly, this vehicle came with a crank. We would take it to car shows and bet beers that we could start it with the crank. I was 6' 220 and could get it started some of the time. My partner on the truck was in his early thirties at the time, 6' 3" and 255 and quite strong. He could get it going just about every time. We won quite a few beers over a few years doing that. It was a tough pull however. I don't even want to think about trying it with a four cylinder engine almost 4 times as big. A pull of the crank will give you, say 135 degrees of crankshaft rotation. Since a 4 cylinder, 4 cycle engine fires every 180 degrees, everything has to work right to get even one firing impulse per crank pull. A 12 cylinder, on the other hand fires every 60 degrees of crankshaft revolution, meaning. that you would get at least 2 firing impulses every crank pull. Having all those cylinders actually made it easier to start. I have a 4 cylinder, 2 cycle Yamaha snowmobile that is much easier to start than any smaller twin I ever had. "
Mechanically conventional enough, but the coachwork is plenty weird: 1941 Horch 853, rebodied as a fire appliance shortly after WWII.
I like the Horch front end. Actually I'd love the whole thing save that plexiglass roof. Was this an ambulance first?
853s were popular as military staff cars and, to a lesser extent, parade cars during WWII. The original post describes it as a "1941 Sportcabriolet", though other sources state that civilian production ended in 1940. Then, how would it happen that the Brno (in then Czechoslovakia) fire brigade would happen to have one available in 1946? I'm suspecting a German military connection somewhere.
And once again, Ned Ludd wins the internet! I didn't understand what the extended grille was all about until I saw the hose coupling sticking thru the bumper.
It wouldn't look that odd with dual 30 cals sticking out of the tail... I have no info about this monstrosity.
Wonder if the 1941 Horch was a present from the German government to the mayor of Brno or some other important official? After the war, the local government handed it over to the fire department to be rebodied into something useful? During and after the war, cars and machinery of all kinds were in short supply. Many old cars, trucks and machines were rebuilt, modified or repurposed. There were garages and body companies that made a business of rebuilding prewar BMWs with new bodywork, and building sport bodies on VW floor pans. It would not have been hard to find a coachbuilder or body shop capable of doing such a conversion.
OK. Well as it turns out, Ulu has also won the internet. Sorry, Ned, but you're going to have to share it with him...
What is wrong with me? I keep looking at this thing and wonder what member of the Barris family never left the homeland. Bob
Hey ulu That last one, I belive thats its a Tempo. Can't remember If its a something Tempo or Tempo something. I think it to low too, but I like the body shape. Any trick that scrapes is semi-stupid, at least to me. A car that scrapes, to each his own, but not something for me
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