Art & Inspiration Aero-Engined Vintage Racers

A good mate of mine has a load of photo's of this car ...



... but he's over your side of the Pond just now so it'll be a week or so til I can steal and post them . He saw it racing at Mallory Park in Liecestershire which is renowned for a very long righthander around a lake . Apparently the GN went round the whole corner completely sideways , lap after lap .

Man I wish I'd seen that , I'll be there with my camera next time ...

 

http://winfield.50megs.com/Hisso.htm

The Hisso Race Car site has some great photos. these V8 OHC aero engines were dirt cheap WWI surplus in the late 1920's so were the OX-5 Curtis V8's

 

That GN is cool as hell, it would be sweet to see it in person. Keep 'em comin'.

Bobby

 

F.I.A.T.
Fix It Again Tony
Feeble Italian Attempt at Technology
The boat must have been a hand full! Nuckin Futts!

 

Wow, this thread is super awesome.

 

This is the Larry Beals Hisso in 1924 at the Pottsville, Pa. AAA racetrack. If you click onto the Hisso site I posted the link to you can see other photos of the car when Larry had it and the fellow before him that was killed in it when it rolled. My guess is that a wood wheel broke, Beals had wires on it through out his ownership. The car was a 1908 GP Mercedes factory racer that won a 1908 GP. Some time around 1910 Spencer Wishart bought it from the factory for $62,000 (someone do the math so we know what that would be in 2007 dollars), and intered it in the first INDY 500 in 1911 and finished fourth. The following year he finished 15th in the same car. Larry Beals went on to race a Miller and the Hisso powered Mercedes wound up in the Tompson collection in Ohio soimetime in the late 1930's. It sold in a sealed bid auction about 5-6 years ago and is back in Germany, undergoing a restoration to its 1908 Factory GP car specs. I did get to sit in it while it was at a dealership before its flight home. The quality of the vehicle and the condition it was in was wonderful, everyone that saw it agreed it should have been left as is. Race car of very early hot rod it was a very special car.

 

Frank Lockhart would agree with you.

 

Alright Mr. B-

You pickin' on me from a different post?!...

or am I just dense and missin' something with the Lockhart reference ?

 

go research Frank Lockhart...you won't be let down.

Borgeson's quote about Lockharts early career (15 years old or so) was "that any man who would use steel, over light hardwood, for a frame was a fool."

here is his final car...

 

Anyone got any good pics on the Triplex driven by ray Keech in the late twenties? A pretty neat cat with three Liberty V12s that set the land speed record in 1928 of 207+. Second attempt though killed the new driver Lee Bible, when they were trying to up the record after the Brit Henry Seagrave upped the ante to 231+.

Here is the Mercedes we had in a thread recently that has a Hall Scott aero engine. That car would be a whole bunch of fun to drive as the engine is pretty much a decent size that would allow you to really handle the car as opposed to the opposite.-Jim

 

Lockhart's early rides were a bit Spartan.

 

Hasn't been a problem that I know of............... '22

 

Hall Scott aero engine, 4 cylinder SOHC, wonder if I could find one somewhere...definately screams special.

 

Found lots of picture of the GN. other probally found these too,but it's worth putting

i couldn't figure it out...here. 4 pages worth.

http://rides.webshots.com/photo/2011792200036898833FwaIpQ?vhost=rides

 

good picture, taken after he won a championship race at Ascot. For the technical detainians out there, note: he is using only front brakes (though probably he is using the T tranny brake)

 

In the Bugatti hot Rod thread I posted up a pic of the Napier Railton, Powered with a 1918 Napier Lion 'W' 12 Aero engine, heres some pics of this fantaic car.
http://www.brooklands.org.uk/reunion/naprail.htm

and a video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jrLq83aFUZY
Another wild bit of gear was the Napier Bentley.


These engines are 24 liter...24000 CC's..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmqiTmTuGdA

 

Thanks to everyone for contributing to this thread! Keep the photos comin'!

The GN is a great car and the owner races it with real gusto - sideways at every opportunity.

Here's a picture of the Napier Railton, a Brooklands Outer Circuit car.

 

I see mention of using the Rolls/Packard Merlin engine in road cars,It doesn't work to well because they're an aircraft engine designed to run constantly at 1200RPM. The One to use was the Rolls Meteor which was used in Centurion tanks. They had a different set of cams to spread the power curve over a full engine range.
There is at least one prewar Rolls Royce here in OZ with a meteor engine.

 

Here is the for sale link for the V8 Hispano Suiza engined Vauxhall if anyone has a spare £80K to spend!

http://www.prewarcar.com/show_prewar_car.asp?car_id=48064

 

The owner takes this car out occasionally on the streets of Pennsylvania. He says the bimmer drivers have no idea what just passed them!

 

Thanks for the info Mr. B-

I've read a little about Frank Lockhart in the Miller books and know that he died in the Stutz LSR (stunning car), but will need to go find some more!

 

There are two Zero time Meteor engines on pre-warcars.com

I have always thought a Curtis Conquer would do nicely it's a smaller package with plenty of Zoooooooooooooom

 

These two models were sitting on the boat that I posted.
Look familiar to anybody? LoL,I mean scale models...

 

Awesome Thread!

 

There was also a cut down 18 litre V8 version of this motor, known as a Meteorite and fitted to tank transporters (Thorneycroft Mighty Antar). It would pull 100 tons!!

 

A few more enjoy !

 

I was going to say the Napier had an Aero engine. Glad you guys beat me to it

PS here is a car that is sort of aero-engined.

 

I love this thread, I'd love to drive/own the Napier. Wonder if the current owner would trade my '55 for it?? Ha ha, yeah right!!!

How much horspower did these things make?

Seems like I seen an old picture once of a car with a radial type aircraft engine in it, now THAT was cool! (if someone has that pic, please please please post it!!!)

Later- John

 

Napier-Railton specs...from some website...

2 litres PER cylinder!!! 3 banks of 4 cylinders...

23,970cc W12 with double overhead camshafts per bank and four valves per cylinder;
530bhp at 2,350rpm, maximum revs 3,000rpm. Three-speed Moss constant-mesh gearbox driving the rear wheels.

 

the Howe Hisso...and John Gerber above