Hot Rods October Banger Meet on the Model T Centennial!

The sun burnt bright this weekend. Shirt off, diggin' my potatoes. And onions. "Bikini girls with Machine guns" playing on the iPod set to Genius mode – finding songs I never knew I had. Late afternoon, fellow hot-rodder Glen arrives and discusses the dirt a while. Helps drag home the uprooted crop in exchange for a cup of tea. And vegetable crumble with roasties. And a skiffle night out. And crackers, cheese, and home-made pickles washed down with Jim Beam into the small hours. And so to bed. Pickled.

Waking, back aching, more sunshine a-plenty. Sunday morning, off to meet Charlie Yapp at our local early Ford vendors, Belcher Engineering, with fellow modifiers and rebuilders of all things flathead.



The Secrets of Speed Society on the Suffolk border. Enthusiastic fellow, purveyor of Scalded Dog speed equipment, fresh in from the Mid-west, happy to share our obsessions with obsolete engines and valve gear. Gave us a heart felt pitch about the new <s>Cyclone </s> (my bad) "Roof 101 Four Port" head he's planning. Ooh - shiny bronze bits!

Here's a few cranks that Belchers have in stock...



All aboard, we motored over for tea and buns with some bloke - name o' Pete. Sitting amongst the apple trees. Let us sit in his racing T's and make like we were going reeee-al fast.


Lovely. Sun sinking and we scatter into the approaching evening. Coupes and roadsters to the south, two lonely Cee-dans chugging northwards. Couldn't resist a hammer down blast past Nick's Vicky - rushing ahead out of sight just to pull over and sit on the luggage rack reading my complimentary copy of "Secrets" magazine.

Oh - and as it's 100 years since Henry rolled out the first Model T, here's my one and only self-penned song named after the title of the book written by Garet Garret, "The Wild Wheel - The World of Henry Ford". A bit of history about the introduction of the soul destroying assembly line. Don't worry, it's not me singing it!

www.cre8design.co.uk/The_Wild_Wheel.mp3

 

A few more pictures from the day. I didn't take that many - I was having too much fun...

Here's the engine in the Alexander Special.



That Pete fella in his Gemsa T racer,



And a single H4 SU mounted to an A engine. By all accounts it runs really well in the trials car the engine is from. After all - low end grunt is more important for trials work.



Laters...

 

Wish I'd come along to that, Phil, (especially considering what I had to put up with instead). Great tune, too.

My bangerin' for the winter has already started. I've pulled the (good) steering out of the Touring and dropped it into the Tudor. The (knackered) steering from the Tudor will get a rebuild over the cold months, but I figured I'll be wanting a car with a roof over the winter far more than one without, hence the swap-over.
Whilst the T 'n' A is laid up, gonna work on a new induction set-up for it. Tradition be buggered, I'm going for CFM now, boys! Say hello to my new toy, a Weber 46 IDA.



This thing should look the thru'penny bits hanging off the side of my banger....

 

Hahaha - is that Brummy rhyming slang?

Interesting listening to Charlie telling us about the Roof head he's planning. He's stopping the Riley production because - well; been there done that. Wants to try something else. He's chosen to reproduce the Roof Cyclone head entirely because it's possibly the first OHV head to be produced for the A. No other reason. Plus it's going to be tinkered with. A new chamber design because the original was truly awful. Quite likely that it'll be a four port as well. So - not a perfect reproduction of the original. But then the original wasn't all that good from what I can glean...

The other end of the day was good too. Clive was there chatting about how the new Strombergs are coming along. After some early growing pains with the company they've been full steam ahead into production - slight glitch at the moment with a hold up on the next batch of body castings, but a cool 1000 on their way. Had a pocketful of neatly packaged new Stromberg spares to show us. Pretty cool. Perhaps I'll consider rebuilding that Stromberg 81 I rescued from a coal bunker. Too small for a B engine though? Any thoughts?

 

Ah, another excellent banger month opener Monkeyman! This reminds me that I still haven't put that engine back together and I wasted most of last month despite good weather and not being at work. Start the new job tomorrow so it'll have to wait until the weekend now

 

Hey, I've got one of those !!

Did you happen do get the guy's name? Or anybody on here know him?

I need to talk to him

 

Ah - well, he is Peter Stevens...
http://www.peterstevensdesign.co.uk/

 

Looked like a fun weekend.
I am giving up with bangers now cause as soon I fix the coupe something else brakes.
Just gonna park it up for the winter now.

 

Here are some more pictures of our "Grand day Out"

 

I was sent an email last month
inquiring if Cyclone/Cooks was a business
Charlie informed me of the "Coming Soon"
product.

Below is my reply to Charlie:


In a message dated 8/28/2008 3:11:27 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, [email protected] writes:

Dear Charlie,
HI there I aware of who you are and have spoken to you a few times re: Carl Lovelis
This was 11yrs ago, so you may not recall the conversations. I was a member of SOSS.
I like what you're doing there and with the Riley/Lion head. I admire your tanacity to take on such a project when our countries ecomony is not at its peak earning potential.
With that said, I have worked very hard to keep both Cook's Machine Works and the Cyclone name in the positive view of the Vintage Automotive Enthusiast. This has been a hard job as you well know in performing your day to day duties as an Editor,Advertising Director Publisher and
finally Speed Equipment MFG'r.

I feel that people may misconstrue the RR Cyclone name and think that it is our head.
Based on the ad attached by yourself, it indicates A,B-40. which puts in somewhere in 1935 perhaps? Because during the depression, as even now I doubt that anyone had the money to step up for a hi perf OHV conversion unless they were a serious racer and in that case they'd pay the $2k for a complete Miller 190 Race Car engine.

The flathead stuff was much cheaper for what was gained in a better breather and the aditional weight. Remember,power to weight ratio,
One thing though, you had to know someone who made it.
(Cook was never really one to advertise, He let his products speak for themselves. He never really gave away anything either, just lent out what he thought would be returned-such as his patterns to people like Carl L..).

We were in the speed equipment business then producting the following line of equipment:
A Cyclone 4 cylinder flathead A-B head as well as 32-36 V8 water pump adapters for Cragar OHV's, finned Cyclone water neck block offs Cook's-Cyclone OHV heads for bangers,Cyclone-Caddy Heads for 322's later 346's,32-36 Ford V8 heads, later 37-early 38's and finally 39-48.

Even our V8 intake,IN-Out Box, Dog Clutch,Safety Hubs, Carb Adapters,Eng/Trans Adapters and 2 versions of the Quick change was designed by Cook himself.

As a gentleman and fellow enthusiast, I ask you not to use the Cyclone name on the unless we can license the Cyclone part of the name to you under agrreement and perhaps we'd be able to part of it.

This we may have to think about?
I replied when you sent this email to me. and somehow It does not show being sent. so I
went ahead and wrote it one more time.
Thank you,
Kevin
Product Specialist
Cook's Machine Works
Cyclone Racing Equipment
4845 Telegraph RD.
Los Angeles 22, CALIF




Both C'Dueced=(Pat) and I have to watch & protect our companies name. It is after all our Baby! I was pretty pissed off when I wrote my 1st reply,(killed the power supply to the back up laptop) but calmed down now. Monkeybiker, don't sweat it, I just need to make sure that the name as well as the product stays protected and that is a promise/condition of our partnership with Cook's Machine Works.​

 

Strangely enough Kevin, despite the name, I hadn't assumed any connection at all. Never even crossed my mind. This however may well be just my mind...

Over this side of the pond there's a few of the Riley heads - a friend of mine is more than happy with his. A 2 year wait is a hell of a time, but then we're a patient lot. Born to queue...

 

Kevin just called me and told me that Charlie had agreed not to use the CYCLONE name. I'm sure there is just some misunderstanding as to what it will finally be called. Wayno

 

Monkeybiker,

Good story, great pics, loved the music! Who owns the green 5W? I really like it!

 

Oh, by the way, saw this 5W on the Fordbarn A forum. It's owned by a guy named Jay in MN. Looks very nice




ttp://www.fordbarn.com/aforum/messages2/440658.html

 

My bad Kevin, after checking the Secrets magazine and website it's being sold as the Roof 101 Four Port. After all, Charlie was explaining about the Roof head it would be based on and I guess I didn't listen well enough... sorry!

 

Thanks for posting the pics monkeybiker. Those are some kool rides. Love that green coupe.
Well I am happy to say I am getting my first A banger motor delivered to me this saturday. Not sure if it will be useable, if not if will look good painted up with some of the speed parts I aquired this last year. Well you got to always a have few extras anyway. LOL Hopefully at the beginning of the new year I can start putting all my pieces together to make a car. LOL

 

Current progect, doing a pair of these [/url]

 

Looks like a lot of fun was had. Thanks for posting the pictures!!!

Did anyone get a photo of the left side of this engine?

 

GOSH, no wonder I can't find another counterbalanced crank... Neat pics

 

Well, it can always be named "The rediculously expensive speed head"....as I'm sure it will be when it hits the market, after our market takes a crap.

I'm pretty interested in seeing the finished product though. I wonder what the price tag will be when its ready.

 

AH HA! By jove!,....so THAT'S where all the counterbalanced cranks went! DAMN!

Damn your English pound! HA!

 

Almost no work on the car this month.

I dug the 2-Port out and all its associated stuff so I could put it up for sale.

Heres the pictures...

 

Someone sent a video response to one of my videos on Youtube of their Banger. Don't know who, what or where but it sounds strong!

 

Those ol' things? We've been weighing them in for scrap...
Well - truth be told, the four banger was used for a whole load more years over here. Plenty of them have a counter-balanced crank in 'em.

 

Well,... This Banger meet is starting out great !!! Lot's of good pics. Keep it up.

 

Hey guys,
I was able to get a running B engine out of a '33 truck to put in my RPU until I can get the stroker worked out.

I'm going to run it as a flattie for now.

What is a good head that is availible today with @ 7:1 compresion ratio?

Thanks

 

Enbloc,
Is that original Riley stuff? Or the Yapp re-issue?
Lots of awesome stuff here.
Thanks!
Jay

 

The head is a new Yapp one.

 

Enbloc,

Disregard that PM as I think C Yapp used used the standard "A" spacing on his mounting hole spacing.

Nice lot of parts you have there. What size are the Winfields?