Hey Guys1 I apologize for not posting these picture earlier. A few months ago, I ask for help on a Only Motor that I have. I have attached pictures for your view. The pictures are of the 206 C.i. Single Cylinder engine. The crankshaft had large heavy flywheels on both side of the cylinder block. The engine would fire and the flywheel would give the car the motion to move. I have since had a gentlemen pass on a sales brochure for the Only Car. Again I apologize for the late reply. I still have not found a single car in exists. There is rumor of a car in a museum up around the great lakes area. Any hints would be appreciated.
Nice link.... After looking at the "Only" I can't help but wonder if someone possibly swapped a Hot Rod motor into that kool looking speedster, thereby freeing your motor???? Neat old engine...
Try and do 60mph with your 12hp lawnmower...sheesh...that's impressive for a 12hp single cylinder motor...
I've recently been doing some in-depth research on the Only and the races it entered with the single-cylinder engine. Could I contact you? An address for me would be Research (the at sign) StanleyRegister (the dot) net Thanks!
The OP (@ziegld1 just in case) hasn't been on since 2017. After you have a few more more posts, you could try opening a conversation with him. If he still gets email notifications, you might get lucky. Otherwise, you'll have to find him somewhere else online.
But then remember that "horsepower" is just a calculated number based on torque and RPM, and that engine, at low RPM, would be a chugger. The early D9 CAT was rated at less than 300 hp, but that rating was at around 1200 RPM
Well this car is only 8 horsepower: In the early days cars were often rated using "Taxable Horsepower" and other not too useful measurements. So perhaps the Only car was rated a similar way. If it were rated in the same way as the above English Ford, then its bore and stroke would have been 5.477" x 8.744".
@Boneyard51 My dad used to have a similar D6 with a dozer, all cable run. Pull start pony motor. What you show is the hi-tech version with a cover on top
Yep, that’s our old D9 we used to use on the ranch! It is a hoss, we mainly use my D-6 B now. The old D9 has some starter issues. Bones
The old SAE HP rating was D² x N ÷ 2.5 x PS. So: bore Diameter squared x Number of cylinders ÷ 2.5 x Piston Speed in 1000ft/min. In regular use, this was often shortened to D² x N ÷ 2.5. A pretty good guess for the Only is a bore of 5.5 inches: 30.25 ÷ 2.5 = 12.1. Since I don't know the Only's piston speed, this will have to do. It is interesting that the SAE rating would come up with almost the same bore as the British rating. The piston speed seems to work out to approximate the stroke, at least in regards to the ratings. I would have guessed that the stroke was shorter than 8.75".
Amazing how the old beasties clean up with a couple days' work, scours the rust off. My stepdads old cable D6 was also rope-pull start, only because he was too cheap to buy a new battery for it
It’s amazing what they will push.........and what will stop them in their tracks! We have used this one for 25 years! Others for sixty years on the ranch. Never get tired of watching them work! Bones
Here's some more on the Only. First, it was designed by a man named Francois Richard, whose previous "good idea" was to bolt two Fiat racing engines together, apparently to make a car that would go twice as fast. In reality it wouldn't go at all. That mile-long intake manifold resulted in condensed fuel, even on the Florida beach.
Apart from barely running, the thing shook so much that it actually dug itself into the sand. Vanderbilt didn't pay the last $5,000 of the $19,000 contract. Richard sued him for that, and got $1,250. The jury didn't have much sympathy for his expense report of $1,400 for the Ormond week, which he explained by saying "I met many Frenchmen there."
Then Richard decided to build a one-cylinder car. People assumed he was following a French pattern typified by the Sizaire-Naudin. He designed an immense single cylinder, 5-1/8" bore and a 10" stroke, making 206 CI. 3.4 liters in one cylinder... my 903cc Fiat Spider is aghast. The piston rod big end ran between two counterweighted flywheels. There must have been tremendous torque - at least for 1/4 of the time. He called it the Only, and formed the Only Car Co. in Port Jefferson, NY. Not sure why the plug wire is wound around the intake pipe - some sort of ionic plasma fuel droplet alignment, no doubt. Your certainly wouldn't want to use a carburetor that relied on any kind of continuous airflow. Fortunately M. Richard was also a carburetor inventor. He created something that had 3 jets, for low, intermediate, and high speeds. Later on he invented a kerosene carburetor, too.
A few cars were built. One ran a hillclimb in Port Jefferson, on June 25, 1910. It did get up the hill, but it had the 34th fastest time out of 39 runs. They promptly entered it in a 10-mile free-for-all at Brighton Beach on July 23, running against the likes of Caleb Bragg in a Fiat and Louis Disbrow in a Knox. Reporting at the time observed that the Only "could hardly be classed as dangerous." Maybe only insomuch as it would have been blocking traffic...
Somehow they managed to have a dealer in Cleveland, an one in Los Angeles who was a real firecracker. The LA guy actually got a car, and entered it in a couple of races. The boldest move seemed to be putting it in the 202 mile race at Santa Monica on Nov. 24. He was out on the very first lap with a seized piston or broken crankshaft - maybe both, considering what the amount of inertia in those flywheels would do if the piston suddenly stopped. Apparently there were enough parts to fix it, because on January 14, 1911, he was scheduled to run a special race on the LA board track for "1 cylinder against 4." The 4 was a Staver. There was a lot of racing reported for that day, but the Only vs. Staver race was not mentioned.
This is fun stuff! We can look back on it and laugh at some of the crazy thinking that went on, but the technology was still in its infancy, and nobody really knew what would work until they tried it.
I just did a little digging and it appears that the OP passed away in 2017. I'm gonna need a heckuva PM...
The ONLY engine described by the OP is in the engine collection of the Speedway Motors Museum of American Speed - https://www.museumofamericanspeed.com/engines.html . The OP used to do research for them. The photos in the first post were taken at the museum.
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