Take the wheels off and it would make a good sled too. Cracking car, so many uses. Love the wood. Those 50's, rocket shaped pointy lights are a
nice touch too.
First I saw was Gary Sander's Dax Rush Blade.
My Suzuki RF900 Rush was stared 2002, having seen the Blade and Turbo hayabusa Dax Rush well before I started.
I guessing Gary's blade could of be around in 2000.
I think he also had the first Gas turbine powered Seven.
quote:
When I first went to Sylva about 1992 I enquired about using a gsxr1100 engine. The responds was negative, it would never work and no point trying..
Hindsight eh??
They said the same to Da Vinci. You were ahead of your time Coozer!
And John Cooper built a prototype 500cc race car in 1946 with a Jap Speedway engine. How far do you want to go back?
Year Mk No. Type
1946 Prototype (T2/T3) Prototype 500 for John Cooper (T2) & Eric Brandon (T3).
1947 Mk I (T4) Sports car based on 500 chassis with Triumph twin engine.
1948 Mk II (T5) 1st production run of twelve cars (ten 500cc and two long chassis, 1,000cc).
1949 Trailer (T8) A trailer for 500cc racing cars using 500 wheels and brakes for use as spares.
1949 Mk III (T7/T9) T7 500 cc production model. T9 stretched chassis, larger tank and 998cc.
1950 Mk IV (T11/T12) FIA Introduces Formula 3. 500 cc production model (T11). Long chassis (T12).
1951 Mk V (T15/T16/T17) Detachable body panels, box section chassis frame, rack & pinion steering, side tanks. Long chassis version for 1
litre engine (T16) Streamlined car for record attempts (T17).
1952 Mk VI (T18/T19) Multi tubular chassis, magnesium rear uprights, magnesium final drive housing. 500 cc production model (T18) 1 litre, long
chassis (T19).
1953 Mk VII (T26/T27) Newton & Bennett shock absorbers replaced with Armstrong. 500 cc production car (T26) long chassis, 1,100 cc Formula 2
(T27).
1953 Mk VIIa n/a Francis Beart's modified car, built with co-operation of the works.
1954 Mk VIII (T31/T32/T28) Central scuttle tank, curved tube chassis, "curled leaf" spring, lowered body, revised gearbox mounting,
500cc production cars (T31) 1,100 long chassis (T32). T28 Mk VIII streamlined car.
1955 Mk IX (T36/T37) Single disc brake at rear, flattened springs to reduce ground clearance, modified centre spring mountings, revised engine
mounts. 500cc production cars (T36), long chassis (T37).
1956 Mk X (T42) New Mk number issued for 1956 but almost identical to Mk IX.
1957 Mk XI (T42) New Mk number issued for 1957 but almost identical to Mk X.
1958 Mk XII (T42) New Mk number issued for 1958 but almost identical to Mk XI.
1959 Mk XIII (T42) New Mk number issued for 1959 but almost identical to Mk XII.
quote:Originally posted by jeffw
And John Cooper built a prototype 500cc race car in 1946 with a Jap Speedway engine. How far do you want to go back?
Indeed.
Then, of course, there are the various JAP-engined cars and cyclecars from the 1920's and 30's; Morgan trikes, John Bolster's
'Bloody Mary', the GN specials, etc. I'm pretty sure you could find examples of 'bike engined cars' for as far back as
engines have been distinguishable as being bike-specific.
The way I recall it there was a bit of a post-Cooper resurgence in Hillclimbing when Allan Staniforth swapped his Mini engine for a Honda 750 in one
of his Terrapins, which led to the likes of Jedi becoming very popular and competitive with the car-engined single seaters, but my memory is probably
giving too much credit to Staniforth and forgetting about others who did the same thing.
...so the whole thing has been bubbling away in the background since the dawn of automotive time, but was only useful to very lightweight
single-seaters and cyclecars for many years. It was the emergence of very powerful, relatively large capacity and water cooled superbikes that
expanded viability to Seven-type sportscars.
It's an interesting question, and it would indeed be nice to identify the first use of a bike engine on a front engined, rear wheel drive
'Seven', but the interest is largely academic - it wasn't any great watershed or 'eureka' moment, given the previous
history of BEC racers and cyclecars.
I recall someone trying to sell a bike engined seven type at Stoneleigh, 1990 or before.
It got a lot of attention at the time, and seemed to viewed more as a novelty than a viable proposition, but disappeared into the ether. If only we
could see the future.
Well, as the discussion above proved, Pat Jackson didn't get close to building the first Bike Engined Car (1998 is a long time after 1946). He
may have been the person to put a Bike Engine in a 7 clone for the first time although I still suspect Mark Fisher was the first with a BEC kitcar in
the 'modern era'.
