Another visit to the Haynes Museum

Haynes Motor Museum Visit. My second visit to the Haynes Motor Museum this year. My first visit was a met up with my brothers and pick up a gearbox for the 2CV van project that was in the same area. That was a nice sunny day. This last visit it was a bit grey and another chance to meet up with my brothers. The museum has bikes and cars and each time I look at something another bit of information is gathered and makes you wonder why the designer and builder has done something the way they did, structurally or style wise. In the entrance were a couple of Austin Sevens a sports model and a family saloon. There were small cars there was room only for children or dwarves in the back. Cheap and cheerful and very successful as a small car and a few technical items in the way the chassis was constructed and leaf spring suspension but more interestingly the choice of engine being only 700cc the design was borrowed from FN and their four cylinder, air cooled motorcycle engine. The Austin engine was water cooled and designed by an eighteen year old Stanley Edge. It was only a two bearing crank with oil mist lubrication to the big ends but worked well enough to propel cars from 1922 to1936 when the three bearing crank was used with full pressure oil feed and that allowed a higher compression ratio producing more power. All this from Jonathan Wood’s “The Austin Seven” Shire Publications limited. Looking around there was a big red American ambulance with a vast array of lights but I also found the information about it quite interesting. In rural areas, not only was the car used as an ambulance, it doubled up as the local hearse. You get ‘em one way or another, Ghost Busters included.

In the red area are all the red sports cars and what amazes me is how fast they were in the thirties. I think the sports cars from the fifties and sixties had a certain style with lots of curves like this Daimler Dart that looked fast even being used by the Police as a pursuit car. That didn’t last long as the bosses thought the constables were having too much fun. Spoil sports! Should have let them go around on Thunderbirds and in pairs like CHIPS.

I am impressed by the motorcycle displays and the Forshaw collection of speedway bikes and memorabilia. The remaining display is dwarfed by it. One of the reasons for getting down to Sparkford was to talk to someone about displaying an LE that was in the London Motorcycle Museum. I was there one Sunday as Bonham’s were collecting some of the bikes for the Auction on 19th and 20th October. One that was going was the Greenford Police LE that I had spent so much time putting back together and although assembled and running still needed wiring and some fettling to get it roadworthy. So now I have to find a suitable place to show the LE Club, London Branch, Mk3 bike and meeting up with someone from the Haynes Museum to see if we could place the bike there. Space anywhere is a premium so it is not just ask and it happens there is a process of assessment and decision making that goes through Trustees and all that takes time. Part of which is getting the history of the bike together along with photos. I have much to do on that side of things. Having thought of what people think of an LE like it’s so odd when I see a speedway bike there are a number of similarities, do your own comparison against my LE.

In Bristol there is an engineering firm that I trust and used them before for jobs part of my project is to have raised suspension on the van and need to lengthen the drive shafts, only by about 40mm. On a 2CV you use the female inner driveshafts. A section is removed from one shaft and welded to another all kept in line when welded by using the male outer driveshaft.

While away for the weekend the cover of the van disintegrated and I needed to get something as a replacement. I used the fabric from an old gazebo and some bungee cord to secure it. Although it does not cover all the body it is enough to protect the rear glassfibre bit.

I have the EL Cid, the cover of which is falling apart and needs to be replaced. That also was a gazebo roof. I looked on line for the car cover fabric and that does not seem to be available anywhere as an alternative I bought an enormous breathable caravan cover on e-bay for £50 delivered and now I fighting with this voluminous thing to try to make some sense out of it to construct a suitable cover. Three dimensional thinking required here. How do you cut an elasticated edge without loosing the elasticity? More things to deal with!