The Race Cars

[jonto]

A nice picture.
   Lunch stop at the Royal Huts Hotel during the Autumn one Day Cyclecar Trial,October 29,1913.
   
   
   
   To the right foreground, isn't than the rear of a Sociable? Behind perhaps a Swift, behind again a GWK, back a bit No32 a GN, No1 another Sociable, further back perhaps an AC Fivet and on the left in front of the garage definitely an AC Fivet. In the early days there were many public road events, trials and hill climbs organized by the RAC and regional clubs. Factory cars driven by works personnel were often entered posing as private entries.

[Old Crock]

Some more thoughts on this 1914 racecar’s engine. Was it really a Weller engine?
   
   The Autocar, Nov 1914, shows that AC offered customers both the 10 hp and 12 hp Fivet engines and ‘The Red Book’ (1920) confirms AC offered a 12 hp before the outbreak of the Great War (thus the 12hp was not only post-war as has been suggested elsewhere). Before the war, only the Fivet engine was available for the production cars and, after the war, AC again was buying Fivet engines (that company having trouble supplying demand late 1919, when AC turned to Anzani).
   
   If Weller could design and make a race engine in 1914 then why didn’t he produce a 4-cyl. AC engine for the production line? Indeed, why would he need to turn to Anzani? Would Weller have had the staff and production facilities to build a race engine from scratch, considering the pattern making, castings and so on - just think, for example, of the forging of crank and conrods - a complex business for a one-off (or three off) racecar. Would it be feasible to be considering changing camshafts and cylinder heads for carbs and exhaust to be placed on opposite sides from one car to the next? Very complex and surely we cannot be talking of the same engines later used in the 1920 racecars.
   
   Also, this 1914 racecar may not actually have been 1500cc as many cars, with smaller engines, entered and raced in other classes. Also, of interest, is that Fivet did make an engine (after the war at least) with a bore of 69mm = 1495cc.
   
   The picture of the early Fivet engine in Jock Henderson’s ‘The History of AC’ is of poor quality but seems to have a different style head and may have a removable manifold (unlike production engines) – if so, then this may answer the two/four exhaust pipes in the above photos of the car?
   
   It would be incredible if Weller had designed and built a one-off engine from scratch for the race and put this in a primitive crude car that appears quickly put together. Why wouldn’t he modify a Fivet engine that was readily available to him?
   
   I may be completely wrong, these are just thoughts, and the answer will be to find a magazine, like ‘The Motor’ of the time,  that may give more information on this little-known car and what engine was actually used.

[jonto]

There's an old expression, 'cant see the wood for the trees', or is it the other way round in this case :-)
   There's an important point that's being overlooked, the car was crab tracked, narrow at the rear, this makes it mechanically special indeed. In the frontal picture you can see the steering box drop arm and its forward mounting with transverse drag link, that could be an adapted production item, the six stud hubs and artillery wheels too are standard, as for the rest of it...

[jonto]

The second AC race car, Harry Hawkers single seater.
   
   
   This Motor Sport article is worth reading-
   http://www.motorsportmagazine.com/archive/article/october-1998/48/harry-hawker-aviatorracing-driver

[jonto]

The following quotes are taken from-
   
   "H. G. Hawker, airman: his life and work", Muriel Hawker 1922
   this book is out of copyright and can be downloaded here-
   
   https://archive.org/stream/hghawkerairmanhi00hawkrich/hghawkerairmanhi00hawkrich_djvu.txt
   
   The PDF file is I think the best as you get the pictures to.
   
   These quotes could do with dating, the narrative moves around a little covering different activities.

[jonto]

The first mention of the car-
   
    It was never amusing to be towed home by Harry, as I know
   well from experience. Once at Brooklands the 6-cylinder A.C.,
   then in its experimental stage, had broken something while on
   the track, and Harry offered its driver, Victor Bruce, a tow home
   on his own racing A.C., then fitted with a two-seater body. Just
   before starting, a little delay was caused by someone taking the
   passenger seat on the 6-cylinder A.C. for a lift home, which said
   seat was apparently booked by another member of a little gang of
   speed merchants who forgather at Brooklands, called generally
   "Moir," although he has other and very nice names. The
   gentleman having been placed gently but firmly on his feet by Moir,
   he started to walk up the hill from the paddock towards the gate.
   Harry, having tied the six-cylinder on behind with a bit of
   thin string he had found lying about, we started off, accelerating
   to take the hill. Halfway up, just passing the seat-usurper, to
   whom Moir, standing on the seat that he could be better seen, was
   bowing with that courtly manner lost to us centuries ago, the
   string broke through the jerk in changing gear, and the bow had
   a sudden and undignified ending. However, in a very up-to-
   date manner, the gentlemen assisted in replacing him, and the rest
   of the homeward journey, with the same string, only much shorter,
   leaving a couple of feet between the two cars, was of sufficiently
   diverting a nature to remedy any discomfort that might have been
   felt from the bruises. Harry and I being very late for something
   that night, we hurried, making a run home in record time, which
   time I should hate to see in print.
   
   This is followed by accounts of preps for the Atlantic attempt and the date of leaving for Newfoundland, March 28th 1919. But as I said the book is not necessarily describing events in chronological order.

[jonto]

The second mention of the car is on August 2th 1920
   On Monday morning I decided to go to town, praying
   that something might happen to prevent his driving the car. (450hp Sunbeam).
   Arriving at Surbiton, I found the only car in the garage was the
   racing A.C. before it had come into fame, which I managed to
   start, and arrived at Brooklands past the time of the Sunbeam's
   first race. I found Harry and Mr. Coatalen beside the car, which had not
   been out, as its first race had been passed over through wetness
   of the track.  Surprised at seeing me, Harry told me to cheer up he had had
   some laps in the morning and she was running beautifully.

[jonto]

The third mention of the car-
   
   On September 4th, the date of the Junior Car Club's Autumn
   Meeting, Harry, in entering an A.C. car which he had lately
   acquired, was to have made his first attempt at light car racing.
   His entry was received and accepted, and it was not until the
   cars were lined up in the paddock prior to entering the track that
   the gods that be decided not to permit him to race as the car
   was not standard. The car was a new 4-cylinder overhead valve
    model which the A.C. Company had made with a view to a fast
   standard sports model production, and the race was for standard cars only.

[jonto]

Now there is a discourse on the history of the development of Harry's AC, this comes after dealing with the liquidation of the Sopwith company and the formation of Hawker Engineering.
   
   In the meantime Harry had been working hard at every spare
   moment on his A.C., the acquisition of which is very interesting.
   One day in the summer Harry went for a short run with one of
   the directors of Messrs. A.C. in a new model fitted with an over- head valve engine. It was purely an experimental production,
   and after the run Harry wanted to see the drawings. He immedi-
   ately saw possibilities as a racing car, and then and there wantedto
   buy it.
   
   I suggest that this was probably the 1914 car unless someone can find that another ohv racing AC existed in 1919 or (very)early 1920.

[jonto]

He did buy it, and then followed months of real hard
   work, bringing in its wake alternate successes and disappoint-
   ments. From the moment he brought the car home there was little
   rest for all concerned with it, his own energy and enthusiasm
   being enormous. The engine was hurried into a standard sports
   chassis and headed for Brooklands in a remarkably short space of
   time, to be back again for modification almost as quickly.
   
   Why would a new chassis be needed if this was post war built car? This new chassis would be the 1919 model with quarter ecliptic front springs. Was the straight tubular axle fitted at this time? The car had it after its second rebuild into single seater form, it used six cyl stub axles as you can see in the drawings, they are the same as those on an early six axle I have. What of the back axle? Cant imagine he would use a standard three speed wide ratio one, the car had its diffless solid racing axle as a single seater, now with the brakes moved inboard. Interestingly the car retained the six stud hubs and artillery wheels right to the end of its carrier with Harry. A picture of the car after its first rebuild is needed.

[Old Crock]

In 1919 AC exhibited the new six-cylinder engine in both 1500 and 2 litre form. In 1921 it was shown as a complete car but further development went on before the six-cylinder was offered in 1923.
   
   The race car of Hawker in 1921 was described as a four-cylinder 1500 version of Weller’s Six. In the same year, for example for the 200 mile race, five four-cylinder cars were entered by AC with both Anzani (x 2) and Weller engines (x 3). These, and Joyce’s car of the following year (and I believe Kaye Don’s), had by then, 4 valves per cylinder.
   
   Regarding the above and dates:
   Quote ‘…Harry went for a short run with one of the directors of Messrs. A.C. in a new model fitted with an over-head valve engine. It was purely an experimental production’ unquote
   This could well have been a Six for experimental production or, I have read, Weller had worked on an experimental four-cylinder for production of a Sports Model (though how far this got I do not know…and it may have involved the race engine design anyway), however, in either case, Hawker may have gone out in one of these or, if a race car, it could well have been one of AC’s cars for the 200 mile race.
   
   Muriel’s second mention of the AC racecar, in late 1920, actually could be an Anzani-engined car or the new Weller design.
   
   Weller’s four-cylinder race engine of the early 20’s was four-cylinder, 16-valves and ohc. It showed strong resemblance to the Six, especially the castings, and it was suggested that Weller intended this four for production in numbers. As recorded above, even the stub axles of Hawker’s car are from a Six. This is why I suggest that development of this race engine went alongside the Six, and together with carbs/exhaust etc. (in postings above), unlikely a progression from the 1914 racecar.

[jonto]

There is no indication that Harry Hawker ever had more than the one AC.Harry's car was running on the road when the six was still under development. It went through two rebuilds before as a single seater it did 105mph over the half mile on June 3rd 1921. The works race cars that ran in the two hundred mile race some three months later were iron head two valve single ignition for the ohc cars and the other two tuned up Anzani production chassis.
   Can I ask you to go back and read through the posts again.
   There is more to say yet.

[Old Crock]

quote:Originally posted by jonto
   
Harry's car was running on the road when the six was still under development.

That is what I've said in the last posting
   

quote:Originally posted by jonto
The works race cars that ran in the two hundred mile race some three months later were iron head two valve single ignition for the ohc cars and the other two tuned up Anzani production chassis.

Not according to John McLellan, AC historian and author of many papers and books on AC cars (e.g. the excellent 'AC and Cobra'). He writes that the three Weller-engined 1921 JCC 200-mile racecars were 'built in a similar specification to the Hawker car but with a shorter wheelbase and splayed front springs they were geared to do 25mph per 1000rpm. Engines were four cylinders 16-valve single overhead camshaft units' etc.
   
   I note that McLellan says also of the Hawker car 'in it was a four cylinder 1500cc version of Weller's wet-liner engine', so another pointer away from the 1914 car.

[jonto]

But which came first, the 4 or the 6?
   
   From the The Autocar, october 1st 1921-
   All three cars are to have four cylinder
   engines with a bore of 69mm and a stroke
   of 100mm, the cylinders being cast in
   aluminium with cast iron liners, aluminium
   pistons and a detachable head.In the head at
   present there are two large valves operated
   by an overhead camshaft, though four valves may be used later....
   
   This is in the future, I'm still in 1920, I aint got there yet!

[jonto]

To continue, Muriel writes-
   
   Many dark days followed. Troubles that would have broken the heart
   of some men followed in what seemed like endless succession.
   In one day he had six gaskets "blow " before he found the right
   means and material to withstand the tremendous pressures
   involved. It does not take much experience to know what this
   means in terms of work, as the gaskets were all hand made, and
   the " head," complete with pipe systems, connections, etc., had
   to come off each time. This trouble over, and a set of pistons with decidedly ambitious tops having been designed and fitted, he proceeded to lap at what were then remarkable speeds indeed, and in spite of the fact that the very necessary parts frequently fell either in or out of the engine, he never lost faith in it. I remember, towing him home for it seemed the hundredth time, saying with a lack of his optimistic patience : " Let's burn the thing and buy a motor- car !" but his cheery reply was: "Never mind, we're really beginning to go now ! " and proceeded to take the motor down
   prior to an all-night siting. Coffee and cakes figured at inter-
   vals in these "all-night jobs," and I expect the neighbours
   wondered if he ever slept.
    On one occasion he walked into the office of Mr. Weller, the
   designer of the engine, at the A.C. Works and, laying a mutilated
   mass of metal down on the desk, exclaimed : " Here you are.
   How's this for an A.C. con. -rod ? How soon can I have another ? "
   One had to be produced, and off down to the track again. He
   fitted stiffer valve-springs and reconsidered the " cam contours,"
   with the result that the speed kept creeping up and curious
   rumours regarding some kind of forced induction floated round
   the paddock, much to his amusement.
    Mr. Weller tells of a very funny incident. When everything
   had been looking promising, one afternoon Harry, smiling as
   usual, came into the office and called him down to the yard.
   "Come and have a look at the engine," he said. "I've got
   something to show you." And he had. Mr. Weller found the
   remains of the precious engine strapped to the back of Harry's
   Rolls-Royce, the body of which he had recently discarded, and
   in the interval of the fitting of the new body ran it for " use,"
   as he called it. A gaping hole was in the crank-case of the engine big enough to put a boot in. Harry then produced a tangled remnant which had once done duty as a connecting-rod, saying : " It shot clean across the track ! I walked back and found it lying on the grass ; it was still warm when I picked it up." It was quite true he
   found it in the exact spot he shed it, but while the design was
   almost identical, on close inspection the stamping number proved
   conclusively that it was not an A.C. rod at all, but some other
   unfortunate who must have gone round just before. As far as
   I know, the proper remains were never found. Even this disaster failed to deter Harry. Although the cross-  shaft was smashed and A.C.'s had no spare crank-case available, he very quickly improvised a bracket and remounted the magneto in front of the engine, where, driven by a chain, it operated very well. A patch was welded on the crank-case and the engine was soon running again with as much " pep " as ever. With the advent of high and sustained speeds the exhaust valves commenced to give trouble. The valve-heads could usually be found reposing on the bottom of the sump, but on one occasion, after a fruitless three-hour search, Harry discovered the valve- head must have gone out through the exhaust-pipe ! Once, as the car was  coming off the Byfleet banking on the track, after a lap or two at speed, unmistakable sounds proclaimed that the " umpteenth " valve-head had broken. It being the day before it was to race at a meeting, it was a very serious matter, but Harry, nothing daunted, mechanically began to tie the rope attaching the A.C. on to the Minerva, saying: "We'll be with them when the flag falls." That his confidence was justified is now a matter of light-car history. The Minerva I have just mentioned was my car, which Harry had had fitted with an enclosed body upholstered in Bedford cord for comfortable winter motoring.
   It degenerated into a travelling workshop for the A.C., which
   little car I always followed proudly to Brooklands, complete with
   tow-rope and spares, and nearly always, less proudly, preceded
   it home, connected by the rope. Soon the A.C. started to reach the 90 miles per hour mark, and it was then that the single-seater streamline chassis was made in which Mr. Weller gave great care to questions of weight distribu- tion as well as the elimination of any external details which might cause resistance. To this chassis Harry designed and built in his works his now famous streamlined body, and in his able hands the success of the combination exceeded everyone's expectations from the start, and at its debut created a sensation in racing
   circles.