54 replies to this topic

[plannerpower]

Herr Kaaden may have been a genius but the principle of exhaust scavenging was, as far as I know, first used in the Crossley gas engine of 1892.

 

This engine had a 65-foot exhaust pipe (presumably commensurate with its low rpm) and the pipe was "stepped"  to provide a reflection that arrived at the exhaust port at the appropriate time to assist in scavenging the cylinder.

[P0wderf1nger]

I am sure Paul will be along soon to wrap this one up, and I don't want to steal his thunder

http://www.amazon.co...mherst villiers

and he tells the story better than I do!!

Well Steve, it's taken seven months for me to see your invitation, but here I am, finally contributing to the TNF thread I have the greatest affection for. I’m not sure I can tell the story any better than you – it was you who corroborated what I’d learned!

 

The trail starts in the Bonhams tent after the 2006 Goodwood Revival auction. I introduced myself to DCN, told him I was going to write Amherst Villiers’ biography, and asked him did he know any old acquaintances of Amherst, who by then had been dead some 15 years. He suggested I track down Hugo Spowers, who has made the annals of TNF in the past (check out Weird FFord car), and who today runs Riversimple, which is aiming to productionise a hydrogen fuel cell car. Hugo’s mother, the sculptor Antonia Spowers, was part of Amherst’s social circle in Kensington, and Hugo was impressed and inspired by the old boy.

 

When I had dinner with him some weeks later, Hugo related that Amherst had worked with Graham Hill’s Embassy Hill outfit in 1975. The Cosworth DFV had won 80 or so GPs by that point, and would win almost as many again, but Hugo explained that Amherst had concluded he could rid the engine of what he perceived was inconsistent flow through the cylinder head by fitting a brass one – incidentally, this was news to Tony Nicholson, whose Nicholson-McLaren engines the Hill team were using: he thought it was a wonderful story, but felt the increased weight and higher centre of gravity would have made it a non-starter.

 

And then Hugo staggered me by explaining that Amherst switched from this to designing a turbocharged, four-cylinder, two-stroke, 1.5-litre engine. ‘His reasoning was simple’, said Hugo. ‘With a four-stroke you get a bang every second revolution, whereas with a two-stroke you get a bang every time the piston comes up, so you have more bangs per stroke.’ Hugo understood Amherst had a team of draughtsmen working on the detailed design in an office in Richmond upon Thames, which would have been handily placed between his Holland Street home and the Hill works in Feltham, but the project was aborted by Hill’s fatal air crash.

 

I related all this back to Doug, who started this thread, and at post 23, Steve came forward and provided a second source about the engine, again directly received from Amherst. Steve had gone round to Holland Street to interview Amherst about land speed record cars, and while the cameraman went back to the van to get more film … well go on, Steve, you finish the story!       

[Catalina Park]

Well come on Steve, we're waiting...

Very interesting stuff Paul. How does someone in Australia get a copy of your book?

[P0wderf1nger]

Well come on Steve, we're waiting...

Very interesting stuff Paul. How does someone in Australia get a copy of your book?

I'm confident he'll be quicker than me, Michael. He's in transit, heading home for Christmas, and he knows I've set him up.

 

I'm doing the Villiers books at half price. Ray Bell bought one earlier in the year from me. I'll check what the postage was on that one and ping you an PM.

 

Rgds

 

Paul 

[f1steveuk]

I will respond, but I just have to drive 650 miles home first, leave it with me!