Coldplugs - Pieces and Engines


This is the Alfa Romeo cylinder head being reassembled. You can also see most of the chrome parts laying around. This was a 1300cc 4 cylinder. Ours had a single Solex carb - the more exotic Veloce model had dual Webers. We tried a single Weber downdraft but the Solex seemed better so we reinstalled it.	This picture has a lot of interesting stuff in it. The Alfa block is at the left, laying on its side. Next to it is a Coventry Climax four cylinder SOHC engine as used in various Lotus, Elva, and other small sports-racers. To the right of the Climax and near the bottom of the picture is a Shorrock supercharger for an MG XPAG engine. Above the supercharger, in the cardboard box, is one of the turbine wheels from a Corvair turbocharger (Don't ask...) and the black thing at the far right is some kind of starter motor for a jet engine. These starters were later used for powering dragsters, sort of like gas turbine engines.

The Coventry Climax cam cover - probably the only engine built with a naked lady pictured on it. (Lady Godiva rode through Coventry). These were beautiful, very light, powerful engines. It was originally designed to run a portable fire pump but also became one of the most successful racing engines ever. Most were about 1100cc, although at least one was destroked to 750cc for LeMans in 1957 and later on, a 1216cc version powered the Lotus Elite. The little FWM version was used in an outboard motor!	This engine came with the Kieft Formula 3 car. It was a blown - not supercharged, broken - Triumph 500cc motorcycle engine. It had been nicely prepared, with polished rods and so forth, but it came apart for some reason. As I look at the picture though, I don't see any evidence of a broken rod so we must have gotten two engines with it.

What looks like a junk heap would be a treasure trove today. See if you can find: 1) A BMW 507 hubcap 2) A 1958 Corvette headlight rim 3) A 1957 Ford Skyliner cargo box (or whatever they called the big metal box in the trunk.) 4) An air box for a 3 carb setup All parts guaranteed original.	Same stuff as the picture above, more or less. The OSCA on the trailer has had the nose removed (mostly with a cold chisel). The tires were for the Formula 3 Kieft. At the left you can see the right front wheel of the Bug Kart.

Engines - Including one or two you've never seen, and probably didn't know existed


An incredible collection of engines duded up for display by their manufacturers. The black SU's stuck to the Lea Francis cylinder head are a nice touch. These are in storage and part of the collection in the Museum of British Road Transport in Coventry, England.	A Coventry Climax fire pump. These engines were used in Lotus Elevens, various Elvas, and boatloads of other fifties vintage 1100cc sports-racing cars. This was the first fire pump I'd seen in the flesh.

The opposed cylinder engines pictured here were prototypes built by the Ferguson company for a line of cars they proposed to build. The same Ferguson brought us the lightweight tractor, the three-point hitch, and lots of four wheel drive technology.	American iron. Offenhausers were king of the hill in US oval track racing back in the forties and fifties. This looks like a midget engine - about 97 cubic inches and 140 horsepower. Not many were built but they achieved a remarkable reputation. In the late thirties, midget engines cost about $1200 - big bucks then. This was for sale at Hershey a couple of years ago, for a bit more.

This is a Ford Model T engine with a Frontenac overhead value cylinder head, mounted in a front wheel drive roadster built in 1925 by man named Arthur Nichols in Massachusetts. The car, with a radiator from an Italian airplane, windshield fashioned from a Mack truck unit, and an oak frame, is absolutely beautiful.	The other side of the Ford engine installation. You can see the cables used to operate the "pedals" that are mounted backwards at the front. The front end appeared to be Ford based, although it had a tube locating the wheels themselves. It is the only car I've ever seen with a De Dion front suspension.

I've always thought that OSCA's 750 is about the prettiest engine ever. This was in car #758.	Cute little Lancia V4. I bought the Jag XK140 instead of this car and always regretted it. I don't think that there are many V-configuration engines with a single cylinder head as this one has. The engine was about a foot long.