Tag Archives: 12

Auctioneers Commercial – Austin 12 Pick Up

Austin 12 Pick Up, Castle Combe

Today’s featured 1928 Austin 12 Pick Up is a regular visitor to the Castle Combe race circuit.

Austin 12 Pick Up, Castle Combe

This vehicle is powered by a 1861 cc / 113.5 cui 4 cylinder motor, the same as the Austin 12, later known as Heavy 12, motor cars.

Austin 12 Pick Up, Castle Combe

Austin 12’s were manufactured from 1921 to 1939 with a variety of body styles, the taxi version being the last and only version available from 1935 to 1939.

Austin 12 Pick Up, Castle Combe

In the late 1960’s an Austin 12 entered Children’s popular culture thanks to the Hungarian born writer and illustrator Val Biro’s illustrated Gumdrop books fictional stories based on the real Austin 12 that he owns.

Thanks for joining me on this “Auctioneers Commercial” edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’, I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Hot Cam – 8/45 Double 12 MG Midget

Today’s featured 8/45 Double 12 MG Midget and it’s earlier 8/33 incarnation are credited with saving MG from ruin when sales of it’s larger 18/80 models started to falter in the wake of the great economic depression at the end of the 1920’s and early 1930’s.

8/45 Double 12, MG Midget, Brooklands Double Twelve

For the M-Type as the Midget was known MG returned to it’s roots of manufacturing upgraded Morris vehicles, in this case upgrading a Morris Minor chassis which included lowering the suspension for better road holding and tweaking the brakes to cope with the mildly tuned 4 cylinder Morris Minor motor.

8/45 Double 12, MG Midget, Brooklands Double Twelve

A team of slightly modified midgets with a hot cam won the JCC Brooklands Double Twelve race in May 1930 and subsequently what became known as the Double 12 cam was fitted to production cars such as the 1931 example seen here. 3,235 M-Type midgets are thought to have been built between 1929 and 1931 when the model was superseded by the J-type.

Colin Reynolds, who is seen at the wheel, recorded the fastest overall times in the various tests at the recent Brooklands Double 12 meeting.

Thanks for joining me on this “Hot Cam” edition of edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Wobbly Web Wheels – Lotus 12

Despite only being fitted with mock up engine and all new rear transaxle made of wood the Lotus 12 with a chassis made of Reynolds 531 tubing looked sensational to the select members of the press lucky enough to it in the stable block at the back of a hotel in Hornsey in October 1956.

Lotus 12

Lotus 12, Goodwood Festival of Speed, June 2011

The space frame chassis had independent wishbone suspension on the front and was to be powered by a 4 cylinder Coventry Climax motor built to meet the then second tier Formula 2 regulations. The gearbox mounted to the rear transaxle was to feature a sequential shift as used on motor cycles.

Lotus 12

Lotus 12, Goodwood Festival of Speed, June 2011

Typical of designer Colin Chapmans maxim to add lightness the magnesium ‘wobbly web’ wheels, inspired by a design Colin had seen on a US military aircraft, were fitted with six wheel nuts instead of the more common central knock off nut because Formula 2 races did not, as a general rule, require pit stops to change tyres and the six small wheel nuts weighed less than the one knock off nut.

Lotus 12

Lotus 12, Goodwood Festival of Speed, 2011

Colin Chapmans first foray into open wheel racing under his own Lotus banner while innovative was not as successful in 1957 as had been the Vanwall for which Colin had designed the chassis, but this did not prevent him from fitting the 12 with an oversize version of the Formula 2 Coventry Climax engine and running two examples at the Monaco Grand Prix in 1958 for Graham Hill and a second F2 spec car for Cliff Allinson to mark Lotus first entry into the top Formula One tier of the sport.

Lotus 12

Lotus 12, Goodwood Festival of Speed, 2011

The first two Lotus 12’s featured de Dion suspension but Chapman refined his design by fitting his own version of the Macpherson struts fitted with universal joints that became known as the Chapman strut, a system also used on the Lotus Elise. In Formula One races the Lotus 12 scored some promising sixth place finishies and a remarkable 4th place in Belgium but the most important Colin Chapman was now playing on the big stage where he would leave an indelible mark right up until his untimely demise im 1982.

Thanks for joining me on this Wobbly Web edition of ‘Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres’ I hope you will join me again tomorrow when we will be looking at a big cat. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Interim Model – Rover 75 P3

In 1878 the Rover Company was founded as Starley & Sutton Co. of Coventry which by 1885 had developed the template for the modern bicycle in the form of the Rover Safety Bicycle.

Rover 75 P3, Atwell Wilsom MM

From 1904 still using the Rover Marque brand the company started building motor cars and motorcycles.

Rover 75 P3, Atwell Wilsom MM

After World War 2 Rover moved to it’s Solihull factory where it had engaged in building aircraft for the war effort, since it’s car plant in Coventry had been wiped out by bombing during the hostilities. The interim P3, launched in 1948, was Rovers first post war model.

Rover 75 P3, Atwell Wilsom MM

The Rover 75 version of the P3 was powered by a novel new six cylinder motor that featured overhead inlet valves and side exhaust valves that had been developed prior to the commencement of hostilities in 1939.

Rover 75 P3, Atwell Wilsom MM

The styling combined elements of the pre war Rover 12 and 16 but only the Rover 12 wings and bonnet were carried over from the narrower earlier designs.

Rover 75 P3, Atwell Wilsom MM

The unitary monocoque design, requiring no independent chassis, featured independent front suspension and hybrid hydraulic / mechanical brakes.

Rover 75 P3, Atwell Wilsom MM

This the 75 body style seen here was known as a light six saloon and cost a relatively expensive £1106, £ 26 more than the similar 4 cylinder ‘Sports Saloon’ known as the Rover 60.

Rover 75 P3, Atwell Wilsom MM

From 1948 – 1949 7,837 Rover 75’s were produced before the all new P4 vehicle was introduced.

Rover 75 P3, Atwell Wilsom MM

The engine and gearbox of the P3 formed the basis of the very first agricultural all terrain ‘Land Rover’ conceived in 1947. Note the vehicle above built in times of material austerity features a cyclops third head light but only one wing mirror.

This particular P3 can be seen at the Atwell Wilson Motor Museum in Calne.

Thanks for joining me on this ‘overhead and side valve’ edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil psycho on tyres’, I hope you’ll join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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