Tag Archives: Model

Unable To See Anyway – Marmon Wasp #199753

Howard Marmon founded the Marmon Motor Company which was owned by Nordyke Marmon & Company of Indianapolis, Indiana in 1902.

By 1909, the year Indianapolis Motor Speedway, IMS, held it’s first events, Marmon were manufacturing a 32hp 270 cui four cylinder Model 32.

I believe Bruce Keen led a trio of such cars to 3rd, 4th and 5th place finishes in the 1909 300 mile Wheeler-Schebler Trophy Race that was called after 235 miles, when the track began to break up and Bruce had struck a pot hole and struck a bridge support that gave his mechanician James Schiller a fractured skull.

Marmon Wasp, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

Jackson driver Leigh Lynch was running 14 laps clear of the Marmons when the race was called, though the trophy was withheld and victory never officially declared out of respect for the two spectators and mechanician Claude Kellum who were killed in an earlier accident involving Charlie Merz’s #10 National.

Over the winter IMS repaved it’s fragile track surface with 3.2 million 10 lb Indiana bricks, earning the venue it’s Brickyard nick name and the performance of the four cylinder Marmons improved such that Ray Haroun won the now 200 mile 1910 Wheeler-Schebler race in his #33 Marmon and became the first official winner of the Tiffany designed Trophy.

During the same winter of 1909/10 founder and chief engineer Howard Marmon working with Ray Harroun, also a mechanical engineer known as “The Little Professor”, developed two Model 32 chassis into open wheel race cars for the 1910 AAA season for races permitting non stock vehicles.

Marmon Wasp, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

On today’s featured car, which became known as the Marmon Wasp, built to compete in the under 450 cui open class two extra cylinders were added to the Model 32 four cylinder engine bring it’s capacity up to 447 cui / 7,325 cc.

I suspect the lesser known and sleeker Marmon Yellow Jacket was built to compete in the under 300 cui open class, Ray won the 1910 Remy Brassard Trophy for such cars at Indy, but otherwise I know next to nothing about it other than it first appeared being tested in March 1910, if you know anything about this car please do not hesitate to chime in below.

Two days after his victory in the Wheeler-Schebler Trophy and on the same day as his Remy Brassard win, while testing the #32 Wasp at Indianapolis a tyre blew entering the north east turn which sent Ray and the Wasp into the wall at a reported 78 miles an hour.

Marmon Wasp, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

The damage looked worse than it was and in June 1910 the Marmon concern were reported as being “much elated” at how easily the Wasp was repaired, I believe Ray drove it to victory in three open class races at the opening meeting at Churchill Downs, otherwise known as the home of the Kentucky Derby, in 1910.

During the course of 1910 Ray also won the 200 mile race at Atlanta, and 100 mile race at Playa del Rey in Los Angeles and at the end of the year Chris G. Sinsabaugh, an editor at Motor Age named Ray as de facto National Champion based on merit and Ray’s race performances, this was not a title recognised by the AAA contest board who did not keep any score of points for a championship at that time.

In 1911 IMS switched from running a multi weekend multi race strategy to running a single race every year on Decoration Day, known as Memorial Day since 1967, weekend called the International 500-Mile Sweepstakes or Indy 500 that these days is marketed with the strap line “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing”.

Marmon Wasp, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

For the first running of the Indy 500 the Wheeler-Schebler Trophy was replaced by the Borg Warner trophy and the race was open to cars with a maximum engine capacity of 600 cui / 9832 cc that competed for $25,000 in prize money with $10,000 going to the winner.

Ray Harroun had wanted to stop driving race cars at the end of 1910, but was persuaded by Marmon to drive the Wasp one more time, he said he had been offered a dozen other drives for the inaugural Indy 500 and chose the Wasp, that had one of the smallest engines of any car in the race, only because he had never opened it up to it’s maximum potential in 1910 and that he was knew he was not experimenting with anything untried.

Forty cars met the 75 mph qualifying speed required from a flying start along a 1/4 mile distance of the front straight and Ray’s 28th starting position was determined, as were all the others, by the order the entries, of the qualifiers were, received in.

Marmon Wasp, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

During the month of practice for the 500 The Little Professor determined that by running at as close to 75 mph laps as possible his reduced tyre wear would give him a race winning advantage over the whole race distance.

Before the race objections from his fellow competitors, to his running without a riding mechanician who could warn him of vehicles approaching from behind, saw Ray fit a 3″ by 8″ mirror over the cockpit cowling so that he could see his competitors.

Running his 75 mph laps as planned Ray handed the Wasp, running in second place to the #28 FIAT driven by David Bruce – Brown, over to his relief driver 22 year old Cyrus Patschke on lap 64.

Marmon Wasp, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

Cyrus was instructed to follow the #28 FIAT for 35 laps before coming in to hand the Wasp back over to Ray, with Ray back behind the wheel David’s relentless pace eventually led to a blow out which handed the lead and eventual victory to Ray in the #32 Wasp.

After changing just four Firestone tyres, three of them offside rears, Ray was credited with a total race time of 6 hours, 42 minutes 8 seconds and an average speed of 74.602 miles per hour, despite an official timing wire being broken during a mid race accident meaning that laps 138 through 176 were not officially recorded !

Ralph Mulford driving a Lozier had changed 14 tyres during the race, losing an estimated 14 mins in the pits, on his way to a second place finish.

Marmon Wasp, Goodwood Festival of Speed,

After the race 32 year old Ray announced that 500 miles was “too long a race for one man” and that he was retiring permanently because racing was “too dangerous”.

Ray Harroun, still second in the all time IMS winners list with eight victories recorded between 1905 and 1911, stayed retired from the drivers seat and initially continued working for Marmon until switching to Maxwell, he then worked for the company he founded bearing his own name from 1917 to 1922 before joining Lincoln Products in 1927, he retired from the motor industry aged 79 and passed away a week after his 89th birthday in 1968.

Ray is seen in Ed Arnaudin’s photo below reunited with the Wasp for the 50th anniversary Indy 500 celebrations in 1961, he later admitted that the vibrations caused by the brick surface of the track ensured he “could not see anything anyway” in his innovative rear view mirror.

Marmon Wasp, Ray Harroun, Indianapolis Motor Speedway,

Cyrus Patschke also had a spell at the wheel of the 5th placed Joe Dawson #31 Marmon during the 1911 Indy 500, but never raced at Indy again.

Joe Dawson became the second Indy 500 winner driving for another Indianapolis manufacturer National in 1912.

The Marmon Wasp was kept by Marmon until the 1950’s when it was acquired by the IMS museum and restored by the museum staff AJ Fairbairn, Wilhelm “Bill” Spoerle and Barney Wimmer in 1989.

During the Indy 500 centenary celebrations in May 2011 the Wasp was driven by 1963 Indy winner Parnelli Jones and threw a rod through the block, a botched hasty repair made the problem worse and when the photo’s at Goodwood Festival of Speed were taken in June 2011 the car was not a runner, repairs were effected in 2012 that restored the car to running condition.

Marmon kept manufacturing cars culminating in the Worlds Most Advanced Car until going into receivership in 1933, Jeep designer Arthur William Sidney Herrington rescued the name, which still operates as Marmon Herrington and Marmon Group, initially for various commercial and military vehicle projects but now focuses on axle manufacture and the conversion of vehicles to all wheel drive.

My thanks to Steve Arnaudin for kindly scanning and forwarding the photograph taken at Indy in 1961 that was taken by his late father Ed Arnaudin.

Thanks for joining me on this “Unable To See Anyway” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again for Mercedes Monday tomorrow.

Hands Up ! – MG KN Univesity Motors Speed Model Magnette #KN 0440

Every once in a while I learn something quite shocking, namely how easy it is to deceive myself into thinking I know something only to find with hind sight that I know nothing at all. Today I am sticking both hands up high in the air and admitting I was wrong, quite wrong and I hope you will accept my humble apologies for any confusion caused.

MG KN University Motors Speed Model, Brooklands Double Twelve

The instance occurred a couple of days ago when I was trying to identify some MG’s I found that a vehicle I thought was a K Type was actually an Type NA, then to my horror I found out that a Type NA that I wrote a blog about some months ago turns out to be one of 200 type KN’s and a University Motors Speed Model Magnette to boot, that is the car I am featuring today which I incorrectly identified in a September blog as a Type NA.

MG KN University Motors Speed Model, Brooklands Double Twelve

The MG KN was a factory built car featuring a K type saloon body and chassis but with a larger 1271 cc motor from the later MG N type.

MG KN University Motors Speed Model, Brooklands Double Twelve

Today’s featured car which was seen at Brooklands last year is a variation of the factory built saloon featuring the K type chassis and K1 4 seat tourer body.

MG KN University Motors Speed Model, Brooklands Double Twelve

These cars were assembled and sold by Univesity Motors, the main dealer in South East England as the University Motors Speed Model Magnette.

MG KN University Motors Speed Model, Brooklands Double Twelve

The enlarged motor aside there are few differences between the original K1 tourer and the University Motors Speed Model Magnette apart from the headlight mountings and some interior trim details.

MG KN University Motors Speed Model, Brooklands Double Twelve

In all 171 K1 saloon and four seat tourers were built while 201 KN Saloon’s and University Motors Speed Model Magnettes were built between 1934 and 1936.

Apologies again for any confusion caused.

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

Comic Discovery – Hudson Suburban Sedan

1 Reply

Back on Independence Day during the Rally organised by the Bristol Pegasus Motor Club I came across this delightful 1935 Hudson, unfortunately I did not get any details about the car from the owner at the time so I have had another carcaeology session to discover more.

This Hudson chassis #533370, with blue body work probably marketed as Surban Sedan model, was one of just four vehicles first registered in Dundee, where the strap line reads City of Discovery, on the 7th of May 1935.

The Hudson was registered to a Mr R D Low of Westleigh, Number 9 Nevill Street, Downfield, Dundee alongside a Morris Saloon, BSA Motorcycle and a 3 ton Commer Coal merchants truck.

Robert Duncan Low is known to have been a journalist to the Dundee City Archive, but as we know journalism can cover a multitude of sins and it would appear that Robert was no gum shoe rather he was employed by DC Thompson & Co in Dundee where he was responsible for launching a number of publications aimed at children including Adventure (1921) The Rover (1922) The Wizzard (1923) The Skipper (1930) and The Hotspur (1933).

In 1937 Robert became managing editor at DC Thompson and over saw the launch of The Dandy and the following year the Beano for which with artist Ken Reid he created Roger the Dodger in 1953, when he also oversaw the launch of The Topper. Earlier in his career Robert is also credited with co creating the Scottish vernacular comic strips Oor Wullie and The Broons with illustrator Dudley Dexter Watkins.

It is not at present known how long Robert Low kept this Hudson he died in 1980 aged 85. This car is reported to have been ‘knocking around the North West of England in the 1990’s’ before it was offered at auction in 2005 when the body was painted maroon and sold for £1,500. The history of the cars original ownership outlined above appears to have been unknown to the auctioneers at the time when the car was noted to have had 4 previous owners with 92,275 miles shown on the clock and the model name was given as Big Six Saloon, the chassis number indicated the car would have been known as a 53 model at the Hudson factory from whence it was probably sent as a knockdown kit for assembly in Brentford west of London.

According to the best source I have available 29,476 cars were shipped and it is thought that number included the knockdown kits.

My thanks to John MacDonald form ‘oldcarandtruckpictures.com‘, Jon B, Terraplane 33, Geoff C NZ, Alex ‘Hudsontech’ Burr, Old Fogey UK and Paul Butler over at Hudson Forum who helped me identify this car and finally to Richard Cullen at the Dundee City Archive who provided the final clue as to the original owners identity.

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

Beware HMRC – Ford Model A

5 Replies

After 18 solid years of solid market dominance the Tin Lizzie Ford Model T with over 15 million units sold world wide was reaching the end of it’s marketable life as the worlds truly massed produced car, and despite some resistance from it’s creator, Henry Ford, a replacement was designed with the same attention to detail as to how it would be mass produced.

The Ford Model A was launched in 1927 with an improved 4 cylinder 201 cui / 3.3 litre engine, conventional clutch, brake, accelerator foot pedal arrangement, with a variety of colours for a variety of passenger and commercial body styles.

Despite being in production for a relatively, compared to the Tin Lizzie, short time of just 4 years from 1927 to 1931 over 4.5 million Model A’s were produced. With production being continued in Russia under Licence by GAZ from 1932 to 1936.

However not all was rosy for the Model A in Europe where cars were taxed on either engine size or horsepower or in the case of His Majesties Revenue & Customs a formula involving both.

As a result of the punitive taxation rules European manufacturers had specialised in building lighter cars with smaller engines and the Model A did not stack up well against the light weights, even less so when the Model a was offered with a smaller 122 CUI / 2 litre motor because the smaller motor had a much higher fuel consumption.

The Model A became the first Ford manufactured entirely in Britain when Ford’s new plant at Dagenham was opened in October 1931. However this 1929 model, seen here at the Atwell Wilson Museum will have been assembled from a kit in the same facility at Old Trafford in Manchester as the earlier ‘British Built’ Model T’s.

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

English T – Ford Model T

3 Replies

Ford Motor Company started manufacturing vehicles in 1903 and that same year three Model A’s were exported to Great Britian, by 1909 the Ford Motor Company (England) was established and began working from an Office in London on March 8th 1911.

Ford’s first overseas assembly plant was opened in 1911 at Trafford Park in Manchester where Ford Model T’s were assembled with imported chassis, mechanical parts and locally manufactured bodies. The 1911 Model T above has the distinction of being the first car to be driven up Ben Nevis.

22 year old Henry Alexander, on the instruction of his father the first Ford dealer in Scotland, spent six weeks preparing a route to the top Britains highest peak 4,409 ft / 1,344 m above sea level. It then took Mr Alexander 5 days to reach the summit along the precarious route he had prepared. Mr Alexander repeated the feat in 1928 and to mark Centenary of the Model T reaching the top of Ben Nevis, earlier this year a team of 71 volunteers carried a replica model T to the summit assembled it and then disassembled it and brought it back down again !

Although the three pedal system for operating motor cars as used in most cars to this day was familiar when the first Model T’s were built in 1908 the Model T relied on a hand throttle operated on the steering wheel a left pedal that when fully depressed engaged a low gear, when part depressed disengaged the gear box and when not depressed engaged a high gear. The centre pedal when depressed engaged reverse and the right pedal operated the brakes which were attached to the rear wheel only.

Above is a 1912 Landaulet offering minimal weather protection to the front seat occupants while giving the rear seat occupants a choice of protection thanks to a folding roof. The Landaulet body style was a hangover from the age of the horse drawn carriage and has largely disappeared only Maybach are known to offer a Landaulet option at the time of writing.

When designing the Model T Henry Ford new that as well as a motor car he wanted his vehicle to be adaptable to the requirements of a great variety of users in agriculture and industry. Amongst the stranger applications of the Model T was the mobile aircraft starter version.

The long pole that extends beyond the front of this 1915 ‘Huck Starter’ Model T can be aligned with the propellor shaft of an aeroplane and then engaged with it. The chain to the left of the operator connects the aeroplane starter shaft to the drive of the Model T which when engaged will rotate the aircraft engine until it fires under its own power.

When production of the Model T started it took around 12 and half hours to assemble one. By the outbreak of the Great War in 1914 production time had been slashed to just 93 minutes , at one time nearly half of all the worlds motor vehicles were thought to be Fords, in the UK in 1919 41% of all new cars registered for the road were Fords.

The Model T was easily adapted into trucks and buses above is a 1923 fire engine that served on the estate of the Earl of Derbyshire from 1924 to 1948.

One of the great myths about the Model T was that one could have a Model T any colour one wanted so long as it was black. In fact this was only true after 1914, up until then Model’s T’s were not available in black at all, from 1912 to 1914 Model T’s were only available in Midnight Blue with black wings / fenders. After 1914 over 30 different black paints were developed to satisfy the various means of applying the paint to different parts of the cars.

The 1924 Model T above is little changed from the 1911 example seen at the top of the post.

With over 15 million examples produced when production of the Model T ceased in 1927, the Model T held the title of the worlds most popular vehicle until 1972 when it was eclipsed by the VW Beetle, though it should be noted the Beetle had undergone many more changes in it’s life time than the Model T.

The 1924 example above can be seen at the Attwell Wilson Museum.

Thanks for joining me on this English T edition of ‘Getting a li’l pysycho on tyres’, I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

My name is – #1 Carden Sport

4 Replies

One of the interesting things I have learned about Farnham the town closest to to my senior school this year is that it once appears to have had a budding motor industry. First I learned that it was home to the coach builders Abbots of Farnham when I was researching fourth blog on a BMW Fraser Nash, and now I find this cute little Carden cyclecar was originally designed by Sir John Carden, 6th Baronet who founded Carden Engineering in Farnham.

Sir John Carden Bt 6 is most famous for designing the Carden Loyd tankette which evolved into the well known WW2 Bren Carrier. He was also interested in building affordable light aircraft and cyclecars, this model, his side by side two seater, is his third and final cyclecar design. Readers of my previous Rowdy blogs might remember the AV Monocar which was his first design. Note the vehicle seen here has a semblance of independent front suspension a la Morgan, but no front brakes.

Despite being aimed at economy, the plan was for the car to cost just £100 on the road, notice the decorative brass electrical switches on the dash board.

The driver sits atop a 7hp 707cc / 43 cui two cylinder two stroke engine each cylinder sits either side of the transmission.

To get the motor started there is a kick start and being a two stroke apparently one can never be entirely sure which way the vehicle will proceed as the motor will happily spin the crankshaft clockwise or anticlockwise.

The bodywork was constructed of wood and fibreboard, the weight of vehicle is just 182 kgs / 400 lbs.

There seems to be a little doubt about what this little beauty is called, in the VSCC programmes Gerry Michelmore is listed as being the owner driver of the #1 Carden Sport, RM Auctions and others believe the model is called Carden Model 7 Cyclecar, Wiki makes reference to the car being called New Carden after the design was sold to Arnott & Harrison in 1922 and one owner R Dallas Brett painted the name Scarab on the bonnet of his which was purchased unpainted.

My thanks to TNFers Tim Murray, Vitesse2 and Markpde for helping me find out about the #1 Carden Sport.

Wishing ‘Gettin’ a lil psycho on tyres’ contributor John Aibel a Happy Birthday and everyone who has played a part in this blog, however great or small, peace and goodwill.

Hope you enjoyed this 7hp edition of ‘Gettin’ a lil’ psycho on tyres’ on the first day of Christmas and that you will join me for a look at my favourite Formula One car tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !