Engine Punk

The Coates Orthoptera just before last year's President's Trial On the 35th Launceston trial earlier this year, many people were frankly amazed by the performance of Roger Ashby in his Coates Orthoptera. It sounded so crisp many of my friends thought it was running a Ford cross-flow engine and it nearly won the event outright. I’d seen the Coates Orthoptera before and, in chatting to Roger in the past, discovered that, although the components are fairly commonplace, they are put together in a very effective manner. The powerplant of the Coates Orthoptera at the Launceston trial featured a single downdraught 1.5" SU. This followed experiments with twin 1.25" SUs and Roger says the car ran a lot better. The Coates Orthoptera is essentially an Austin 7 chassis with a Ford side valve 1172cc engine. This was quite a common combination during the fifties and typically used an E93A engine but the Ford motor in the Coates Orthoptera is a later 100E. These offer many advant...