Engine Punk

I know this Austin Hall-Scott has a 10-litre 4 cylinder aero-engine but if it sounds like my mate's tractor that runs a turboed Ford Cargo engine, why not go hillclimbing with a truck engine? A question popped into my mind a couple of times recently about the powerplants in commercial vehicles and whether they might be suitable for engine punk activities - to wit, constructing a special for hill climbing and/or similar performance work. The Austin coach engine had a swept volume of 3460cc and put out 67.5 bhp at 2,900rpm This is not such a daft idea as it may sound at first. Many classic car engines began life in trade. The Humber 4-litre "Blue Riband" engine started out in Commer trucks and so did its rival at "The Austin", a similar 6-cylinder motor originally designed for Austin commercials vehicles, or Birmingham Bedfords as they were known. (The story goes that Leonard Lord approved the copying of a Bedford design to speed up the R & D proce...

This is a little old-fashioned for my usual taste but I'm hailing it as a Vintage Thing as I think it's another fine example of the internal combustion engine as Steam Punk and it's at completely the opposite end of the design spectrum from the monstrous Austin Hall-Scott ( Vintage Thing No.66 ). I like little cars as well as big cars - not to mention any in between - and admire the Carden cyclecar's flowing wings and obvious wooden construction that make it look like a portly aeroplane. It's also received an honorary mention on Engine Punk before now because it arrived at the 2010 VSCC Wiscombe Park hillclimb in the back of a Citroen Berlingo. Unlike the Austin Hall-Scott, which is a relatively recent creation, the Carden dates from 1921. It was designed by Sir John Valentine Carden who is better known for his work on armoured tracked vehicles, subsequently becoming  a director of Vickers. That was all later - for his cyclecar, Sir John used a monocoque ...