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Quirky Cars.


Wagger

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16 hours ago, Qu1ckn1ck said:

My Jowett Jupiter, flat four engine, the radiator at the rear of the block, column change, torsion bar suspension, tubular chassis, aluminium bodywork, built at Idle !

 

Jowett Jupiter at Shuttleworth Wings and Wheels 001.jpg

Jowett Jupiter 001.jpg

Peter and Jowett Jupiter, 1984 001.jpg

I had the priviledge of working with Ed Nankivell in 2001. He wrote a very good manual for these and had two of them back then. Lovely man. We still exchange Xmas cards with banter. John Surtees had one. Super car as was the javelin. Another good old friend had a Bradford van. Ran it way into the 1960's.

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11 minutes ago, Wagger said:

I had the priviledge of working with Ed Nankivell in 2001. He wrote a very good manual for these and had two of them back then. Lovely man. We still exchange Xmas cards with banter. John Surtees had one. Super car as was the javelin. Another good old friend had a Bradford van. Ran it way into the 1960's.

I believe that Ed Nankivell was the Jupiter Registrar.  I had his book but lent it to a colleague and never got it back.  My Jupiter was mentioned in Ed's book and recorded as the last one registered long after the Jowett factory closed.

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18 minutes ago, Qu1ckn1ck said:

Not sure if this one qualifies as "Quirky" but it attracted a fair bit of attention when I owned and drove it. 

Not only could you hear it you but you could also smell it as the sump was filled with Castrol R40 !

 

 

Lotus 6, c.1967 002.jpg

That is quirky enough. A table-spoonful of 'R' in our bike tanks made the exhaust smell wonderful.

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Really glad that I started this thread. Shows what a 'Small World' it is. I'll post the sectional on BFG's thread now as well as on here about Tatra cars. Really advanced for their era. Ferdinand Porsche copied som of their ideas, so I am told.

https://eu.capecodtimes.com/story/special/2019/10/21/cars-we-remember-czechoslovakia-cars/2483013007/

 

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3 hours ago, Wagger said:

Really glad that I started this thread. Shows what a 'Small World' it is. I'll post the sectional on BFG's thread now as well as on here about Tatra cars. Really advanced for their era. Ferdinand Porsche copied som of their ideas, so I am told.

https://eu.capecodtimes.com/story/special/2019/10/21/cars-we-remember-czechoslovakia-cars/2483013007/

 

There is a Tatra that appears at many of our local shows.  Seen here at a classic car show at the Shuttleworth Collection, Old Warden:

 

 

IMG_1147.JPG

IMG_1171.JPG

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24 minutes ago, Qu1ckn1ck said:

There is a Tatra that appears at many of our local shows.  Seen here at a classic car show at the Shuttleworth Collection, Old Warden:

 

 

IMG_1147.JPG

IMG_1171.JPG

24 minutes ago, Qu1ckn1ck said:

There is a Tatra that appears at many of our local shows.  Seen here at a classic car show at the Shuttleworth Collection, Old Warden:

 

 

IMG_1147.JPG

IMG_1171.JPG

My first means of transport was a Czechoslvakian Scooter. A 98cc Manet with a Jawa engine, it had 12v electrics, a dynostarter, trafficators and 14in spoked wheels. I could, actually, see at night. In my view, it was light years ahead of Lambretta and Vespa and half the price.

Here is a link to a picture. Note the Earles no dive front suspension.

manet-scooter.jpg

 

 

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That's why it was half the price! even bikes now have front suspension.

Here's my first car, mid 63, a Goggo of 300cc brute power, best fun a teenager could have, & learn about car mechanics, we always got home under our own power! Would love one now just for the memories! Taught the then girlfriend now wife of 53 years to drive in it on an airport runway up north yelling brake, brake as we passed under a gate battier arm!

Goggo @ Windyridge, Guisborough, around 64.jpg

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53 minutes ago, Peter Truman said:

That's why it was half the price! even bikes now have front suspension.

Here's my first car, mid 63, a Goggo of 300cc brute power, best fun a teenager could have, & learn about car mechanics, we always got home under our own power! Would love one now just for the memories! Taught the then girlfriend now wife of 53 years to drive in it on an airport runway up north yelling brake, brake as we passed under a gate battier arm!

Goggo @ Windyridge, Guisborough, around 64.jpg

It had swinging arm leading front suspension, single spring and damper above the forks. Item 80 on the link below. Not easy to see how it works I'm afraid but it was good. All concealed behind the headlamp.

https://www.motorenparts.com/spare-parts-catalog-a5-69-pgs---manet-100-scooter-e5023#group-7

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1 hour ago, Peter Truman said:

That's why it was half the price! even bikes now have front suspension.

Here's my first car, mid 63, a Goggo of 300cc brute power, best fun a teenager could have, & learn about car mechanics, we always got home under our own power! Would love one now just for the memories! Taught the then girlfriend now wife of 53 years to drive in it on an airport runway up north yelling brake, brake as we passed under a gate battier arm!

Goggo @ Windyridge, Guisborough, around 64.jpg

Ed Nankivell had a Goggo before a DAF then his Jupiter. You are in good company.

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My old Morgan +8 certainly had a quirky front suspension.  It still used the "Sliding Pillar" IFS designed by Morgan in 1910.  This was lubricated on a total loss basis by oil from the engine sump.

Every 200 miles or so the driver had to depress a foot switch/valve which allowed a shot of oil into the sliding pillars.  Most of this oil ended up rust proofing the underside of the front wings. 

 

Morgan +8 001 (640x444).jpg

Morgan +8, 1979, 3.5 V8 001.jpg

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  • 5 weeks later...
3 hours ago, Colin Lindsay said:

Yikes! I thought it was a SAAB... apologies. Still looks great, though.

 

48 minutes ago, Qu1ckn1ck said:

. I made the same mistake too !

Yes I thought Saabish but V4, 1100cc.? Back then SAAB were 2 stroke 2 or 3 cylinder in line I believe.

Interesting car all the same. Any more photos, or do I need to ask Mr Google . . 

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