What was your first car ?
Mine was a talbot alpine i bought in 1980 just after i passed my driving test.[image deleted]
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My first 4-wheel car was a VW "Beetle", but my first car was a quirky 3-wheeler built by Sharps Commercials and called the Bond [i]Minicar[/i].
Actually I had two, one van-bodied, the other in grandiosely-called "estate" form (back seats and side windows.
They were powered by a Villiers two-stroke motorcycle engine, one of 200cc, the other a heady 250cc capacity, mounted on the suspension swing-arm of the driven single front wheel. An arrangement of links passing up through the steering-head connected the original bike foot-change on the gearbox to the column-change lever.
Steering owed something to some early road-rollers. The steering-column's shaft passed through the scuttle below the cross-mounted petrol-tank, to a worm engaging a quadrant on the steering-head. This put the steering-wheel in a near-vertical plane at a small but very noticeable angle to the dashboard.
The dynamo and starter-motor was a combined unit called the SIBA [i]Dynastart[/i], whose heavy rotor put a massively overhung load on the poor crankshaft end, as I found when one sheared! The ignition-switch had a normal running position which set the [i]Dynastart[/i] to generating mode, and a second position that turned it into the starter-motor.
In emergency you could start it by the engine's original bike-fitting kick-start, accessible by turning the steering to left lock to give you more room, and climbing into the engine compartment. I never had to do that.
What about reverse I hear you ask? Easy - with a 2-stroke. I can't recall if it had two sets of contact-breaker points or a single pair opening at top dead-centre, but to reverse you stopped the engine and re-started it backwards, via a further ignition-lock position. Effectively, the car had four gears in both directions!
Oh, and Sharps had thought of vehicle security. The two front doors had normal car-door locks, but the rear door was held closed by two turn-catches worked by a square key - or a wide-bladed screwdriver.
I said it were quirky!
Actually I had two, one van-bodied, the other in grandiosely-called "estate" form (back seats and side windows.
They were powered by a Villiers two-stroke motorcycle engine, one of 200cc, the other a heady 250cc capacity, mounted on the suspension swing-arm of the driven single front wheel. An arrangement of links passing up through the steering-head connected the original bike foot-change on the gearbox to the column-change lever.
Steering owed something to some early road-rollers. The steering-column's shaft passed through the scuttle below the cross-mounted petrol-tank, to a worm engaging a quadrant on the steering-head. This put the steering-wheel in a near-vertical plane at a small but very noticeable angle to the dashboard.
The dynamo and starter-motor was a combined unit called the SIBA [i]Dynastart[/i], whose heavy rotor put a massively overhung load on the poor crankshaft end, as I found when one sheared! The ignition-switch had a normal running position which set the [i]Dynastart[/i] to generating mode, and a second position that turned it into the starter-motor.
In emergency you could start it by the engine's original bike-fitting kick-start, accessible by turning the steering to left lock to give you more room, and climbing into the engine compartment. I never had to do that.
What about reverse I hear you ask? Easy - with a 2-stroke. I can't recall if it had two sets of contact-breaker points or a single pair opening at top dead-centre, but to reverse you stopped the engine and re-started it backwards, via a further ignition-lock position. Effectively, the car had four gears in both directions!
Oh, and Sharps had thought of vehicle security. The two front doors had normal car-door locks, but the rear door was held closed by two turn-catches worked by a square key - or a wide-bladed screwdriver.
I said it were quirky!
ArishMell · 70-79, M
@davidstorm
Ah, no, mine was not the Bond Bug but the Bond Minicar: same manufacturer (Sharps Commercials) but an earlier, cruder vehicle slightly resembling an angular Reliant Robin in outline, but smaller and less sophisticated.
Ah, no, mine was not the Bond Bug but the Bond Minicar: same manufacturer (Sharps Commercials) but an earlier, cruder vehicle slightly resembling an angular Reliant Robin in outline, but smaller and less sophisticated.
ArishMell · 70-79, M
@davidstorm
Yes - a bike licence covered, and might still cover, "tricycles" up to a certain weight.
It used to be 8cwt, I think, from memory. I don't know the situation now and the "weight" will be a "mass" in those French kilogramme things!
Thank you - a Happy Christmas to you, too!
Yes - a bike licence covered, and might still cover, "tricycles" up to a certain weight.
It used to be 8cwt, I think, from memory. I don't know the situation now and the "weight" will be a "mass" in those French kilogramme things!
Thank you - a Happy Christmas to you, too!