A visit to the Brooklands Museum pt2

The second post of images from a visit to the Brooklands Museum in a very drawn out series of three posts starting back in May last year...

Not much more to say more than was said in the first instalment other than props to the Brooklands Museum, it's a great day out and even better to visit on an event day.

'Nanette' - Built as a one off for driver Felix Scriven
Nanette was orignally fitted with a 2 litre 'Sage' engine
and in this form was known as 'Mother Goose' (as it was
stuffed with sage!).

Small side room packed with early cycles.

I loved the care taken with this tag on an 11-50 Brough.

And the full Brough Superior 11-50.

1926 works Norton combination 'LPD1' A very original
period record breaker, LPD1 took 14 Brooklands records
and in 1927 (as a solo) was the first motorcycle to maintain
100mph for an hour at Montlhery.

Lovely F W Evans club racing cycle. I'm a big fan
of pre-war Evans. They were beautifully built and
packed in numerous clever features. Very high quality
cycles built to last a lifetime and beyond.

Indian Powerplus 1917

Full view of the 1917 Indian. It's an unconventional
paint scheme for an Indian and I suspect non-original
but it looks great.

Railton Terraplane 1934. I covet this car!! The Railton
was made at Cobham near Brooklands by Reid Railton
(famous builder of several land speed record cars). The
Railton was essentially an American Hudson clothed in
a British body and with 113 bhp on tap it was one of the
fastest vehicles on the road. A 1935 road test clocked its
0-60 mph performance as 8.8 seconds. And the cherry on
top with this particular example is that the first owner was
a certain Eric Fernihough, motorcycle land speed record
racer. A lovely aside about this particular car is that it was
used during a 1934 250cc 500 mile and 12 hour motorcycle
record attempt as a pace car to light the way through the
hours of darkness and to scare off rabbits from the track.

Another view of the Railton.

1910 Kerry Abingdon 3.5hp.

Close up on the 680cc exhaust over inlet
motor of the Museum's spectacular 1920
Martinside-Newman.

The Club House building.

Replica 1909 Bleriot XI. The XI was
the first plane to fly across the English
channel.

1917 Clerget rotary engine in a Sopwith
Camel replica.

Full view of the Sopwith Camel replica.

Royal Enfield v twin at the Rahmi Koc Museum

A couple of pictures of the 1921 Royal Enfield 6hp (770cc) Model 180 v twin at the Rami Koc Museum in Istanbul.

If you are ever in Istanbul the museum is excellent and well worth visiting. It is housed in a former Byzantine shipyard, the theme is the history of industry and the collection is eclectic and wide ranging.

A visit to the Brooklands Museum pt1

The first batch of a slew of snaps from a recent visit to the Brooklands Museum. A wonderful day out and thoroughly recommended.

It's been a long time since I was last at the Museum so a pleasure to see that it is flourishing. The Museum is nowadays surrounded by a vast industrial estate and the neighbouring 'Mercedes Benz World' but it's good to see that within its boundaries the Museum is going from strength to strength with an enthusiastic band of volunteers and staff and many new exhibits since my last visit (I think some twenty years ago...)

The pictures start of with some of the bicycle collection. Though Brooklands is most associated with thunderous racing cars and motorcycles it was also a thriving venue for bicycle sport as well as, of course, a pioneering aviation site in Britain.

I used my British Motorcycle Charitable Trust card to gain free entry, membership highly recommended! I made sure though to help the Brooklands coffers by eating a hearty meal in their excellent restaurant!

1901 BSA fittings path racer.

Monitor Supercam front brake on a 1935
Saxon.

The 1935 Saxon from slightly further afield.

That's a late 1880s Quadrant hub centre steered
cycle nesting in the corner.

The Museum is unexpectedly home to
a large and impressive collection of
Raleigh cycles.

A lovely pair of Raleigh x frames. To the left a 1901
Model 20a Superbe Featherweight and on the right
a 1925 Model Superbe X ladies.

1905 x frame tandem in the Raleigh collection.

Wonderful 3d Raleigh advertising sign.

Above mentioned sign in the third dimension.

A 1950 'P Ellis & Co' Champion Model
R. Part of the Cyclists Touring Club collection.

Conloy steel front brake on the P Ellis.

Hiding at the back of the workshop is a 1912 Lorraine
Deitrich Grand Prix racer 'Vieux Charles III'.
The car was raced in the fourth ever GP in France in
1912 and thereafter brought over to Britain and raced
at Brooklands where it broke several circuit records.
After WWI the car was bought by Malcolm Campell
and became part of his 'Blue Bird' team of race cars.

The Halford Special was built by Major
Frank Halford, an aero engineer. The car
has an Aston Martin chassis and Halford's
own design of engine. When first built it
sported a turbo charger - the first known
fitment of a turbo to a car. In 1926 the car
won two raced on the Brooklands outer circuit
lapping at just shy of 110mph.

In the GP hall a Delage 15-S-8, Bugatti Type 37 and
the Halford Special.

1926 Delage 15-S-8. This car competed in the 1926
and 1927 British Grand Prix as part of the Delage
works team, it was then sold to Malcolm Campbell
who raced it at Brooklands and Southport. Later
in its life it passed through the hands of Prince Bira.
That's quite some history!

National Cycle Museum pt2

The second instalment of snaps from the National Cycle Museum at Llandrindod Wells. Not much extra to add from the first instalment except apologies once again for the slightly dodgy smartphone quality snaps and to re-iterate the recommendation to visit both the town of Llandrindod and the Museum. 

The Vittoria Margherita derailleur from around 1935.
The spiel beneath claims it as the first Italian derailleur,
that may or may not be correct. It was introduced in 1932,
some 20 years later than the probable first production
derailleur (the French Chemineau of 1912). To change
gear you need to back pedal, adjust chain tension with one
lever and shift the chain with another). Complicated but
sturdy and it gave a competitive advantage. Seemingly
a different company from the extant Vittoria tyre company,
the derailleur company was deep into Italian fascism: the
company was named after a statue put up by Giovanni Agnelli
(founder of the FIAT motorcar company) on the highest hill
in Turin of the winged goddess of victory in honour of
fascist ideals to build Italy as a militaristic superpower.
Models of derailleurs were named after fascist icons.
There's a great write up on the Disraeli Gears site.

Another transmission demo. This time
for EGG chainrings. Oval chainrings have
come in and out of fashion over the years
in cycling. They have their adherents but in
general are accepted to be no better or worse than
round ones. The designer of the EGG ring
has an interesting site with details on the
rings as well as other rabbit holes.
http://www.cornant.uk/index.html

It was a bit cramped in so hard to take good pictures
of but one of the machines I most coveted was this
1930s FH Grubb with highly unusual twin tube
cross frame design.

More detail on the FH Grubb. Note the
unusual stem.

T'other side of the Freddie Grubb twin tube. A Kirk
Precision cast magnesium framed road bike lurks
behind it.

One final snap of the twin tube Freddie Grubb.

Derny cycle pacer from the early fifties. Derny was
a French brand, their pacers became so ubiquitous
that Derny bcame a catch all word for all pacers.
A pacer such as this would have been used for road
racing as well as velodromes. Derny also made a regular
non-pacing version of this machine as well as tandem
versions.

Sun Manxman, probably from the late thirties. The
Manxman was noted for having small strut tubes
for stiffening behind the bottom bracket.

Saxon twin tube stands watch.

1930s RAC patrolman's cycle.

c1938 Baines Whirlwind 'Flying Gate'.

BSA 'Eyres' c 1937. Fully nickel plated and used in
a TV series called 'Champion' apparently.

That's a 1930s Moorson twin tube lurking back there.

A bit of a jumble this image but in the foreground
is a 1930s Triumph 'Moller'. Precursor to modern
recumbants and fitted with a steering wheel.

Lovely FH Grubb (Freddie Grubb) tourer. Note
the 'Resilient' sprung forks made by Grubb which
were available from 1928 to 1930.

Grubb made their own centre pull brakes
too. Here is an example.

Close up on the Grubb Resilient forks.

Fifties cycle shop mock up.

Dursley Pedersen.

Wonderful Raleigh 3d advertising art.

c1898 bamboo cycle made by the Bamboo
Cycle Co of the USA.

Full view of the Bamboo Cycle.