Wolf 2-1 T500 pipe

 

Here is something unusual. a two into one exhaust for a Suzuki T500. If I remember the story correctly it was a one off, custom made for the owner by Gary Wolf who made 4-1 pipes in Ontario in the seventies and eighties. 

There were a number of manufacturers who made 3 into 1 pipes for the two stroke triples back in the day. Though they were styled to look like an expansion chamber, it's doubtful they were at all effective or efficient with all the confused soundwaves bouncing around inside them. I expect the same would be true for this setup, though considering the 180° power pulses, only one exhaust port would be open at a time...  hmmm. Now where is Gordon Jennings' Two stroke Tuners handbook?

Thanks, Walter.

Thoroughbred and Classic Cars. October 1976

 Restored 1959 model on the left, '58 on the right needing a bit of work.

1956 Chevrolet, Fisher Body

 

Sidecar Sunday

Sidecar man Cece Hanrahan, now travelling under the name Jack Stocks, emerges from the fog and ponders the grim climb ahead. He pilots his 795cc Abingdon powered Ariel while his companion...

Canadian Pacific Steamships 1938

Artwork by Norman Fraser, 

Leaving from Montreal or Quebec City, the transatlantic crossing would avoids two days of open ocean crossing and would include almost 500 miles miles of St Lawrence river scenery.

 Norman Foster was one of many artists employed by Canadian Pacific for many years. Like most of the artist/illustrators creating posters like these, he worked in obscurity, his work is rarely signed. 
 

Clear Hooters

What better name for an electric horn manufacturer...?

Sydney R. Jones, artist

These lovely sketches by Sydney R. Jones all come from the editorial pages of Classic MotorCycle magazine when Bob Berry was the editor, they were originally presented in motorcycle magazines during the 1920s to the 40s. The sketches are typically beautiful, accurate architectural sketches with a motorcycle or two ghosted in. Looking further, I discovered the motorcycle sketches must have been a sideline, Sydney R Jones is the artist and illustrator of at least 18 books on architecture and landscapes in England between the years 1906 and 1954. More here.

Stearns-Knight sleeve valves

 Stearns manufactured the Stearns-Knight automobile with the Charles Yates Knight-designed sleeve valve engine, Instead of normal poppet valve arrangement, the engine uses concentric sleeves around the cylinder with ports in them to control airflow. These sleeves had to be machined very accurately, the Bryant company made the equipment to grind them. The company is still in business today, owned by the Vermont Machine Tool company.

More on the Knight here. Wikipedia on Bryant here.

Junkman's adventures

Convair XP5Y-1 Tradewind

The Convair XP5Y-1 was part of a new generation of US Navy flying boats, the program was intended to utilise the technology of laminar flow wings and the new turboprop technology then being developed. The airplane, powered by 4 Allison XT40 turboprops driving 15 foot contra rotating props, first flew in spring of 1950. 

 Originally intended to be a patrol aircraft, the Navy soon changed its mind and asked for a redesign as a cargo and passenger version. Convair experimented with a landing craft version, and an inflight refueling tanker version was also tried but the era of the military flying boat had passed.

 In all, 11 aircraft were built, but the continuing unreliability of the Allison XT40 engines caused a number of crashes and was the cause of the program being cancelled in 1958. The planes were all scrapped.  

More here.

Autolite overseas, 1939

Thanks, Rolf...

 I'll summarize, basically all spark plug gaps- .6 mm (.025").