Villiers V four

Oct '91 Classic MotorCycle

In the early 1960s a man named Bill Hindes saw the new(ish) Villiers 250 twin which in turn was based on the earlier single cylinder 1H engine and decided it would be a good base for a four. His concept was to make a 90° V4 using a single crankshaft with longer crankpins to accommodate two rods. This required the machining of new crankcase halves. If you are familiar with two strokes, you're beginning to realise that the crankcase is not getting pressurized even if all four cylinders use a common crankcase. Mr Hindes' solution was a chain and later belt-driven supercharger to keep a positive pressure in the crankcase. The pressure produced is not recorded but the idea was not to supercharge the engine. The actual intake plumbing does not show up in the drawing above. I suspect the engine would need several kicks to pressurize the bottom end but the article stated the bike had no real vices. The engine was fitted into a Douglas Dragonfly chassis.

Villiers bought the bike from the builder for study and only came to light years later when the premisses were being cleared after the company closed. It is now part of the Sammy Miller Museum. Below are some of the 2T engine parts that would have been part of the build,