Sidecar Sunday

Max Burns, Ken Messenger; The Winged Wheel Patch, Vanwell Publishing 1993

Pontiac rope shaft Tempest

The Pontiac Tempest was a contemporary of the Corvair, a car that owed its existence to the success of the Volkswagen Beetle. Although each of GM's divisions produced their own version of this- new to GM- compact car, Oldsmobile and Buick went with the standard front engine, rear drive layout, but Pontiac chose to go with a novel layout, led by an engineer whose name may be familiar, John Z. Delorean. The powertrain was front engine but used a rear transaxle borrowed from the Corvair. Instead of a driveshaft the two were coupled with a 5'8" diameter flexible steel shaft forced into an arc to pass below the floor. This shaft was enclosed in a torque tube that connected the engine to the transaxle. 

The engine was also an innovative new design developed as one 4 cylinder bank of the existing 389 V8. A production block was designed which retained the 45 degree slant as well as more than half of the engine internals. 

The car was produced from 1961 to 1963. Although the rope shaft gave no problems, in 1964 the car was redesigned, reverting to the standard powertrain layout. 

Klausenrennen 1927

Great poster for the Grand Prix races at Klausen in Switzerland. The course was a 21 km portion of the mountain pass road that had been constructed in the 1890s. The races took place from 1922 to 1934 and commemorative vintage races are held there now. Looks like another destination I should plan for.

All three photos The Classic Motorcycle Oct.1993

Rollie Free's Eggshell bike and record attempt

 In the Duke's 2014 post on Rollie Free's fully streamlined Vincent he mentions he did not find any evidence that this configuration was used to run a record attempt. I did a bit more looking and found these pictures from Jerry Hatfield's excellent 2007 book on Rollie Free; Flat Out! . 
A whole chapter is devoted to the 1950 speed record attempt. Several runs were made, but apparently the setup became unstable at speed. A 140plus mph crash and subsequent crash and 1000 foot slide on its left side damaged the mounting points of the fibreglass shell. Rollie was not hurt but the damage was not easily repairable and Rollie chose to make some runs without it. He achieved a new speed record of speed of 156.58 mph over a mile and 152.33 over 10 miles! This time he was fully clothed. No mention is made of what might have happened to the shell.

Compare this photo to the similar Popular Mechanics photo in the It looks like this photo may have been flipped and background manipulated to a Salt Lake setting for the article!

Galldaulet Bullet

American Edson Gallaudet was an American aircraft designer and aeronautical researcher who had been active in the field since the 1890s. This was his design from 1912, a sleek front-engine but rear propeller airplane said to be capable of 100 mph, probably twice as fast as its contemporaries. Very little information is available about the actual success of the aircraft. More on Gallaudet here.

We still make things In this country, Fire Hydrants

Another post from our guest contributor Mic.
As a boy, I used to enjoy wandering through a particular section of field on my family farm in Mount Forest, Ontario. It was the location of a building that was alleged to have burned down in the early 1900s, and the spot had been reclaimed as part of the agricultural land. Every Spring after the ground there was plowed, I would walk among the furrows and look for things that stood out among the dirt and rocks that had been turned (a penny from 1901, a half dime from 1885, a No. 7 brass sleigh bell, etc). One item I collected was a curious old screw valve made by T McAvity & Sons of Saint John, New Brunswick. It showed a patent from 1885 and a casting date of 1892. It’s a basic screw valve with a line diameter of ½ inch. Oh, and 120 years after being cast, including 80 years of being turned in a farm field, it still works!

Below is an image of a McAvity fire hydrant installed and operational near my home in Woodbridge, Ontario.

A search online shows that T McAvity & Sons had been a large industrial foundry operation on the east coast of Canada (Saint John, NB). In 1834 Thomas McAvity, an Irish immigrant from county Donegal, started his company to distribute wholesale goods that were imported from overseas. In later years, the family-run business would open up a brass foundry to make parts for ships. The first valve was cast in 1879, and from there the company expanded successfully into plumbing fixtures. Fire hydrants, probably the most enduring and conspicuous product line, were first cast in 1903. Successive generations found success in other product lines, and the company engaged in the manufacture of munitions for use in the First World War (link). During the War, 159 McAvity employees went overseas in military service, 26 of whom did not return. McAvity men did also respond to the call of duty, with James McAvity leading the 26^th New Brunswick Battalion in a deployment in France. 
Stories on McAvity munitions production during World War 1 here.
  After 126 years of operation by the McAvity family, the company was sold in 1960 to Crane Canada Ltd. The McAvity division of Crane Canada was sold to Clow Canada in 1990, and continues to manufacture fire hydrants and related components today. Many of the McAvity fire hydrants cast over a century ago are still operational. Although headquartered in Hamilton, Ontario, Clow continues to maintain a plant in Saint John. Clow Canada’s website advertises that “Made in Canada Matters”. When I read about tariffs being applied to Canadian products and industries each month from our largest trading partner, or watch as my new “stainless steel” products from China turn orange-brown with rust, I find myself wholly in agreement.

We were a bit surprised to find a classic reprint of T. McAvity and Sons Catalog 45 online available as a pdf.

Railway and Marine World 1910 

Percival Lowell in his observatory

source unknown

In 1895 Percival Lowell commissioned Alvan Clark & Sons of Massachusetts to build a state-of-the-art 24-inch refracting telescope in Flagstaff, Arizona to further his theories about intelligent life on Mars. 

This idea had been inspired by the observations of astronomer Giovanni Schiaparelli, who had mapped what he called oceans and channels on Mars. This was mistranslated (into English) to "canals" which set off widespread speculation about the possibility of civilizations on another planet. Can I use the term "fake news"?

 Percival’s elegant writings about his research, based on his observations made with the Clark Telescope, inspired the work of both scientists, such as rocket expert Robert Goddard, and writers, including science fiction icons H.G Wells and Edgar Rice Burroughs. More here

Norton Single, 1927

Another nice poster commemorating a new flying Kilometer speed record set by Bert Denly by a 600cc ohv Norton in 1927.

1960 Pontiac Cutaway.

Jan Norbye Jim Dunne, Pontiac, the Postwar Years, Motorbooks International 1979

Campbell Model F

Another airplane without much info. The newly formed Campbell Aircraft of St. Joseph, Missouri produced this innovative twin tail two seater in 1935, featuring all magnesium contsruction. It was damaged in a demonstration flight and not repaired. More here.