Lifeboat Engine

vibrac

Well Known and Active Forum User
VOC Member
I saw it running at Heaver on rally it started and we poured buckets and buckets of water in it time passed buckets continues suddenly it started to spray it back out over the crowd great stuff

Don't blame Vincents they had a spec and a contract they for-filled it to the letter - no, did more than was expected
It was the pathetic bureaucrats that again missed the point that the helicopter and long range aircraft were on the scene
I say again because it was probably the same pathetic lot that wanted a target aircraft before good radio control was proven.
Perhaps the only fault was PCV thinking the Ministry in peace time was as reliable and trustworthy as the one in war time that had stood the company in good stead
 

david bowen

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Non-VOC Member
At the back of Vincent No. 1 factory was the test house this is where the Dyno installed, a Marine engine was put on it in 1947 was started up and not stopped for two weeks the two stroke drone all most sent us the wall, and the smoke from the exhaust blow all over the factory and the school next door ( what would happen these days) the funny side the fuel tank was on top of the test house roof 14 meters high a steel ladder at the side of the building and the guys had to carry a jerry cans of fuel up this every few hours no safety harnesses in those days.
 

david bowen

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Non-VOC Member
The man that was in charge of this operation was Matt Wright famous left Vincents in 1949 and went to AJS and ran the racing dept there, and two years after that C J (Jack) Williams left Vincents and joined Matt there.
 

Upstreeter

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Non-VOC Member
Funny old world innit? About three years ago I found a lifeboat engine...and then about six months later a (sort of) Comet. These things never usually happen to me, but you never can tell. They do say that things happen in threes, so the unrestored Lightning or Series 'A' twin is just waiting for me to trip over it...
 

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Upstreeter

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Non-VOC Member
Yep...well the chap who bought it reckoned six months or so. Surprisingly, it looked pretty oily when I removed the inspection caps and although the tank was missing it was mostly all there...the spokes might need slight attention!
 
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