Vincent HRD Engined Cars

[david bowen]

A mystery one has turned up in Victoria with a very early 1947 HRD engine the only info I have it was a two seater hill climb car?

 

[mercurycrest]

View attachment 15751

David

 

[mercurycrest]

Here's a shot of the TTR part of Colin Strang's car..

 

[vibrac]

https://www.vincentownersclub.co.uk/index.php?threads/vincent-hrd-engined-cars.8659/#post-77873

 

[Simon Dinsdale]

Does anybody know the engine number of the series A engine in the Colin Strang car photo just posted? Colin used two engines, the other been a speedway engine of which that number is known. There are references to him also using a TT or TTR engine in past MPH and that photos shows what could be a TTR engine.
Simon

 

[Little Honda]

What immediately struck me was how did he accomplish front wheel drive? If you think about it when viewed from the right hand side of the bike the rear wheel rotates clock wise to drive the bike forward. We are looking at the right hand side of the engine as evidenced by the push rod tubes and timing chest cover. So either the engine has been re-engineered to run in reverse or an some other method of reversing the drive chain run was created.
Very interesting.
Steven
View attachment 15767

As u can see, the ATD cover shows to the driver, so the engine is fitted front to rear, so still running normal.

 

[ClassicBiker]

As u can see, the ATD cover shows to the driver, so the engine is fitted front to rear, so still running normal.

At 1:24, there's a very unusual Vincent engined special - double wishbones, fwd, supercharged Rapide engine turned backwards:

The ATD cover is on the drivers left in this photo and when installed in a bike it is on the riders right. The driver is facing the front cylinder. The steering wheel is in his hands. The vehicle is front wheel drive. The driver is essentially sitting where the front wheel of a bike would be looking towards the rear wheel of the bikes. So either the engine is running reverse of there is some mechanism that reverses the drive for the front wheels.
Steven

I

 

[Chris Launders]

Just turning the diff upside down will make it run the other way.

 

[BigEd]

Just turning the diff upside down will make it run the other way.

Thank you Chris. A simple solution to quite a puzzle, the engine runs in its normal direction and the orientation of the diff drives the wheels forward in relation to the driver position.
Most (maybe all) current Moto GP engines run backwards in relation to the rider to help keep the front end on the ground so this guy was way ahead of his time although preventing wheelies was probably not his biggest problem.

 

[Comet]

I was chatting to a friend last night about the Vincent prototype 3 wheeler. But I could not find a pic of it online to show him. Does anyone know who owns the prototype car?