twolanes top end tales, history section

[twolanes]

Thought i would do a bit on Twinjynx, my old slingshot. I started out wanting an altered but couldnt find 1 up for grabs, then 1 night sitting in the pub at our old car club meet someone said that they knew of an old slingshot that could be up for sale. The guy selling it was John harrison who went back to the start of drag racing in the uk. He partnered up with Bootsy herridge (H & H RACECRAFT) and together they put together a slingshot or 2, John ran a single engined (austin heally?) slingshot that he ran at the 64 drag fest, as far as i know there followed a few more single engined cars,i know the last 1 was called the jynx cos he was always breaking parts, until in 1968 he decided that twin engines was the way to go, and built Twinjynx, 2 austin heally? engines, blown on nitro, direct drive with a slipper clutch. The rear axle had a jag centre section with home built tubes,half shafts, the brakes (rear only, no fronts) were small (as in tiny) jag callipers with (i think) home made disks), the front drop tube axle was ........ you guessed hand made, i must add here that John was a trained and gifted engineer. The front wheels had boranni rims with hand made hubs and Alf hagon made the spokes, the rear wheels (split rims) came off a light airoplane and weighed nothing.When i saw the car it was up on stands, no wheels/bodywork etc fitted, but i just had to have it and done a deal. When we got it home i needed an engine and box, well lucky for me my other half at the time Lynn had just got hold of a 1959 ford p/up truck that had a 429/c6 ford in it, and for some strange reason i thought this a bit big for her  so i nicked it  , done a few bits to it, cam,intake,ported the heads etc, B&M kit in the box and bolted it in real fast, before Lynn noticed it missing. The diff was an open unit so i got out the trusty old mig welder and converted it to a home made spool, i got Andy robinson to change the axle ratio for 1 a bit more suited to the engine. I bought a fire suit that i had to wear braces and a thick jumper with cos it was to big ( real bugger in summer) and went off to run the fastest ever in the whole world (didnt quite manage that bit),i fitted a ford oil filter relocation kit that had the instructions wrongly printed, the oil pipes were round the wrong way and it took out the pistons and crank, but managed to get all second hand stuff to rebuild it (family man then ie skint) with the help of Pete & Pet.  but had some real good fun with the car and met some great people, i owned the car for 14/15 years and ran in the low 10s with it, allways ran straight as a die.When i bought my house the main reason i picked this place was it has got a garage where i could store the car, so i signed on the dotted line, moved in, got the old measuring tape out and low and behold the garage to too bloody short. Its getting late now so watch this space for more. Dave   

[brock]

Brilliant Dave, more , more , more, already learning stuff I thought I knew

[tazet]

Like Brock said. More more more. Looking forward to part 2 

[twolanes]

Heres a quick 1, John Harrison told me a story about when they imported 1 of the first race magneto,s in from the states. Ronnie picardo and his first wife were visiting, so as you do, they got Ronnie,s wife to hold the wire and someone spun the magneto over by hand, it shot her right over to the other side of the workshop.

[tazet]

I shouldn't laugh but hahahahahahahahahaha  Bet she didn't do that again.

[brock]

   great sport at the beaulieu autojumble is to get some coffee and donuts and hang around the magneto stalls, someone will ALWAYS says "does it spin freely ?" , and let the cursing begin, but getting hit by 44amps of Mr Mallory's best would take the shine off of your day.

[twolanes]

here is a piccy of Jynx, this was the car before Twinjynx, John told me he cut it up and buried it under the concrete in his back yard

[tazet]

Wonderful stuff for foundations. We are building an extra shed and using coke cans for our base 

[TwistedPatience]

I want one!

[Manky Monkey]

Coke can or shed?

[TwistedPatience]

Silly Bugger! Shed of course.

[tazet]

 

[twolanes]

Here is a story John told me. When he wanted to go to fuel injection he couldnt afford to buy a set up, so he went to an auto jumble and bought 1 knackered injector from (i think) a coventry climax race car, took it home and copied it, he also made his own fuel pump,shut off valve, intake etc. I wish i had just a small amount of the skill and talent he had, but it was all saddly lost when he died. I had 1 of his shut off valves, it really was a fantastic part and was still working 30 odd years after he made it.

[brock]

  love the picture, I still have a hankering to build a small light weight 4 cylinder rail, blown and injected of course, A series have been done several times , Reliant ?

[SteveRedd]

also made his own fuel pump,shut off valve, intake etc. I wish i had just a small amount of the skill and talent he had, but it was all saddly lost when he died.

reminds me of my best mate who died last summer ( 58 cancer ) Paul Gibbs of Wisbech Engineering....such talent ...all gone....I really miss him.....this was his final build a Bentley Turbo R road going Race car.......last shot taken at his funeral

twolanes top end tales, history section

twolanes top end tales, history section