By now you have heard various stories on the trials of the event.
I recommend that you find and rent a video called "Genevieve"(sp.).
This is a look at two friends preparing for the Rally
during the mid 1950's. It describes albeit somewhat unrealistically
and quite comically the difficulties of the Rally.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Part II
The Fisson is a rather substantial piece of equipment. To put things
into perspective you need to remember that the carburator was not yet
invented. So how do you get an internal combustion engine to work?
These early engineers were quite clever and ultimately resourscfull.
They had built a small cylindrical tank about 8 inches in diameter and
about 24 inches tall. At the bottom of the tank they placed a small
lever with a float attached to a fuel valve. When the fuel level was
about 1/2 to 1" ( I think) the valve would shut off. The rest of the
cylinder was empty to allow the vapors of the fuel (hexane) to woft-up
and exit the top through a pipe attached to the intake manifold. To
speed this process up (on a chilly day) the tank was pre-heated by a
return from the exhaust manifold. In order to start the process the
cylinders (two) had to be primed and cranked over until it "popped"
it would then turn over on the fuel available and then stop. This
process was repeated several times until there was enough heat in the
system to get the fuel to evaporate. Then -Magic, the thing would run
on its own. Naturally, the air-fuel mixture is typically lean and
throttle control is crude but the beast runs.
It is very heavy for its size. Nothing on it is thin or light. It
has a chassis that would pall anything on the road today. It has a
40 gallon water tank in the rear. It uses an ANCHOR to stop from
going backwards. The driver can pull a lever and release a metal
bar that falls to the ground and wedges itself onto the road if on
a hill. Turning on the total loss oil system lubricates the road.
This car resembles the Mercedes of the same year. They copied alot
from each other. One was more successful. I would not want to drive
this car. It is very difficult to operate and thankfully built like a
Sherman Tank- it needed to be with all the shaking and rattling it
does.
I can tell you that it did not finnish the rally. It broke down for
the final time just four miles from the finnish with a simple fuel
starvation problem. It paraded through ignominiously on the back of a
flat bed trailer into Bighton.
The '99 Haynes-Apperson claimed to be the First American Car. I'm not
sure about that. Yet it did start very in the Rally. It left Hyde
Park about 7:15 am in the drizzle. It had no traffic to deal with
and made past all the check points with flying colors. It arrived in
at the George Hotel Check point in Crawley by about 10:00am. (half way
point). It finnished on Madera Drive before Noon. Avg. about 12
miles/hr.
NEXT -the Rambler fiasco.
|