Renault 4CV adventure!!
 

Yesterday Mrs. JJ. reminded me of our journey from Yorkshire to Kent in a Renault 4CV in 1966 - pic below (I hope).
I had sold my 2.4 Jag. Mk1 at Leeds auction and needed a car. My dad had bought a 1954 Renault 4CV for my mam to knock around in, but she never did. He said come and get the car and you can have it, so I travelled down and picked it up and use until I found another car I liked.
It had MOT and tax, but the first thing I noticed was the poor brakes, but it drove ok, with it's 3 speeds and 750cc and would stop.......(ish)
I got it back to Ferrybridge and the fist thing I did was to try and fix the brakes - I say try because I couldn't get any parts from anywhere. It needed new slave cyls. all round and new shoes. I did manage to re-line the existing shoes, but new slaves or even repair kits were impossible to find and nothing in any breakers.
By this time the hydraulics were useless and the handbrake was the only anchor!! My dad had informed me that one of his friends was selling a 1961 Vauxhall Cresta which was something I was looking for, I decided to take the Renault back to Kent with just the handbrake!! Mrs. JJ insisted on coming so we would do it at night. Out came the front passenger seat - the 'carry-cot', for our one month old son, would take that position and she would sit in the back with our two daughters - no seat belt and car-seat regs. in those days.
In the end, the journey was uneventful, if slow - traffic was light even through London and we got there safe, but I was knackered with extra concentration. I did buy the Cresta, which was automatic, which failed a year later - another saga of searching for parts!!

The pic is from a museum in France but our car was the same colour.

JJ.

This is a 4CV in the thumb picture. 2CV on wiki here, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citro%C3%ABn_2CV.

Thanks Lancs,


I have corrected my mistake - Citroen make the 2CV.


JJ.

Attached is a photo of Yesteryear, this was sand racing at Redcar, besides the motorbikes (yes they used to sand race Manx Nortons as well) you will notice there is a ship in the background being broken up.
She is the Greek owned Taxiarches(spelling?) which was driven up the beach at night when the Ships Bridge Crew mistook a flashing Belisha Beacon on the seafront for the Tees Fairway Bouy (I kid you not). The former Baron boat which had managed to get through the War was declared CTL and scrapped in situ in 1952. My abiding memory was of my Father who was an Army trained explosives expert blowing the Prop off her for the Salvage Company who were concerned that Joe Public may walk into it or get themselves jammed between the Prop and the Stern Frame.
After this incident the offending Belisha Beacon had a cover placed on the seaward side.

Attached is a sand racing Manx Norton.

I bet those lads went through a few rear chains ... :sweat:

Along with nylon stockings to put over Bellmouths to keep the sand out.

Another interesting one although for old airfield racing, a stripped down Aerial Arrow and a Ducati alongside, all that pressed steel put me off the Arrow although the engine could be quite highly tuned.

The 2 or 4 CV was just an indicators of the engine power.
2CV is literally 'deux chevaux' or 2 steam horse power.

Many British models were also tagged with their power. ie Morris 8

The Arrow and the Leader were quite revolutionary bikes in their day (well, for British Manufacturers anyway.) I've just never been a two stroke fan, but they did have a rep for being hotted up.

I did have a two strokes, besides the Scottish Greeves I bought a new one of these, wish I had not but it looked better than the tinny Arrow and they were raced at one time.
A Norman B4 Sports 250 Villiers Twin, single carb. Went down to one cylinder when it rained, then it seized up on me and like yourself I got catapulted off it, in my case by a Doctor in his Jag doing a U turn which put me in Hospital for three months with a plaster jacket.
Had to buy Lodge R47 plugs for it at 15 shillings each.

That Villiers 250 Twin was a respected engine in its day although it sounded like an explosion in a tin can factory. :big_tongue:

I found the reason why it seized, as I indicated it was a single Carb feeding two cylinders, the cylinders were separate castings rather than a double casting and there was a crack in the bolted inlet manifold to the Left cylinder. The Carb and inlet had a polished cover over it. The shop I bought it from did the repairs under the Warranty.
Mind you a College (or is it University now) friend had the Panther two stroke twin with those strange front Forks, went over a Level Crossing and his Forks collapsed, made a bit of a mess of his face when he hit the Deck.
Below is an interesting car built for Sprints, the engine was fitted with an electric motor driven aircraft cabin blower which was a common practice not only for Sprint but also road going, I knew of an Austin Farina and a 105E Ford Anglia that had this type of Blower fitted. They never used first gear.

I had a Villiers 250 twin in a Bond Minicar MkG (3 wheeler, built in Preston) Great engine and mine had a Dynastart system which used the dynamo as the starter motor system, but also had a system which reversed the polarity so that you could start the engine in reverse (complete with 4 reverse gears!)

I saw a 1930's Cord at a show in the USA years ago, and that had an automatic starting system on the engine for when you stalled on a hill. Not sure how it operated, but I think there was a switch under the foot brake.