BazL cyclecar

BazL is a cyclecar recently built by Barry Lain and powered by an ABC engine. I suspect it's one of those originally set up to inflate observation balloons during WWI.

Whatever the origin, it is now powering an odd little cyclecar and you can view it on a series of video clips on YouTube. There are four clips so far shot by johnchilds79.

If you want to see a few close ups of a running ABC engine have a look. It's curious in that the starting crank appears to be fitted to the timing gear rather than the end of the crankshaft so the crankhandle is swung anti-clockwise rather than the usual clockwise. I presume this was done to raise the crank handle away from the ground when used for it's original purpose.

Search under BazL or Johnchilds79 and it'll pop up.

Cheers,

BazL and johnchilds79 don't seem to work: but barry lain cyclecar does.
Quite a bolide!

Hallo Villiers,
I think You nailed the origin of Bazl's engine correctly: the illustration on page 28 of Kim Siddorn's celebrated volume "From Somme to Beverley" is a deadringer for the engine in the U-tube pictures.
However, Kim's assertion that these models drove air fans to pump up dirigibles I find strange: surely hydrogen was the stuff to get balloons off the ground, not air.
Cranking the engine via the camshaft had the advantage (?) of a two-to-one step-up to the crankshaft, handy perhaps if the valve lifter worked properly.

It's simple enough Paul,

They had to blow up the dirigible to both check for leaks and for crew training purposes plus get it ready to take the hydrogen. As far as I understand it best practice required the diriguble to be more or less blown in to shape with air before releasing the hydrogen.

Hydrogen was both hazardous and not in sufficient supply to possibly waste it. Blowing in air was sufficient for most ground testing and crew training plus much safer.

It's strange what exotica you learn because of an interest in ABC isn't it.

Cheers,