Buckminster Tethered Cars

Looking back at last year's reports, weather largely dominated every event. The Spring Gala lived up to its name with the area by the track seriously hot, and without a spot of rain since late February the site was in perfect condition. What was also immediately obvious was the huge amount of work the volunteers had accomplished over the winter. The timing hut and kickboards at the track had all been painted, the area outside the cafe has now been finished with a gravelled area and a lawn area newly seeded. It is not generally appreciated just how much work goes on to maintain and develop the site making it the fantastic facility it now is. Also noticeable that a number of refugees from Old Warden had made the trip, some for the very first time.

We have been in the habit of making Buckminster a long weekend, but this time it was an exceedingly long one as two extra open days had been arranged for the previous Wednesday and Thursday. Five of us took the opportunity to burn some fuel and try out the results of the winter's labours. Mike Francies and Nigel Bathe have been hard at work on new cars as well as producing wax masters for bevel drive gearboxes, engine mounts and suspension components. They did have some of the prototype castings to look at, and with the other components they are producing are well on the way to self sufficiency for chassis and running gear. Gerry Best had delved into his wallet again to add a very original Wilma 3b to the Junior car he bought last season. Also new was another Lev Shprints derived 2.1 junior car, untried having been obtained second-hand and unrun. Attempts to get it started highlighted a fault in the induction system that need to be fixed before the next meeting.

Lots of new engines being run in on the bench and in cars with some very impressive speeds, especially from Mike with his 2.5cc car that put up the fastest non FEMA run we have seen to date. He has also produced a very tasty red fade spray job on the body of his latest 2.1 car that garnered many admiring (and envious) looks. Sadly the Canon camera died at the very instance a photo of this was being taken, proved to be an electronic problem in the lens, so all is not lost. The very high air pressure was an added bonus as the OTW Junior car broke 100mph for the first time, ending up at 104mph, all helped by a clean track with plenty of traction. Oliver and Aaron Monk have been hard at work grinding off some of the minor high spots that aided the quest for speed as well as figuring out what further levelling work needs to be done.

A day off on the Friday for a bit of tourism and then back to Buckminster and no sign of anything other than sun as the SAM contingent began to arrive on with a change of emphasis and the accent more on 2.5cc diesels and retro style cars. John Goodall had two example of the new Vanwall castings that has been added to the Oliver range of castings, a car that did not exist when the Olivers were in full swing. It is a lovely looking car, and with the addition of the prominent four branch exhaust and wrap round windscreen makes a lovely model. Casting are available from John on the Market Place page. Part of the Redfin trophy judging involves 'design innovation' and so far, no one has gone left field or produced any real lateral thinking in terms of design, but I was really impressed with an alternative solution to the problem of giving a twinshaft a bit of rear suspension. Ian Harper had bolted a long titanium plate in to the bottom of the car allowing the motor to move both vertically and in torsion, adjustable by the thickness of the plate and where in the car it is secured. With a damper at the rear of the motor, this seemed a really neat solution. He is now figuring out how this might be applied to the front wheels, but an idea with lots of mileage.

John Goodall has beaten that with a modern Slabang car on a FEMA track, breaking 100mph, but surely we should be doing better here. The suggestion was that some basic maths was undertaken to see what revs the motors were pulling to see if the speeds matched in any way where the motors should be. A most important technique with FEMA cars, but a rough calculation showed that a Redfin on 2 1/14" standard wheels should be good for 100mph allowing for 20% wheelspin?

Andy Soars has been busy over the winter producing a fabulous pattern for the pan and gearbox of the Ian Moore #12 car, so now castings can be produced for both the 5cc #11 and 10cc #12. Traditionally the pan handle or bridles were on the left of the car for anti-clockwise running, which actually puts the fuel feed on the wrong side for most engines, so Andy has produced two patterns so that both cars can be had in either ACW or CW running directions. If this seems odd, Warren and Clarke who produced Ian Moore's castings and those for other published designs would often cast tether brackets and lugs on both sides, leaving the builder to remove the ones they did not want.


Andy's two twinshaft cars one on a ZN cast pan	Superb resin pattern for an Ian Moore #12

The new rules for aircars seems to have have a deleterious effect on numbers, leaving Roger Gedge's electric version now the fastest with a very modest battery pack and fully automated run sequence from the programmer. Roger also had his electric wheel driven cars, which he claims are simple to build, with easily obtainable components. With the current dearth of parts, this does offer a realistic alternative, unless the smell and noise of an IC motor is what drives you on. Roger's ex OTW Redfin performed faultlessly as always in the mid 80s, where it has been since its very first run. Plenty of speeds on the chart to carry forward to the Retrofest where the next element of judging for the trophy takes place.

Video from the event www.youtube.com

Sunday is swapmeet day, now promoted by the BMFA. One new innovation was the one way system Gill had instituted for the cafe making it a 'free flow' facility. The hall and car parks were full of hopeful sellers and queues of ready and enthusiastic buyers were lining up well before opening time, but it is clear that there has been a massive change in the market of late. The recent auctions have shown that engine prices have plummeted, apart from the rare items, but as more appear on the market, so they are also experiencing the downward trend. At least three traders commented that 'they had not sold a thing all day', which ought to give food for thought?

Something we fail to understand is why traders pay for a table, turn up with boxes full of stuff and then fail to sell anything? However, something we came across last time and was even more evident this time were tables with items that 'were not for sale', well, why bring them. One trader in particular had two tables but not interested in selling, using a variety of excuses. At the other extreme was a person with a small selection of items that were sold in double quick time simply because they were 'priced to sell'.

It was refreshing to see so many tethered cars and related items for sale with John Goodall having a selection of desirable cars and engines including a nice Rowell MkI. Ian Harper had the full range of Oliver castings along with the Vanwall (see Market Place for details). Another stall had a pristine and unrun original Wilma along with a selection of castings, parts and related literature.
Right: Oliver castings

Earlier in the week, the forecast for the Sunday indicated that the weather was due to break, possibly accounting for fewer outside traders, and whilst it did look a bit threatening at time, it stayed dry, if a trifle chilly. Sadly, the amount of aircraft on sale far exceeded the potential buyers, yet some of the vintage models on sale were lovely, but what do you do with them nowadays, too big to display, too old to use competitively, just exercises in nostalgia that need a lot of room. Engine wise, there are just far too many of them and ever more coming on to the market. Keep an eye out for the biggest ever BMFA auction in the Autumn.

By midday it was all thinning out so it was back to the track for the last knockings. One car going into an honourable retirement after many hundreds, if not thousands of laps, one headed for the workshop and the prospect of plenty of work for some of us before the next event.

With Nigel Bathe's resignation, Ian Harper had taken the reins as SAM's TCIG Secretary, and being new to the job, we offered to travel up early and provide a helping hand, which also gave us an opportunity to look at a new exhibit in the office. When ex F2A Champion Ray Gibbs died, his widow had asked Dave Smith, another life long speed flyer, to sell his remaining planes, which appeared at last October's swapmeet. Amongst them were three replicas of his championship winning 'Nipper' in 15, 29 and 60 sizes. Dave has mounted the 15 in a showcase with other material as a lasting tribute to Ray

New rules were in place this season for the Dick Roberts aircar trophy, which had the unfortunate effect of reducing the entry to just one. In keeping with the spirit of the competition, engines had been limited to 2.5cc radially ported diesels. Like the Redfin Trophy, points are awarded for innovation, build quality and presentation, but can the same model be entered on a yearly basis with no changes? In the event, as Babs Roberts was coming to present the trophy, John Goodall was persuaded to dig Aries 2 out of his car and give it a run. With just two car entered and one being highly innovative and superbly engineered, John took the trophy home again. His car is perfectly set up, tracks beautifully and is almost a work of art on its own.

There are two Redfin trophies, Speed, as the title infers, for the fastest run with a 2.5cc twinshaft over the season, basically a shoot out between Nigel Bathe and Roger Gedge, both running in the high 80s. Andy Soars has two very well turned out cars that are very close behind with TMP motors that he has just about spot on. He had suffered an upset to his lovely Moore #11 on Friday as it fell foul of the track. Its speed just seemed to coincide with a period of oscillation that had the rear end bouncing higher and higher each lap until the inevitable happened with dire results to the GRP and paintwork.

The second Redfin trophy involves all the judging elements described above but with just a run required to qualify. John Goodall had produced a beautiful, scale Vanwall, having made the pattern for the pan and body and then put in a Redfin with front and rear suspension. Add to this the correct four branch exhaust system, the NACA ducts, wrap round windscreen, lettering and numbering and there was a very high scoring entry. Castings for this sleek model are available on our Market Place page. Gianmauro Castagnetti from Italy however has built from scratch a most amazing version of a Slabang, but without a single commercial part. The 2.5cc twinshaft with fully damped suspension was built entirely by him as was the pan and body. Last season he would have been a clear winner but could not manage a qualifying run as pushing off the car proved impossible. This year he had made extended wheel nuts that would take a forked push stick enabling a clean getaway each time. Time will tell, but it is either the scale appearance of the Vanwall or the innovation of the Slabang that will take home the trophy. It was great to see Alex Phin back from Australia for a three week visit.

Last year Gianmauro brought along an exact replica of the Oliver 5cc twin that he had built, basically two Tiger MkIIs back to back with a new centre section. Like John Goodall who has the original, he has struggled with getting both cylinders to run cleanly so took the extreme route of making an entirely new version, but this time with the centre shaft acting as a rotary valve with just a single venturi. Seemed to work fine as he recorded runs with both cars. A tank problem prevented John running his original. On a recent visit to Sweden, Ian Harper was lucky enough to be able to buy one of the late Arnie Zetterstrom's superbly engineered cars, a Dooling 29 spur drive car from 1958. Such was the quality of it that it was put on the track and was away, only caution causing it to be shut down as the motor came on song.

The overriding feature of the weekend was the heat, but thanks to John Goodall's huge gazebo, there was some shade, which was just as well as the hangar was being set up for the Sunday swapmeet. As is traditional, prior to the presentation, Dick Robert's final version of the proa that started the aircar revolution was given a run, after Jan Huning tweaked the settings on the Oliver motor. So, once again, the Roberts Aircar trophy travelled back to Staffordshire, but the lack of entries would indicate that the revised rules need serious examination before next season. There are electric aircars, very stable and well engineered, those with more modern engines, fast and not so fast and an assortment of others, but what is their place in the grand scheme of things? As for the wheel driven cars, as someone pointed out, can you have innovation in Retro style cars, they were what they were? Plenty of innovation in another of Ian Harper's cars, but the innovation was in the 1950s as this was a modern replica of the ETA 'Terry Special' complete with ETA 29 motor. It would almost certainly benefit from some front suspension though?

Effectively, that was running over for the weekend as Sunday is swapmeet day, but again, it really is time that the approach to swapmeets is examined, as yet again there was a plethora of engines, largely overpriced. One dealer insists on abiding by the price tickets he put on his engines 20+ years ago and then complains that he has not sold anything. Auction results clearly show that the trend is still downward and selling commercially at a swapmeet is seldom going to produce results. Wandering round and seeing engines bought at Gildings and BMFA now with further inflated prices is hardly likely to bring results. The ultimate optimist was asking £500 for an Oliver replica. Star lots were the complete tethered cars for sale at less than the engines were worth.

Given the heat, the ice creams and ice lollies were great sellers in the cafe and the new addition of toasted paninis very well received. Mind you, that was not the only things toasted over the weekend, but a week later it was to get even hotter. A while to wait until the conclusion of the Redfin trophy and the next swapmeet in October when it should be considerably cooler, and hopefully for the flyers, significantly less windy.


British version of the 2.1 car	Unrun Wilma with OS motor	Real Pusher


John Goodall's Vanwall	Titanium plate rear suspension	'Old Mother Gun' Bentley


John and Paul Goodall	Pristine Wilma Monza	NIB Oliver Tiger MkII twinshaft


Jaguar powered BRM	Redfin kit 'Ferrari'	Series 1 Oliver Tiger Two-Five


Tribute to Ray Gibbs	Last version of Dick Robert's 'proa'	John wins again


Gianmauro Castagnetti	Gianmauro, Paola and Hugh	Preparing the twin


Zetterstrom 5cc from 1958	Nothing standard	Superb castings and engineering


Gianmauro Castagnetti's 5cc twin	GRP 'Terry Special'	ETA29 on spur mount


Very cheap Redfin	A sea of engines for sale	Castings and cars for sale