Buckminster Tethered Cars

Mowing had also proved a problem as the mowers sunk in, but thanks to Richard on Thursday and Nigel and Co on Friday, the car circle was trimmed enough to allow running. Not such good news on the flying field as the strong winds limited what could fly, so there was always a good audience around the track.

Over the winter, Mike Francies has been at work on the latest version of his streamliner for the Modern, British class. Instead of a Fora replica with its oddly positioned exhaust, lurking under the bonnet is a rear exhaust Rossi 21 but with full suspension. Mike is also working on an ingenious glow driver that powers the plug, adjust the power to match the plug demand and also switches off the power when the engine is under way. Always intriguing to find what Nigel and Mike have been up to with the production methods they have. CNC wheels and moulded tyres have been added to their repertoire and a gearbox is on the cards along with something really special. Go to www.youtube.com

The Redfin speed competition was the featured event of the day, but at the moment everyone seems to have hit a speed plateau. A twinshaft should be good for 90+mph with 100 as an absolute target, but this is proving a tricky prospect at present and will probably never be reached with a semi scale, retro type car. Various set ups have shown promise but have yet to deliver, perhaps why the TS was abandoned in the 50s in favour of gear drive versions? Someone that was well in to the 90s with both an aircar and wheel driven car was Roger Gedge but not a sniff of diesel as they were both electric. Roger has been working on control systems and has now a transmitter free version that ramps up the speed, full power for the run, ramp down and then stop. Worked seamlessly and during the day with prop changes resulting in runs just on 100mph. The wheel driven car was well on the money too and was also just on the 100 mark.
See Roger explain his thinking on Youtube www.youtube.com


Fully automated electronic control system	Roger Gedge	The proof

He has been busy over the winter and shown us the way forward with electrics. Power limits have been set for wheel driven cars but not yet for aircars. With 100mph now the norm for these is this the time that engine capacity and battery power need to be limited? Life has moved on since the aircar concept came into being in the late 40s, when no one could foresee the performances now being achieved?

Sunday is effectively given over to the swapmeet, so those turning up to run were going to be disappointed and this is a feature of these events that needs to be addressed. Having waxed lyrical about swapmeets regularly there is not too much that can be added, far far too much stuff and much of it far too expensive. Yes, we are well aware that you may have paid X for it a while ago, but there is not a hope that it will be anywhere near it now. Two examples of engines where the asking price was over £1,000 less than was paid and another just half of what it cost at Gildings.


The rarest Taplin	Alan Knight PAW twinshaft	Very early Chas Atkins CM

Occasionally there are real rarities and one such was Gerald Smith's own Buzzard, five cylinder radial, last seen at Gilding's sale of his collection and later being run at Old Warden by the late John Scott-Scott. A Rustler Lynx and a Chas Atkins CM owned at one stage by the late Ron Moulton were other rarely seen motors, but as usual, sales were limited.

In just two conversations, collections of over 1300 and one of 2,634 engines precisely were claimed and these are far from the largest. Difficult to believe but just four of our acquaintances can claim over 18,000 engines between them, and with one collection of 300 plus currently for sale, this will give an idea of the impending meltdown when any or all of these hit the market? Sadly, for many of the 'ordinary', massed produced motors, the skip and melting pot loom?

Derek Carter had a number of cars on his stall including this fearsome pulse jet projectile. Jets of any sort are not legal in the UK either in cars or boats. Unfortunately we were camera less when a visitor produced a lovely and original McCoy Railton from his backpack. This still had a Derby Club decal on the side and the body had a wonderful look of age.

The retirement of Roy and his burger van has been balanced by Gillian and the new cafe. The volunteers have done an amazing job with a sit-in cafe, outside patio and a serving hatch for when it is busy, no black pudding though. An advantage of this new venture is that those not altogether involved or visitors can sit there and enjoy a mardle in the sun, well done to everyone involved in creating and running this facility.

Definitely a wind down on Sunday afternoon, lots of chat and a few demo runs from Roger and Lyndon Bedford but nothing organised, again a situation that needs SAM to figure out as it is unfair on those travelling a considerable distance only to find nothing happening. Another issue that needs to be sorted with some urgency is the amount off fuel being deposited on the track. This costs a lot to clean and takes a considerable time as well, so better that it does not happen in the first place. Thanks to Steve Betney for additional photos.

Not strictly part of the report but related to the last paragraph and so that everyone is aware. All five Tether Car Group meetings will be three days.

Friday:     10am to 4pm Track open for all wheel driven cars. Cables, timing etc provided.
Saturday: 10am Track open for practice, then two rounds of competitions either side of a lunch break, details to be announced.
               Track then available until 4pm
Sunday:   10am to 2pm Track open for free running of all wheel driven cars with cables timing etc.

The forecast was not hopeful, which put a few off, and there are still those that have to work for a living, yet it was an encouraging turnout. Oliver Monk and the volunteers have been hard at work with a new driver's refuge and Oliver has built a FEMA pattern stopper, which is much more controllable and far less dangerous than the old, hand held brush.

John Goodall and new convert Ian Harper turned up later having taken heed of the forecast, only to miss most of the running. John had two of his beautiful Oliver recreations where he has added as much scale detail as is possible. His latest project is the 1948 Maserati that turned up at the October swapmeet and this is on its way to be a stunning piece of work, hopefully a full report is to follow? Ian is now getting to grips with his home built Redfin powered car and is already looking toward to further projects.

Unfortunately, the forecast did turn out to be correct, although several hours late, so it was an early finish for the day. Saturday and Sunday were bright, sunny and at times, exceedingly warm, sun bloc and hats being the order of the day.

Lyndon Bedford's two ETA powered cars now both over sixty years old are proving something of a frustrating contrast. The 2.5cc diesel runs absolutely reliably and happily, whilst the 5cc is being a pig. After numerous changes to the fuel feed and venting, plus all sorts of needle settings, it refuses to play. Starts off fine but peters out after a lap or so. In days of yore they knew how to set up the cars to run anti clockwise, but this knowledge has not been passed down as the way the fuel systems are set up seems counter intuitive by modern understanding.


First start in 43 years	Pushing off	When to stop?

Jan Huning must take some sort of honour for having the two cars that have completed the most laps of the track, with complete reliability. His 'schools car' with the TEMP motor hovers around the 90mph mark and has done so much running that it needed a pit stop for new tyres on Saturday evening (right). His Oliver Tiger Two-Five with its homebuilt twinshaft motor starts so easily, a tribute to Jan's engine building skills.

Over the winter many runners have changed allegiance from Model Technics fuel to ED, which required adjustments to compression and needle setting. Ian Wingfield's two cars eventually responding to the correct combination.

Another reliable twin shaft is Chris Maggs' TEMP powered Road Runner 'beep beep' that starts and runs nicely, as long as the pusher remembers which way up the push stick has to be.

Less happy news from the OTW 3b, which just did not want to go and felt a bit graunchy, a strip down revealed the piston missing a sizeable piece of its skirt that had been rattling about inside, doing things not good at all. Hugh's 2.1 continues to clear the wax from everyone's ears although still not running flat out.

So, to the competition, two rounds of nominated speed with a novelty 'roulette' thrown in, whoever's car stopped closest to the timer being the winner, without any influence from the horser that is. With most of the cars being established runners, no one was very far from their nomination, apart from Ian Harper, who was happy to blow his by 7mph, the right way. David Giles' Nordec powered 1066 Conquest is both a noisy beast and requires a manful push to persuade it into life, but very consistent, although David has had to up his nominated speed by 4mph since the effect an added dose of Nitro. Remarkably, both of his runs would have won him the competition with errors of just 0.140 and 0.118mph for his two runs. Second was Chris with his Road Runner at 0.331mph and 3^rd Ian Wingfield at 0.431mph.

Andy Soars had something of a baptism of fire as niggling faults stopped both his beautifully engineered cars from running. His 2.5 twinshaft is a recreation of what the ZN 2.5 car was planned to become, cast from the original ZN pattern. The Moore#11 was ready to go but of all things, the glow clip snapped. A recurring problem throughout the weekend was fuel cut-offs tripping during runs, probably ten runs, failed because of this. For those that stayed the distance, the stopper built by Oliver Monk worked to perfection on cars of very different speeds.

A last minute change of plan meant that the new cafe would be open so that we were able to sample the breakfast baps being offered by Gillian. We can say, without question, that they are a worthy substitute for Roy's and should be sampled by all.

Sunday by design was a winding down day, although everyone had as many runs as they wanted in a very relaxed atmosphere with plenty of chances to chat and marvel at items being dug out of boxes. A very early CS Oliver twinshaft, a 10cc motor built on a 1066 Conqueror crankcase and a Carter based McCoy that has caused some head scratching. The engine came with a provenance that has been claimed for another of the ilk, not for the first time with Carter engines. The provenance with this one seems rock solid though, so questions have to be asked. The only Haward-Conneley 10cc we have ever seen, a couple of Gerald Smith motors and a Australian copy of a Dooling 61 amongst the gems that emerged. Although well illustrated, apart from Alan Knight's replica, the Black Panther with its combined engine and transmission was new to most.

Having run and chatted through to lunchtime, the site was cleared and we were all able to hit the road having had a wonderful weekend. As far as we were concerned, the decision to extend the meetings was justified so that subsequent meetings will all be of the same format, full days on Friday and Saturday with an early finish on the Sunday. Video action www.youtube.com


Ian Harper	Mike and Nigel's wheels and tyres	Rossi 12	PCB for glow driver


A brace of wheel driven electrics from Roger		Ian Harper's Redfin powered car


Demo runs from Lyndon Bedford	Multiple Champions Peter Halman, Paul Eisner	Peterborough Racing Team


Single wheel drive	Just because you can doesn't mean you should, neither is it legal


Black Panther, original motor	Carter Checksfield Drewell McCoy?	Perfect provenance