1914 cycle car and its 1908 V8 engine

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1914 cycle car and its 1908 V8 engine

on February 17 2016 | in Spy videos | by Alastair Sloane | with Comments Off

Meet Englishman Richard Scaldwell, who runs a rebuilt 1914 GN JAP cycle car and its air-cooled 5.0-litre V8 engine. It has a wooden chassis, a single ‘cyclops’ headlight, tiny rear-wheel brakes – and Scaldwell sometimes drives it from England to the south of France. GN are the initials of the cycle car company’s founders, H. R. Godfrey and Archibald Frazer-Nash. JAP is named for John Alfred Prestwich, who began making the famous motorcycle engines in London around 1902. The 150kW V8 was built in 1908 as a prototype when JAP set out to make engines for the budding air industry. Scaldwell has raced the car at hillclimbs. This video is from the Goodwood classics series.

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About the Author: Alastair Sloane

Alastair Sloane has been a newspaper journalist for almost 50 years. Has had all sorts of roles along the way, including editing two daily newspapers. Joined the NZ Herald from the Sunday Star-Times in 1996 to help launch a sports weekly. Became motoring editor of the Herald soon after, a position he held until leaving in 2012. He owns a 1968 VW Beetle. Best days at the wheel include doing part of the Land Rover Camel Trophy route in Papua New Guinea, driving a Nissan Patrol over earthquake-hit roads in Guatemala, and a Ferrari Italia 458 on Enzo’s old hill-climb road in Italy.