Buddies first bike

[PATMAX]

Try going from a Gen to a 67 Triumph 650 that shifts on the other side!

 

[CaptainKyle]

Try going from a Gen to a 67 Triumph 650 that shifts on the other side!

Rode my fare share of them & done ok then rode a Sunbeam and had to think to ride it since the gears are all down & 1 up

 

[invalidsession]

Rode my fare share of them & done ok then rode a Sunbeam and had to think to ride it since the gears are all down & 1 up

My Dad had a Sunbeam S500 side valve with a side car on it back in the very early 60's. I was just a little boy and my brother was looming large in Mums belly so he sold it and got a small car. He used to let me sit up front on the tank of that bike when I was about 2 years old when he put it away for the night. To this day I reckon that's what got me hooked on bikes.

Chris.

 

[one2dmax]

Only Sunbeam we had was on 4 wheels. Dad had converted it to a small block aluminum olds engine back in the day. Was quite fast and eventually they teched him off the track since they couldn't find a class for him to race in. Keep in mind this was before timers were really used and they just grouped cars together by their engine and car size.

 

[Fire-medic]

When Chrysler bought Rootes Group for its small car line in the '60's, they found themselves selling a foreign car w/a Ford V-8 in it! (the Tiger). A cheap alternative to a Cobra, the Cobra initially had a 260 cu inch V-8, before the 289 and the 427's. Those cars are much sought-after by collectors as they are the first Cobras! A friend of mine in Dania Beach FL bought one in the late 1970's for $26,000, which could buy you a decent home here at the time, everybody thought he was insane for spending that. Three years later he sold it for $106,000.

I'm not sure but I am guessing that both Buick and Olds used the GM aluminum V-8 which was later sold lock, stock, and barrel to British Leyland, who used it in the Rover 2000TC (where it became the 3500TC) and the MGB-GT, where it became the MGB-GT V8, I think it was called. It had the same performance as a Jaguar XK-E but for $1000's less, which is probably why they didn't last but 2 years. Buick also cut two cylinders off the end to make an aluminum V-6 which they turbocharged. It had a propensity for warping the heads and block if it overheated, which pretty-much ruined the engine, as it was not a good candidate from recovery from that, even w/a good machine shop decking the block and surfacing the heads.

Interestingly, Repco in Australia used the same aluminum engine block for their entry in Formula 1 and Jack Brabham had much success with it. I saw Jack Brabham race that series engine back in the Formula 1 races in the mid-1960's at Watkins Glen NY.

I think Olds even had an experimental plane they powered w/a V-8, to demonstrate its utility and ruggedness, though it may have been their 330 cu inch V-8 they used. That one was cast iron for the block, the 330 cu inch. That's back when each GM branch had their own engines.

Sean, I bet your dad had a lot of fun w/that car. Did you ever get a chance at the wheel?

 

[one2dmax]

LOL, much too small and well before my time. I have to try and dig through the family albums to get pics of this old stuff and get it posted up. He said the first attempt at driving the car ended up with it being towed back and having to weld up and reinforce the frame. Seems the car did not like the hard landing from the monster wheelie it pulled. They shifted the engine farther forward to fix that problem. All I remember about it was it was a Sunbeam Alpine.

Edit, I forgot that when my dad left for Vietnam (66-67) the car was left with my mother (who's car it actually was). Her brother had come home from college in Hawaii and needed money to go to college in Canada. So, grandma told him to sell the car to get the money. Of course it wasn't either of their car to sell but they did it anyway. Needless to say dad was pissed that it was sold when he got back home (on leave). That caused a pretty big rift between my Uncle and him that still lasts to this day.

Sean