Posted by jerry on May 17th, 2009 — Posted in Journal, Steam
Arthur Funai is a perfectionist and a retired engineer who worked for General Electric. That was a while back, and at almost 90 years of age he is completing restoration of a 1904 Grout steam car that he has had under restoration since 1956. It has been a lifelong hobby – he has also restored a 1914 Model T Ford – which is in the garage next door.
He began restoring the Grout car when he was 36 years old, and being an engineer, he has made many of the parts himself – including the machines to make the parts. But some critical systems, like the boiler he outsourced to specialists – in this case Don Borden who has made over 500 boilers for steam cars – mainly Stanley steamers.
The Barrett steam car, auctioned on ebay one year ago from the estate of the late Peter Barrett, has been meticulously checked, tinkered, and using Barrett’s notebooks to understand the reasoning behind every component, and finally has been brought back to life. The car is a kit sports car with a modified VW engine converted to run on steam. Although built in the 1970s-80s it has a computer controlled steam generator that builds 1500 psi in a few minutes at 750F. When Barrett had it going it was capable of 80mph. A true modern steam car. I’m really pleased that Barrett’s work did not die with him. And the car is finally drivable as you will see here
Cheers
Jerry
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The 2009 Retromobile show in Paris is on 6-15 Feb and displays a range of European marques from veteran, vintage, classic and later. But this show has a twist – one of its key themes is green technology, so the show displays a number of cars from the turn of the 19-20 Century using alternative fuels, including electric, steam, hybrid, and compressed air vehicles from over 100 years ago.
Thanks to Charles Bremner of TimesOnline whose article inspired this one.
Cheers
Jerry
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Posted by jerry on February 3rd, 2009 — Posted in Journal, Steam, Travel
Every year in the first weekend in November as the frost is settling over Hyde Park in London you can see about 200 unique cars dating from the 1890s up to 1904. They drive the 60 miles from London to Brighton to commemorate the repeal of the notorious ‘Red Flag Act’ (Locomotives on Highways Act (1865)) that had restricted motorised vehicles to 4mph in the country and 2mph in towns. The Act stipulated that vehicles needed a crew of three – the driver, a stoker and a man to walk 60 yards in front carrying a red flag or lantern to ensure that traffic (mostly traction engines) were kept to a walking pace. There must have been good money for fast joggers!
The Act was replaced in 1896 with the Locomotives on Highways Act (1896) which became known as the Emancipation Act – which defined a new category of vehicle: ‘light locomotives’, which were less than 3 tons unladen weight. These vehicles were exempt from the 3 crew member rule, and were subject to the higher 14 mph (22 km/h) speed limit. In celebration of this new law, Harry John Lawson – founder of Daimler Motor Company in Coventry – organised the first London to Brighton run on 14 November 1896.
Almost 100 years later, in 1995 I attended the start of the London to Brighton run – the following photos were taken at that time. Some are a bit shy of focus – I had a manual focus pentax K1000 camera and it wasn’t easy to catch these cars on the move!
This 1896 Whitney steam car was driven by Jeff Theobold, of the Steam Car Club of Great Britain – veteran of many runs – who told me the car made the run successfully each time he campaigned it, despite some burner problems near the start – a result of too much waiting around before the start, making parts of the engine too hot or too cold for efficient running, but after a few miles it sorted itself.
I also spotted this 1900 Gardner-Serpollet
And then a succession of Locomobile/early Stanley steamers from 1900-1903
This is a great video in which Simon Power discusses restoring and demonstrates driving a Stanley. With a one-to-one gear ratio it goes fast – maintains 70mph ‘for as long as the road can take it’. One hopes that shock absorbers on the suspension were part of the restoration!
