A little history first.
Before I immigrated to the UK in 2016 I had an exploratory trip in 2015 (via Tieton) to see if we really wanted to come and live here. One of the visits I paid was to Brooklands where I met with some senior staff and we discussed whether Cyclekarts might be allowed. They were enthusiastic, especially if some were inspired by the cars that ran there way back when.
Subsequently I met with Wes Raynor of Mardave radio controlled cars, who had also built the Darracq T700. He and Bill Alexander were, to my knowledge the first builders of Cyclekarts in the UK. Wes was very keen on doing something at Brooklands, so again I contacted them. Although the circle of known Cyclekarts was small they were keen, but asked if we could delay until there was a viable group.
Thanks to Graham Appleyard and Stefan this long dreamed event is taking place.
One of my dreams for Brooklands has always been a Parry Thomas "Flatiron", or as he called it "Thomas Special 2", as the event is the 95th Anniversary it seemed only right to me that I should now do a build of his car. He had 3 entered for the event 95 years ago, only 2 were finished (in the week leading up to the event). As might be expected they did not do overly well, midfield at best, largely due to a lack of testing it's thought.
Sadly he perished when Babs crashed (no it's now proven he was not decapitated by the chain). That meant the cars were never to really get the fine development they deserved, although they later were seen as good cars.
On to my build.
This is being built as a plywood monocoque, very limited steel. The main body as in the photos is 9 mm ply (£23). Initially it was going to be limited to 2400 mm long (as per the original Stevenson suggestion on length) with the tail truncated some, but as Adrian paid a rush visit the other day it as his first comment was that it looked wrong, I will be making an extension to more correct the long tail look. He we are 3 days in, front axle done and ready to bolt in, rear axle made up and almost ready, 4 wheels (thanks Adrian) prepared and ready.
The task today is to progress the body top at the front, How to do this has been a sticking point for a long time. Current method is to laminate in fibreglass the round edges and bond to a top, wait and see! (At least I know how to fibreglass!) I can't add the horizontal bulkhead nor the verticals, I'm out of epoxy till Tuesday otherwise the structure would be complete today!