Ivan Saxton

According to what Bob Chamberlain told me, during the war, his company were asked to produce a quantity of cartridge tube radiators for one model of military aircraft that were made here in Melbourne. They made dies with which they cast the internal shape of the of the cartridge tubes in "woods metal". This is an alloy which is peculiar in that it melts in hot water. They made myriads of those internal shapes, with the expanded hexagonal ends; and they coated them with copper of the specified wall thickness by electroplating. ( Obviously after removing the copper from the end faces), they recovered the woods metal in a bath of very hot water. Then the tubes with expanded hexagonal ends were assembled in frames with which they were dipped, one end at a time, first into soldering flux, and then into solder bath to the depth hexagonal ends. Now it puzzled me that for those special duty aircraft engine radiators, why the military supply authorities did not go to Colonial Lamp and Radiator Company in almost central Melbourne. They had always been able to make high quality radiators of any core type and shape, and when I first went there when I could make spare time un-connected to my course at University of Melbourne, Les Taylor showed me some of the equipment and information for manufacture of Winchester cartridge tubes. I suppose that during the War Westinghouse may likely have been fully extended making high velocity discouragement equipment to deal with Japanese and Germans. Regards, Ivan Saxton

That torsion- stiffening tube should be specific identification. The name Flint comes to mind, though I have never seen one. It may have been above mid-level Durant range. Chatter about frames like this being ideal to make "speedsters" worries me, because you could easily destroy the opportunity for something unique to be restored correctly as it originally existed. The worst example in recent years resulted in the heroic effort of an Englishman altering the chassis frame of a chain-drive car which had been stripped where it had lain upside down in a deep gully when it ran off the road many years before. John Medley found report of the accident in a local newspaper, and identified the make of car. The name of the family who owned the property was still in the telephone directory. The man who John spoke to re-directed him to telephone his Mother. Yes, she had walked to the crash site in the morning following the accident, and her mother had taken photos of the car lying upside down. Would John like to have the photos her mother took???!!! Stuart Middlehurst brought home the chassis frame, and a single cylinder barrel with a gudgeon pin score up the bore. So the man in Scandinavia has a full set of cylinder barrels for the brilliant first of Ferdinand Porsche's sports racing designs for Austro Daimler; but no chassis to build it on. To build a fast and effective racer it is best to study the books which show what was achieved with T Fords in the 1920s. One Fronty Ford finished fifth behind four Millers at Indianapolis. Ivan Saxton

Whenever you want to identify the make of an item like this, there are a few simple rules that can help. First, take photos from in front, behind, and at least one side view. In this case, the view from the rear, upside down, does not show whether the drive to the rear axle involves a torque tube. ( In this case, it looks to me probable that the drive is ( or was) by open tailshaft. The style of the rear axle/differential is fairly commonplace. The shape and style of the rear of the main chassis rails is unusual. The style, and the combination of internal expanding with contracting band brakes with the same thin material of the drums is not ideal thermally. The age would be early to mid 1920s. Without measurement of distance between centres of front and rear axles two possibilities could be Hudson and Studebaker. The frame looks possibly longer than the 1918 Hudson that Henry Formby had here, which was sold interstate early 1980s. Possibly Studebaker was a make that could have had logical idiosyncracies. What you really need to do is compare what you have with the listings of specifications in the January ( New York) issues of MoToR for those years of the early to mid to mid 1920s. You can learn a lot of details about a lot of cars through these.

I should be able to get a Telephone number for Lindsay Vinen. His father was a long time friend, who could probably count the Meallurgiques he had on the fingers of both hands,; and those included at least two cars dating earlier than WW1. Decades ago Barry brought to me the rear hubs of a little earl English 2 cylinder Perry car. He wanted me to rebuild the brake drums with a Metco coating called Spraysteel LS, which is applied with a "gun " which feeds the wire stock through an oxy-acetylene flame by a little air turbine motor whereby the exhaust air propells the molten steel particles onto the job. The material is a machineable work-hardening carbon steel with 7% Molybdenum content. I was reluctant because the drums had worn till you could see daylight through them. Nearly 10 years later I saw Barry at our national Bendigo Swap. He told met they ad taken the rear axle of the Perry apart for some reason, and the rebuild brakes were perfect. He said that the Perry is the only car in the Veteran Car club whose brakes with cast iron linings work perfectly. I said "Barry, you told me that you were going to use modern brake linings." "He said yes. We used modern Cast iron!" I have wasted a lot of typing time. But Lindsay will be able to confirm what you now already know.

It is M series or SV16. The casting date is on the left of the engine block at the top, where it is hidden behind the hot-box of the intake manifold. The pair of cast reinforcing gussets from the back of the block to the top of the integral bell-housing were not a feature of engines earlier than M series.

There were three series of model 314, produced mainly over 1926-7; with the 314Aphased in as replacement for the last of the V63 sometime during 1925. There were a lot of alterations between a constatly changing progression of models, which an unknowing person might think likely to be very much the same, because the all had fork&blade connecting rods; and identical 3.125" bore and 5.125" stroke for314 cubic inch displacement. All the V63 engines had longer connecting rods and piston skirts. this may have changed performance characteristics a bit with different torque curves, but this also made the engines noticeably heavier. One really basic change happened during 1923. Apparently while chief Engineer Ernest Seaholm was studying European ideas on extended absence, Charles Kettering and mathematician Hutchinson devised a split plane crankshaft with different firing order and counterweights. They obtained the approval of Alfred Sloane; and Engineer Seaholm retuned from Europe to find that without his effort or approval, his Cadillacs had lost their harmonic vibration periods which were very bothersome in cars with large closed bodywork. ( it was a painful nuisance however, if you had to remove a piston and connecting rod from underneath; and the worst annoyance was the need to remove and replace the crankshaft counterweights.) The Man who had been Cadillac agent in Melbourne in the 1920sand 30s told me much because I was polite and happy to listen. We probably have much better sealing compounds for the cork carburetter floats; and i would have much less grief shaping cork for a new one. Starter drove a bevel ring gear, mounted vertically at the back of the engine. Generator was mounted at the front and topof the aluminium crankcase, with fan mounted on the front and driven by a very heavy thick fan belt. Water pump and oil pump were driven by cross shaft and skew gears , one on either side. In the 314Cthe generator and waterpump were mounted low on the right , and driven by a silent enclosed chain. On 314B and C the instruments are mounted with a very elegant German silver plate, which. has a very ornate pressed design,which is inlaid with fiddleback walnut veneer, From all this complex detail you should be able to work out which model you have.

I have some photos. including one and perhaps more; of the engine FRP that was being restored at Harrah's when I visited there about September 1980. After Auburn I visited Ernie Toth and Ruth In Cleveland Ohio; then by plane and then bus to Springfield Vermont. I was invited guest of Morris and Libby Burrows for the Glidden tour which was based that year at Bretton Woods. Morris and Libby particularly wanted me to meet Ralph Buckley and Henry Austin Clark. Unfortunately Ralph had withdrawn after a bad fall on the deck of his mahogany boat. We could not interrupt Austie's late morning adjustment with pink gin. If Ralph had been there I believe we could have enjoyed some mutually beneficial conversation. Ralph met me at the bus depot at Atlantic City when I arrived from Springfield Vermont. He uncovered the 1914 Raceabout where it stood in the building next door to Ralph's workshop. He said it needed fresh restoration, but that we would take a drive in it nevertheless. When Ralph set the controls and gave the Armstrong starter a twist, it ran on one cylinder. Ralph said we would have clean and lubricate all the exhaust valve stems and guide. Then one of his men came from next door; To summon Ralph to a phone conference with one of his customers. I asked whether I should wait till Ralph returned. He said "You know what you are doing". I was wiping the tools and putting them in place when he returned. He said "What, have you finished already. I said that " I was just pottering along". It felt much happier on 4 cylinders. After a couple of miles Ralph stopped, told me to get off, and then to get in the driver's seat. I said "Ralph, when I was 10 or 12 years old at boarding school, another student had a copy of Ken Purdy's "Kings of the road". I never expected to see a Mercer Raceabout, let alone ride in one. That is enough!!! Ralph gave me driving instructions. "Do not touch the footbrake. It is not good for the axle gears." If you slow down, change down, otherwise you can break the lugs which fasten the engine blocks to the crankcase. The late raceabouts have about 6 to 1 compression ratio, I reckon FRP saw and understood why the 1907 Tipo Taunus Isotta Franschinis went so well. Two of the identiacal cars that IF made by contractfor the importers are still preserved. And I would bet sixpense to a greasy bootlace knew those cars and understood why they went so well at Savannah and elsewhere. In the 1907 Coppa Florio, Minoia averaged just under 69 mph for 302 miles, and used only 19.8 imperial gallons of fuel for that distance. Everyone should have a copy of Sir Harry Ricardo's textbook for mechanical engineers, so you can understand that Cattaneo unwhittingly created PRIOR Art to Ricardo'sturbulence combustion Chamber, 10 years before the patent. I'll try to finish itomorrow.

I only asked John Ryder a week ago if he could give me an email address for you. I had noticed in the last Stutz Club roster book ( which I have, ) your address showed as Roanoke. I thought it might interest and amuse you that we have very old Ancestral connection with that place. Sir Richard Grenville was a direct ancestor. I can send photos that will interest you easily by email; whereas I have no idea how to share these through the forum. Regards, Ivan.

If you are looking to check detail of a Stutz Black Hawk Speedster that is original. Mr A K Miller had two that were in his eatate sale some years ago, and the one which Harrahs had was reputed to have been one of the factory racing cars. I made a complete new carb for the man who owned it in the Mid-West some years ago; and I also made another for the Collier collection car. The people who might really know originals from replicas might include George Holman , Ernie Toth, Fred Hoch, and Stan Francis of Golden Restorations (in Colorado, I think. He would be very reliable if he is still about, because John Jordan met some of our Stutz Owners Register when he visited Australia. My friends told me that Mr Jordan owned one of about five clones that Mr Francis made as faithful replicas of the car which had been in the Harrah Collection, so you might expect those to be very good guide to what was original. Each engine usually has a cast number on the top centre of the left side of the engine block casting which tells in a simple code the date when it was cast. The AA engine block I have is numbered 9176. The date which that represents is the 17th day of September 1926. Another incomplete engine which Paul Freehill sold me when I visited him in 1984. Paul said that nobody was much interested "because the numbers were puzzling". The casting date was the 27th of June 1928, for anyone who understood the code. The engine number is DV30004. There are at least several 1928 engines which still exist with "9"-prefix engine numbers, with casting dates later than this engine. The explanation is in the chapter on Stutz in John Bentley's book "Great American Automobiles". In reference to the introduction when the DV32 was released, the company announced that a number of sample cars had been extensively tested for great distances on the Speedway, and on the deserts and mountains of southern United States. That time frame fits for the Manufacturing date of my engine. I would argue that the remaining five Stutz steel connecting rods, which went to Ernie Toth to make a set of 8 with what he had; and the much stronger main bearing caps, probably indicate the influence of Frank Lockhart to increase the reliability to make the engines un-burstable. A few years ago, Geoff Ringrose4 heard a noise in his engine on a club run in Sydney, and had the car taken home on a tilt-tray. The centre main bearing cap was broken front to back, and engineers have told us that torsional vibration can cause that to happen. Maybe this is the design fault that caused the Stutz engine to fail in the match race with the Hispano Suiza at Indianapolis. The imortance of history is the reasons things happen.

I should have three pairs, (left and right hand thread). One pair was on an early Buick front axle. and the other two pairs were on different. Roamer front axles that had been used for farm trailers, and every one was securing a wheel. I only knew that the two front were Roamer axles by discs on at least one wheel nut on each. There is one Roamer wheel disc in a box of discs which my youngest son intends to copy in whatever numbers are needed. Do not hold your breath, but the other four wheel nuts must be here; and they will turn up when they are ready to be found. The numbers on the three chassis frames I have tell quite a lot. The chassis numbers are stamped on top face of the front crossmember, close to the inner edge of the left chassis channel. The 1923 car which was ordered from a catalogue wit 4 14 x 6"stroke 4 cylinder Rochester Duesenberg engine which was intended to set a new record from Adelaide to Melbourne in May 1923. ( I have a photocopy of the photo which was sent to the original owner of the ACA record certificate of the record certificate of the identical car which set a measured mile in 34.25 seconds at Daytona Beech in April 1921, from a flying start.) The similar car I have double cantilever rear springs, but had a fixed head 6 cylinder side valve 300 cubic inch displacement Continental engine number 9N 45656hasonly a cowl and two front mudguards. The chassis number is 21572. For the early chassis with semi elliptic rear springs, the chassis number is in the same place on the left top surface of the front cross member; but 16 are parallel to the left main chassis channel, and the numbers 733 are at right angles to "16" which must be the year of manufacture. Your 1917 car might have the "17" stamped similarly to the rest of the serial number. Your Model 640 probably indicates that they expected the shorter side valve Rutenber engine to only produce 40hp whereas the 9N Continental expected to give a lazy 54hp. I have little admiration for the 6 cylinder Rutenber with its very constricted ports and gasflow passages. I doubt that engine would outrun a T Ford by much; and those engines with die-cast bearing inserts would have very short life. I shall be in touch when those extra wheel nuts turn up. Regards Ivan Saxton

I am more or less familiar with hubs wheels with virtually identical fitting to the pins of #5 size of three makes/design. Houk and Hayes are most similar to each other. The drive pins go right through an open-ended sleeve for each on the wheel centre. Hayes have blind ends, with an integral dome on the outside. This probably sounds as ciear as mud. The wheels are interchangeable on the other's hubs. The threads are left and right hand on the hubs. The thread pitch of the big wheel nuts of Hayes wheels, such as used by Roamer on Stanpar axles was 10 threads per inch, irrespective of whether the car was fitted with Continental 9N, or Ro9chester Duesenberg G1 or G3 walking beam engines. Hayes wheel nuts were a white alloy, possibly containing nickel. Houk wheel nuts were a more normal yellowish bronze. And all that I have seen were 12 threads per inch; including Stutz, and the Houk wheels on very early Roamer before they changed to Hayes wheels. Looking at 10 or twelve threads per inch, you might think that the difference would be minimal; but they are very different when you look at the two side by side. ( When I was given paid work to do at the engineer's workshop at the family sawmill in the mid/late 1940s, a less favourite task was to sort nuts and bolts from dismantled war surplus according to diameter, length, and thread pitch. I thought it was boring, but my Uncle Jack, who had been a Company Captain in a forrestry Battalion was insistent on accuracy. ) Stutz, on the big 4 cylinder T head cars in the early 1920s had similar wheek nuts , but with an internal hexagon slot for the wheel spanner , instead of a protruding octagon like Roamer. A little later Buick used Ash wire wheels with a pair of ring nuts to secure the wheels onto their hubs . The outer hexagon ring nut was for a smaller spanner size, which was virtually a lock nut. Both larger and smaller size were on the same wheel spanner. Smaller size than #5 Houk were used on Essex, for instance, and Hupmobile. Any of those that I found I gave to someone who had a car. Probably the smallest Houk wheels were available for T model Ford after market I suppose. Being small those would be easier to copy. John Ryder from Northern NSW has had dealings with Layden Butler in the past. I will ring him tomorrow to see if he knows whether Laydon is still vertical.

The only set of #6 houk wheels In have seen was on Morris Burrows 1914 Mercer 35O Runabout. I was guest of Morris and Libby Burrows on the 1980 Glidden tour which was based at the Mt Washington Hotel at Bretton Woods , New Hampshire. I was amazed that it was comfortable for the three of us in the front seat. Morris had a nice set of Rudge wheels which he intended to fit to it. ( Carl Darby is now the owner of this car, and knowing that his grandmother was a daughter of either Charles or Ferdie Roebling, and I was pleased to know that the car became the property of the family who built it.) I have The 1923 Roamer Duesenberg that was bought out of a catalogue, intended to break Melbourne to Adelaide road record. They blew the 5th of the 8 special 6.00x23 tyres, about 150 miles short of completing the attempt. The photograph copy of the 1921 car which established some AAA Stock car records at Daytona Beach in April 1921 recorded a flying mile covered in an elapsed time which constituted an average of 105.15 miles per hour. I have enough except radiator to rebuild a 1921 Roamer which has a 300 cubic inch Continental 9N engine. I also have a 1917 Roamer chassis frame and a few other parts of a car which expired on a trip from Victoria, headed to South Australia. I can think of no sane reason why anyone would bother to save a Rutenber Six engine. I always derisively referred to these as "Rottenbers", because they had die-cast thick white-metal Babbitt bearings. Other, more distinguished engineers built engines around 1920 with the same fault. For some reason Lancia built Kappa model engines with the same fault, and Geoff Fullard and his brother Royce had to make crankshaft bronze shell bearings, with a thin machined lining of bearing metal. ( For his straight eight racing Bugatti, Geoff had to make his own new crankshaft in many parts, but with needle roller bearings so the needle rollers meant that the engine did not sound like a "bucket of bolts". (I shall need to relate the rest of this over the weekend. It would be very useful to have a "save" function on this program .) Getting back to early Roamers, the early chassis frame with a 1917 number, which is conserved , hanging upside down in the storage area of my workshop shed, has engine mounts that match the Rutenber 6 engines which Peter Pinkerton has for his Australian Six restoration projects. Now Mr Gordon, who aspired to establish manufacture of automobiles in Sydney, NSW, chose to start this by purchase and assembly of bulk purchases of American components. He purchased at least one lot of 500 Rutenber engine, which Roamer had stopped using a couple of years earlier, and switched to the larger and more powerful Continental 9N. Peter was a proud man when he trailered home the earliest known survivor, ( serial # 30) . That one was no longer an Australian Six, but had become an Australian Five. There had been a fault in the engine block coring, which had leaked water into the engine oil. The fault was between the valves of one of the rear cylinders. So they had removed the piston and connecting rod drilled a hole from the valve chamber into the cylinder, and sealed it with a half inch Whitworth nut and bolt, with a lead washer on either side. After blocking the hole permanently with a threaded stud, then fitted a sleeve in the bore. Noone could tell how long or far the car ran on five cylinders, but I suppose that T model Fords only had four. I found it a painstaking job to make new bearing sets from bronze stock; with correct space for poured babbit, to be machined for excellent service life. I considered material and workmanship of the crankshafts to be admirable. These Rutenber sixes that they were lucky to unload on someone inexperienced from the antipodes could well have been superceeded by a re-designed engine block with better intake passages and valve ports. Getting back to the need for wheel nuts: Several decades ago, two different but basically identical early Roamer front axles appeared at Bendigo National Swap Meet. I had a fair idea of the district one my have come from. But who ever knows? A farm-based trailer axle is likely to travel great distances from the vehicle it may have come from. These ones are not from Stanpar axles of the 1920s, but possibly Timken. I need to find my set of thread pitch gauges and clean the threads on the hubs so i can pick the right thread pitch and a left and right pair so you can do some motoring. My son is out at the moment. I know we had some original name discs, for that is how they could be recognised. often they may have damage, but my son has special interest in making identical replicas by the original method.

Jack Nelson, who only left us several years ago, had 3, 4 1/2, and 6 litre Bentley cars. I started to gather parts to hopefully get a 3 litre; as I had always admired. Jack strongly advised me to look for a 4 1/2, as they were the most desireable. I had some useful major parts for a 3 litre, when a friend obtained an incomplete project which needed what I had. Bill paid for an incomplete Stutz DV32 engine. which Paul Freehill offered to me. Paul told me that no-one was much interested in it because they could not understand the numbers, so parts were sold off it; including five genuine steel conrods to complete a set for another engine. When I got the rest I soon found that the solution to the riddle was in the Stutz chapter of John Bentley's 1950s book "Great American Automobiles". He quoted company information that a small number of DV32s were extensively run on the Speedway, and "the mountains and deserts of Southern USA. The engine block is BB pattern, with casting date June 27 1928, cored and bored for 3 and three eights pistons; and with the word "SPECIAL" cast on the left side , upside down. The engine number is DV 30004. This is earlier than any known M series engine. It is likely that there were around half a dozen of these prototype engines. All I can find out is that this one came from New Orleans; so you may be geographically well located to search for any other survivors, Ed. The crankshaft main bearing caps are massively strong. It is clear that Stutz knew their engines had weakness in the centre main bearing cap. Geoff Ringrose used his restored BB series in Sydney for probably over 40 years. He told me he was on a weekend run in the car when the engine developed a knock He switched it off, and had it taken home on a tilt-tray. When Geoff dropped the sump off, he found that the centre main bearing cap was broken from front to back. This is likely what happened to the engine of the Black Hawk in the "Match Race" at Indianapolis, But they probably felt they had to keep going. It is likely that the super-strong main bearing caps were the design work of Frank Lockhart,, who sadly did not survive to complete and use the improved design.

They are definitely very different cars, and could be as much as 6 or 8 years different in date of manufacture. Look at the line from the top of the radiator to the windscreen. On the earlier car there is a distinct upward sweep from where the rear edge of the bonnet sits on the scuttle. The later car has a straight line from the radiator to the windscreen. The engine that cannot be seen would likely be a mono-block 4 cyl side- valve with a detacheable cylinder head. The earlier car with the untidy display of passengers is likely powered by a Rutenber, with four separately cast cylinder assemblies with non-detacheable heads. The gearbox is likely a transaxle type.

Yes, my understanding is that Schillo Brothers were the Mercer dealer in Chicago, and Carl Bjelland was one of their key men, though I am not sure in what capacity. I think Morris Burrows told me that CB delivered the car new to the original owner. ( It could have been Ralph Bailey or Ray Wolff). If I recall correctly, Don Pedersen had a Ford A model in Portland Oregon. He was working as a doctor in possibly Milwaukee when Janet's father found the most deteriorated Mercer 6 imaginable, where it had been parked years before "in the big shed", as we say. I think Don said it was in Cinncinati, where the sulphur dioxide content in the air was about the highest on earth. The pressed steel structure of the chassis frame was rusted to almost nothing, but the spring hanger and similar components were fine. Back-step a good while, and Morris Burrows had gathered a good Series Six chassis frame with intent to rebuild his 1917 touring onto it. But of course the frame was completely different and nothing would fit. Morris wanted me to have the good Series Six frame but I did not need it; so whenn Don's need arose I asked Morris to look after Don. Don and Janet and little baby Eric visited Morris and Libby in Springfield Vermont, and carted home not only a good chassis fame, but also a perfect radiator shell. Don's car was largely restored by Joe Kaufman as he could afford it. I ended up with the useable remains of the rusty chassis, and I have new cannel and other parts pressed in straight form, ready to make a 115inch wheelbase frame using the 1916 to 1920s chassis blueprints that Ralph Buckley gave me in 1980. Anyway, the two people who can best give you more accurate information about Schillo agency are Fred Hoch and Tim Kuser. I realise that Carl Darby's mother was daughter of either of the Roebling brothers who largely ran the Mercer company after Washington Roebling went down with the Titanic after insuring that it was the women and children, with one crew member per lifeboat; before they west back to listen to the music until the ship went down. He and his friend John Jacob Astor make you think of the lines from a WW1 poem: "Joint heirs with Christ because they bled to save his weak ones, not in vain". Washington Roebling's loss was tragic for Mercer, because it may have been his energy and abilities and social connections that could have seen the company survive and adapt to the changing needs of the times. I was never much interested in history, until in the final year of Agricultural Science at University of Melbourne we had a series of lectures by Emeritus Professor Sir Samuel Wadham on agricultural history. He said "Don't worry about Dates: Dates don't matter in History. The importance of History is the Reasons things Happened". When I visited Morris Burrows in September 1980 I did not know it but Bracco's 1951 sad and rusty B20 Lancia Aurelia coupe was offered for sale for a pittance. In the 1951 Mille Millia then race was run over the winding mountainous roads in torrential rain for the first 850 miles. He was second only to Villoresi's 4.2 litre V12 Ferrari by less than 3 minutes. The tuned V6 Aurel;ia may even have been smaller that 2litres. In the last 150 miles the Ferrari was able to use its top speed advantage to win by 20 minutes. At Le Mans a couple of weeks later, Bracco won his class in the same car. After the race, the Italians were clustered around the car which had its bonnet open. then Briggs Cunningham , who had his own cars in the racecame up, looked at the engine, and marvelled that they had time to clean down the engine already. The Italian mechanics just laughed. He wanted to buy that car right then; but the engineer in charge invited him to make an appointment to meet Gianni Lancia at the factory. He bought a new B20, and a complete extra set of mechanical spares. Bracco drove the same car in the Carrera in South America. It ended up years later near Springfield Vermont in very rough state and I am glad I never knew and bought it. It is beautifully restored in England. ..... I did not need it anyway. I have a 1953 B22 Aurelia 4 door pillarless sedan, which has similar handling and performance. I rebuilt it from very rough state years ago: and after finishing work on the brakes and a couple of other things I shall register it for road use again. It is virtually contemporary grand prix technology in a family sedan, with all independant suspension, and inboard brakes at the rear. It has such good acceleration, handling, and brakes that you spend little time below your cruising speed. I hope I can visit USA again soon . Some idiot line bored the main bearings of my 1918 Series 4 Mercer without the block bolted down. Ralph Buckley told me that noone had ever broken a crankshaft, but that is the reason I have not driven mine for forty years. Regards, Ivan