RUMCars Forum

General Category => Unusual Microcar Discussion => Topic started by: richard on December 31, 2016, 12:40:59 AM

Title: Gordon write up
Post by: richard on December 31, 2016, 12:40:59 AM
I would like a better copy of this article , could anyone tell me which publication it is from please , thanks Rich
Title: Re: Gordon write up
Post by: Rusty Chrome (Malcolm Parker) on December 31, 2016, 11:40:25 AM
Hi Richard

I don't know for certain as I only have a photocopy of this article myself, but I would guess this is from the January 1955 issue of The Light Car magazine.
Title: Re: Gordon write up
Post by: richard on December 31, 2016, 11:48:18 AM
Thanks very much Malcolm for helping there  ;) were the pages of Light Car large enough do you think ? Light Car is annoying in that the page numbering is sometimes odd , this article has no page numbering 
Title: Re: Gordon write up
Post by: Rusty Chrome (Malcolm Parker) on December 31, 2016, 01:45:53 PM
Yes it does, 10 and 11 at the bottom. Light Car's page numbers for content (rather than advertising) run consecutively across the issues, and they'd switched to an A4 size mag in July 1952.
Title: Re: Gordon write up
Post by: richard on January 02, 2017, 09:34:01 AM
Of course it has page numbers ! Sorry , I think I must have meant titles at the topic the page ? Forgot about the change of size on Light Car , I have a few copies all smaller as they reference Bond Minicars from 1948  - 51 .
Okay now to work out which copy of light car in a fairly small window , from other write ups I can work out the date of the run I think . Thanks Malcolm
Title: Re: Gordon write up
Post by: Rusty Chrome (Malcolm Parker) on January 02, 2017, 01:52:00 PM
Several of the later 1955 issues have ads for the Gordon from Raymond Way, let me know if you find a spare copy of Jan 55!
Title: Re: Gordon write up
Post by: richard on January 04, 2017, 08:53:02 PM
Anything Gordon I am always interested in
Title: Re: Gordon write up
Post by: steven mandell on January 06, 2017, 12:23:40 PM
I would like a better copy of this article , could anyone tell me which publication it is from please , thanks Rich
Anyone else notice that the 11% grade sections of the Kirkstone Pass were "taken without passenger"?
Did that include the passenger walking these sections?
How else could the two have made it up the hill with only the one car only able to carry one of them?
More likely the passenger helped push it whilst the driver gunned the throttle?

Considering its quoted average speeds of 25 and 29 m.p.h. - 62 m.p.g. (imperial?) doesn't seem like anything to brag about either.
It seems that they were happy just to have the machine and passengers survive the ordeal that would likely be considered a non event to most motorists driving average vehicles of their day.

Or did I miss something here?
Title: Re: Gordon write up
Post by: richard on January 06, 2017, 12:41:18 PM
Hi Steven all the best for the new year . You must not forget what the Gordon was up against ! A weary old possibly pre-war  motorcycle and sidecar ? A prewar 1930's  Austin 7 ? There was almost nothing four wheeled that was in the price category at all. Also bear in mind a weeks luggage and cooking gear and heavy old waterproofs , golly that would sap its strength . These hills , I have done them in a modern car , are the very most extreme and long hills in Britain
Title: Re: Gordon write up
Post by: Big Al on January 06, 2017, 01:19:41 PM
KIrkstone Pass? The passenger got in the following Gordon. Case Solved!  8)

Yep, its a challenging road all right, as you are winding on a narrow track for much of the difficult bit, and rely on people giving you room. Berkeley have not been unknown to drop the passenger out, and they offer more power. Its about applying it. I have not driven a Gordon, so I cannot comment on the choice of gearing, but I would suspect they choose to knock the top speed back. Bearing in mind that much on the road here was pre war, or pre war designs warmed up and average speed was not great in Britain. We were rebuilding a trashed economy having saved the West from the Nazi threat. Rationing continued long after the war. Just as well, or there would be two of me, rather than the economy pack. People forget how hard a time the country had to get back to the freedoms of the '60's.
Title: Re: Gordon write up
Post by: DaveMiller on January 06, 2017, 01:27:48 PM
Anyone else notice that the 11% grade sections of the Kirkstone Pass were "taken without passenger"?

...

Or did I miss something here?

Well, perhaps you missed that the Kirkstone Pass section was (correctly) quoted as  "1 in 4".  That's a 25% slope, rather than 11%.

I think it's not unusual for any sort of microcar to find a 1 in 4 too difficult for driver, holiday luggage and passenger so, yes, someone probably had to walk a bit!
Title: Re: Gordon write up
Post by: richard on January 07, 2017, 08:45:53 AM
Good point Dave ! Where did 11% come from ?
Title: Re: Gordon write up
Post by: Big Al on January 07, 2017, 12:38:55 PM
Maybe that is the average angle of the climbing section? Maybe USA % is different to ours, like their Gallons. You know it makes sense. Needle nardle noo.
Title: Re: Gordon write up
Post by: DaveMiller on January 07, 2017, 12:57:24 PM
Maybe that is the average angle of the climbing section?

Perhaps ... but try explaining that to your microcar, when it gets to the 25% bit :D

Reminds me of the definition of a statistician: someone who, with his feet in the freezer and his head in the oven, is on average perfectly comfortable.
Title: Re: Gordon write up
Post by: Big Al on January 07, 2017, 02:49:05 PM
Ah ha. Like the question, what is the average number of fingers and thumbs in the population. Answer, Less than 10. So a Gordon is a finger of grip worth less good at climbing, than we would ideally like.
Title: Re: Gordon write up
Post by: steven mandell on January 08, 2017, 10:43:38 AM
Good point Dave ! Where did 11% come from ?
Sorry folks for not checking my finger / brain slips earlier, as I have been away for a few days.
That was supposed to show my converting a 1/4 slope to a 14 °  angle reading, as I an aid to visualizing it, as that is the way I am used to seeing road inclinations described on this side of the pond.

I suppose if I were a roofer, I would have let the slope angle stand.
Title: Re: Gordon write up
Post by: DaveMiller on January 08, 2017, 12:00:33 PM
Yup.

1-in-4,  25 percent, or  14.475 degrees.  All the same hill.  All very confusing.  And all very steep!
Title: Re: Gordon write up
Post by: Chris Thomas on January 08, 2017, 02:28:38 PM
I was taught (by Miss Terrapin. She taught us!) that the 1in4 refers to the average number who fail to make it to the top.

Chris Thomas
Title: Re: Gordon write up
Post by: DaveMiller on January 08, 2017, 06:44:54 PM
Nice! (But why would more people get to the top of a 1 in 3? )  ;D
Title: Re: Gordon write up
Post by: Chris Thomas on January 10, 2017, 11:48:50 AM
At 45 degrees a 1:1 nobody makes it to the top

Chris Thomas
Title: Re: Gordon write up
Post by: Big Al on January 10, 2017, 04:15:48 PM
Then at 1: 0 no one is seen again, Gordon or no Gordon!
Title: Re: Gordon write up
Post by: steven mandell on January 11, 2017, 12:24:45 PM
Except for Gordon Cooper.
Title: Re: Gordon write up
Post by: Chris Thomas on January 11, 2017, 04:51:08 PM
That should be Gordon Bennett
Title: Re: Gordon write up
Post by: Big Al on January 12, 2017, 08:27:20 AM
So 'Gordon's Alive'. Bought to you courtesy of Brian Blessed. Oh dear, the tangent has separated from the fine thread holding it onto the topic. Refocus