Author Topic: One of my deliveries  (Read 7459 times)

milnes

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One of my deliveries
« on: March 06, 2014, 06:54:32 PM »
Delivery just before Christmas  8)
I need to stop buying!

wilksie

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Re: One of my deliveries
« Reply #1 on: March 06, 2014, 07:26:55 PM »
Lovely looking. What are they?
Lloyd LP400
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milnes

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Re: One of my deliveries
« Reply #2 on: March 06, 2014, 07:36:30 PM »
I will let you all have a guess   :'(
I need to stop buying!

steven mandell

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Re: One of my deliveries
« Reply #3 on: March 06, 2014, 08:00:10 PM »
I have had mine since 1992, so I won't spoil your fun.
You will have handling problems.
I have modified the suspension,  steering and mounting, as well as changed from 12" tires all round to 10" Yokohama in front, and a Pirelli 175x13" P7 in the rear.
It was a year and a half quest, but produced a vehicle that solved problems that its engineer inventor never even properly diagnosed. :)

Bob Purton

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Re: One of my deliveries
« Reply #4 on: March 06, 2014, 11:41:35 PM »
Are they Freeway's?

wilksie

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Re: One of my deliveries
« Reply #5 on: March 07, 2014, 12:44:24 AM »
Seems they are. Beautiful motors. Delivered to where?
Lloyd LP400
"If you are mad, this is your car."

milnes

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Re: One of my deliveries
« Reply #6 on: March 07, 2014, 06:37:26 AM »
Correct Bob, they are HM Freeways.
They now reside in Scotland  8)
I need to stop buying!

Barry

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Re: One of my deliveries
« Reply #7 on: March 07, 2014, 07:29:44 AM »
Correct Bob, they are HM Freeways.
They now reside in Scotland  8)

Info
« Last Edit: March 07, 2014, 07:31:40 AM by Barry »

Big Al

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Re: One of my deliveries
« Reply #8 on: March 07, 2014, 07:46:09 AM »
Never under stood why an American attributed the car to Royal owned motorways. Glad he knew his country's place, what!

I had wondered about getting one of these some years ago, but never did anything about it. Its disappointing to find they have an inherent handling problem, as they look the most capable American microcar, and I could live with the styling.

A flurry of activity there. Sure they were a good purchase and well done. Are these the first in the UK? Oh are we not keen when rare cars get imported? Hypocrisy, of course, as the moans are loud when our stuff heads off. 'Tis the way of things now, the fossil record will be all wrong!

Ah I see the later model had a name change. Pity it was not offered cheap in Israel as the Minikin Bargain ;D.
« Last Edit: March 07, 2014, 07:52:12 AM by Big Al »
Messerschmitt set, Goggo Darts, Heinkel 175, Fiat Jolly, Autobianchi, Fairthorpe Electron Minor, Borgward, Isuzu Trooper
Citroen BX 17TZD & GTI 16v
Held - MG Magnette ZB & 4/44
For sale - Vellam Isetta, Bamby, AC Type 70, Velorex, Church Pod, Reliant Mk5, KR200,  Saab 96, Bellemy Trials, Citroen BXs

Bob Purton

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Re: One of my deliveries
« Reply #9 on: March 07, 2014, 08:32:11 AM »
They look interesting and could have been the latter day Schmitt if the designers had got the engineering right. It always amazes me how cars get as far as going into production without the basics like steering geometry and suspension being right but it seems microcars are prone, ie Bamby, Tritech etc.
From what I have heard from other owners, after a few modifications they turn out great though.
« Last Edit: March 07, 2014, 08:34:01 AM by Bob Purton »

steven mandell

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Re: One of my deliveries
« Reply #10 on: March 07, 2014, 09:16:09 AM »
There could be no one more surprised than myself when at the First World Microcar meet in the Chicago area in the summer of 2010, I finally got to meet the engineer who created and produced these cars.  That surprise was due to the fact that after  a year and a half of obsessive analysis,  and probably 20 different creative fixes- I found the Freeways founder to be genuinely unaware of the faults he had engineered into the car.
I had to build a full scale wood and metal mock up of the suspension and steering controls, but leaving out shocks and springs, to finally be able to clearly witness just exactly what was going wrong with various parameters of wheel alignment during different amounts of suspension compression and extension.
There was also a considerable amount of monkey motion due to overly generous design tolerances, and use of short cuts with inherent drawbacks as well as inadequate quality of parts chosen.

The marvelous and gratifying aspect of all this involvement, is that I eventually got it all right, whilst not betraying any hint of my vast changes made from a casual visual inspection- except for the wheels and tires.
I actually got a single lower trailing arm front suspension to produce no more than 12 thousandth of an inch of toe in with one inch of wheel travel, whereas the original set up was all over the place ( literally and figuratively), and averaged out at 248 thousandths of an inch of bump steer with one inch of wheel travel, but actually performed quite differently on right and left sides due to different steering rod lengths as necessitated by the central seating and necessarily off center input point provided by the ball and trunion steering mechanism.

I could write a book on it, but there would be far too few readers to justify the effort and expense.
« Last Edit: March 07, 2014, 09:17:54 AM by steven mandell »

Chris Thomas

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Re: One of my deliveries
« Reply #11 on: March 07, 2014, 09:22:43 AM »
Dear Steven

Forget about the book, it sounds like a good candidate for an article in Rumcar News "Taming the Freeway"

Chris Thomas
Rumcar News

steven mandell

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Re: One of my deliveries
« Reply #12 on: March 07, 2014, 09:30:52 AM »
It would be a very long article.

Jean

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Re: One of my deliveries
« Reply #13 on: March 07, 2014, 09:45:47 AM »
Correct Bob, they are HM Freeways.
they are now in Scotland

Hi Scot,  Please, please, please put them on the Register, there ar no others at the moment.  Jean
Jean
Register of Unusual Microcars

Big Al

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Re: One of my deliveries
« Reply #14 on: March 07, 2014, 11:52:44 AM »
It would be a very long article.

It becomes a resource as well though. Being successful at creating a reasoned modification is very satisfying. It cannot ever be 'recommended' by the medium carrying the information but even if folk disagree it remains a record of what works.

If we condensed information from the years there is a great resource of technical stuff written up. No one has yet really tackled this for cars outside a fixed club. So Messerschmitts have Russell's Tech Tip booklet, The Berks had many a loose sheet they could reproduce and I think Bonds did to. Trienkels got near too, bless Mike O'B. A lot of work for a compiler as the info needs collecting, editing and checked for being correct. Such booklets tend to sell reasonably well. 
Messerschmitt set, Goggo Darts, Heinkel 175, Fiat Jolly, Autobianchi, Fairthorpe Electron Minor, Borgward, Isuzu Trooper
Citroen BX 17TZD & GTI 16v
Held - MG Magnette ZB & 4/44
For sale - Vellam Isetta, Bamby, AC Type 70, Velorex, Church Pod, Reliant Mk5, KR200,  Saab 96, Bellemy Trials, Citroen BXs