Jappic
First entered at Brooklands on the Easter Monday meeting of 1925, this
tiny two seater car had a 344cc JAP motorcycle engine. The car was designed
by H.M.Walters and built by the coachbuilders Jarvis of Wimbledon. The
frame was made from the wood ash with 3/32 inch steel
flitch[1] plates and tubular cross-members. It had expanding
rear brakes on the rear, but no front brakes. The wheels where 650x65 motorcycle
tyres, which were attached by a chain-driven axle to a two-port overhead
valve 74x80mm single-cylinder JAP engine via a three-speed gearbox (chain-driven
from the engine).
Walters managed to break the Class J flying mile record in the car at
a speed of 70.33mph, but by 1926, the original engine was replaced with
a 495cc JAP engine. The car was then obtained by Mrs Gwenda Stewart, who
changed the cars name to Hawkes-Stewart and refitted the original 344cc
engine. Unfortunately the car was destroyed in a garage fire at Montlhéry
in 1932.
[1] flitch plate - A plate used between two wooden beams.
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