BSA with Fluid Flywheel

[Greybeard]

Another thing I've never heard of!

[Swarfcut]

GB, you amaze me with your interesting finds. The Daimler connection with BSA explains the curious application of the fluid flywheel on a big single to presumably give some smoothness to the transmission, in the same way as those ever reliable and effective (NOT) dual mass flywheels are supposed to on diesel cars. An early example of twist'n go, just like a far simpler Honda C50 Cub.

 The Daimler Fluid Flywheel set up is more usually found with a Wilson Pre-Select Gearbox, more at home on a double decker bus to give smooth reliable take off with no clutch wear. No doubt expensive to produce, complex and a bit OTT for such a simple two wheeled application.
 Hardly has the hallmark of market success.

 Swarfy.

[a10 gf]

Great looking machine. At 79£ I'll take a dozen.
Some kind of automatic clutch or transmission ?

[morris]

Great looking machine. At 79£ I'll take a dozen.
Some kind of automatic clutch or transmission ?

I think the 79£ was just the conversion. Looks like an aftermarket thing some smart bloke wanted to commercialise. Those days a six cylinder was considered the ultimate of smoothness... hence the Morris Isis...

[muskrat]

Looks more or less like a torque converter in an automatic car. Or is it a fancy hydraulic cush drive.
Cheers

[Greybeard]

BSA merged with Daimler in about 1910 to make motor cars.

Daimler V-8 engines were designed for the Daimler Company by Edward Turner.

[Greybeard]

The Daimler Fluid Flywheel set up is more usually found with a Wilson Pre-Select Gearbox, more at home on a double decker bus to give smooth reliable take off with no clutch wear.

In the 1970's I worked for a chap that bought interesting old vehicles at UK auctions and shipped them to America to sell them for a profit. He could get a car to the US very cheaply; Apparently, they were strapped to the top of a shipping container.
Anyway, I was asked to drive a couple of his purchases from London to Felixstowe docks. The first was a 1950's Lea Francis. My wife joined me for the next trip which was in a war time Daimler Dingo scout car. The Dingo had a pre-select gearbox.

From Wikipedia:
In 1938, the British War Office issued a specification for a scouting vehicle. Three British motor manufacturers, Alvis, BSA Cycles and Morris, were invited to supply prototypes. Alvis had been in partnership with Nicholas Straussler and provided armoured cars to the Royal Air Force, Morris had participated in trials and production of armoured cars and BSA Cycles – whose parent Birmingham Small Arms (BSA) was involved in armaments – had a small front wheel drive vehicle in production.

Testing began in August 1938. All were of similar size and layout – rear engine and all four-wheel-drive. The Morris design was eliminated first – suffering from poor speed even after modification by its builders. The Alvis prototype – known as "Dingo" – could manage 50 mph (80 km/h) over a cross country course but had a high centre of gravity.

The BSA prototype was completed in September and handed over for testing. By December, it had covered 10,000 mi (16,000 km) on- and off-road with few mechanical problems. Policy from the War Office changed to a requirement for an armoured roof. The BSA vehicle needed a more powerful engine and strengthened suspension. It was chosen over the Alvis and the first order (172 vehicles) for the "Car, Scout, Mark I" was placed in May 1939. The actual production was passed to Daimler, which was a vehicle manufacturer in the BSA group of companies.

The potential of the design was recognised, and it served as the basis for the development of a larger armoured car – a "Light Tank (Wheeled)", which would later become the Daimler Armoured Car. The first pilot vehicle was built by the end of 1939, later to be named 'Daimler Scout Car' but already known by the name of the Alvis design - the 'Dingo'.

Arguably one of the finest armoured fighting vehicles built in Britain during the war, the Dingo was a compact two-man armoured car, well protected for its size with 1.2 in (30 mm) of armour at the front and powered by a 2.5 litre 55 hp straight six petrol engine in the rear of the vehicle. An ingenious features of the Dingo's design was the transmission, which included a preselector gearbox and fluid flywheel that gave five speeds in both directions, another was a four-wheel steering system made possible by the H-drive drivetrain, giving a tight turning circle of 23 ft (7.0 m). Inexperienced drivers found it difficult to control so rear-steering was deleted in later production at the cost of increasing the turning circle by 65 per cent to 38 ft (12 m).


I remember that the Dingo had bullet-proof tyres that gave a very bumpy ride. The seats were unpadded plywood. Although the top was open, the view forward was through a couple of hatches. The drive through the centre of London was good fun!

[Ted_Flash]

Wonder if anyone asked?  Supposedly only 3 made and none sold to the public, due to poor performance, insufficient power to overcome the drag of the torque converter.