There is a buzz of excitement within the VSCC, as the Light Car Race will be re-established at the VSCC’s 10th of July Oulton Park race meeting. This will be a 40-minute endurance race, contested by an amazing array of weird and wonderful light cars and cyclecars - the likes of which have not been seen this century.
Back in the early days of motoring, small capacity light-weight cars and cyclecars were the order of the day. Wire and bobbin steering, air-cooled engines, with just one or two cylinders powering cars whose transmission was often dealt with by belt or chain drive. If you have the time to google some of the cars that are entering the race, amongst others you will find:
- A Trojan Utility car, where in the 20s it was cheaper to drive a Trojan on its solid tyres than walk and spend your money on shoe leather.
- An AV Monocar, where you will find lots of pictures of it at Brooklands, but very few with it still on its wheels, because when you steer, the go cart's front axle makes the tracking of the car narrower on bends.
- A Bedelia, where the driver sits behind his passenger, and the hand lever moves the back axle backwards to tighten the belt drive, which acts as the clutch.
- A Bebe Peugeot, one of the first cars designed by Ettore Bugatti.
Some of the cars that will be on the track make the chain-driven GN and 3-wheeler Morgan look like a commonplace car.
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