A cyclecar was a type of small, lightweight and inexpensive car manufactured in Europe and the United States between 1910 and the early 1920s. The purpose of cyclecars was to fill a gap in the market between the motorcycle and the car.
Towcester is a market town in Northamptonshire, England. It is the administrative headquarters of the South Northamptonshire district council.
Chorlton-cum-Hardy is a suburban area of Manchester, England, four miles (6.4 km) southwest of the city centre. Chorlton ward had a population of 14,138 at the 2011 census, and Chorlton Park 15,147.
After returning from the First World War the younger Victor Ashby designed a cyclecar that came to the attention of aeroplane makers Short Brothers. Short Brothers employed six Ashby staff members, with the car being known as the Short-Ashby in 1921. Short Brothers withdrew their support in 1922 owing to poor sales. The Ashbys then moved to Chorlton-cum-Hardy, where production of a two-seater light car powered by a 970cc 8hp engine, three-speed gearbox or four-ratio friction drive, continued until 1924.[1]
Short Brothers plc, usually referred to as Shorts or Short, is an aerospace company based in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Shorts was founded in 1908 in London, and was the first company in the world to make production aircraft. It was particularly notable for its flying boat designs manufactured into the 1950s.
A friction drive or friction engine is a type of transmission that, instead of a chain and sprockets, uses 2 wheels in the transmission to transfer power to the driving wheels. This kind of transmission is often used on scooters, mainly go-peds, in place of a chain. The problem with this type of drive system is that they are not very efficient. Since the output wheel has width, the area of contact is spread across various radii on the primary disc. Because the tangential velocity varies as radius varies, the system must overcome velocity differentials across the surface. The compromise is slippage of the leather to metal contact area which creates friction, which in turn converts much of the energy transfer of this system into heat. Heat generation also requires a cooling system to keep the transmission working effectively.
Footnotes
↑ Baldwin, Nick, A–Z of Cars of the 1920s, Bideford: Bay View Books, 1998 ISBN1-901432-09-2
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Chorlton-cum-Hardy Golf Club is a golf club in Chorlton-cum-Hardy in the southern suburbs of Manchester, England. It is separated from Sale Golf Club to the south only by the River Mersey. The clubhouse of the golf club is located at Barlow Hall, originally built in the 13th century, but rebuilt by Alexander Barlow in 1584. Edward Barlow was born at Barlow Hall in 1585 and was hanged for adhering to the Catholic faith at Lancaster Gaol in 1641. He was later canonized as Saint Ambrose Barlow in 1970 and his ghost reportedly haunts the upper floors of the hall. Although a golf course had existed here for centuries the modern formal club was established in 1903. In September 2011 it hosted the Mersey Championship.
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