Showing posts with label Phil Irving literature. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Phil Irving literature. Show all posts

Sunday, August 8, 2010

This the final of several blogs devoted to a small notebook 4 1/2" x 6" written by Phil Irving..."PEI" and  appears to have been started following WW2 at his time at Vincent and continuing when he returned to Australia and was involved with Cooper-Vincent racing cars.
Again there is no comment from me on the content of these following pages but I strongly suggest you read PEI's Autobiography to give you an insight into the man and the information on the record attempts documented at Jabbeke in Belgium.
He wrote in four other little black notebooks at the time he was in the UK in the 1930's, mostly Velocette oriented, but with a little Vincent comment, including some personal correspondence with Phil Vincent and himself and some photos.
These were published in an earlier blog and if you go to the subject listings on my blog on the RHS and click on Phil Irving literature, all the stuff I've done on PEI will be viewed in order.
Check my blog out in the future for any further postings.
Left click on the images to enlarge.










Thursday, August 5, 2010

As previously mentioned, I've made several blogs under the general label of Phil Irving literature, this the second of several is devoted to a small notebook 4 1/2" x 6" he appears to have started following WW2 at his time at Vincent and continuing when he returned to Australia and was involved with Cooper-Vincent racing cars.
Again there is no comment from me on the content of these following pages but I strongly suggest you read PEI's Autobiography to give you an insight into the man and the information on the record attempts documented at Jabbeke in Belgium.
Left click on the images to enlarge.





















Another small item for Vincent people who may not have seen it...
The death of Dennis Irving was noted in Australian newspapers the other year and the fact that his Rolls Royce car was to be auctioned off.

Saturday, July 31, 2010


I've made several blogs under the general label of Phil Irving literature, since then I've started to received emails from Vincent people who have wandered onto or been directed to my Velobanjogent blog site and this, the first of several is devoted to a small notebook 4 1/2" x 6" he appears to have started following WW2 at his time at Vincent and continuing when he returned to Australia and was involved with Cooper-Vincent racing cars.
There is no comment from me on the content of these following pages but I strongly suggest you read PEI's Autobiography to give you an insight into the man and the information on the record attempts documented at Jabbeke in Belgium.
Left click on the images to enlarge.



























Thursday, June 10, 2010

I visited Phil Irving on several occasions when I had time whilst in the Melbourne area in Victoria, Australia years back and on one occasion when I was questioning him over the bore and stroke dimensions on the Stuart Waycott "600cc" ISDT Velocette outfit's engine.... it was 85mm bore and 105mm stroke out of interest and I'm assembling a blog on this machine now.....he produced four small black notebooks that were used by him when he was in the UK from around 1931 to the late 1940's and we looked in one for these dimensions.
They contained fascinating design calculations, power information etc for the LE Velocette that he did some initial work on, the Model O road twin of the Roarer, the ISDT outfit as mentioned and a general notebook with Military MAC information as well as JAP engined specials....
All fascinating stuff.
I've them on loan again and doing a full scan of their contents into digital form and will share some of the pages with you over this and future blogs....
This blog features items from around 1931 when he left Velocette and went to London to assist several Australian with JAP engined racers and record breakers...in particular the attempt in Hungary on the world Land Speed Record using a Brough Superior with a 996cc V-Twin JAP called "Leaping Lena" ridden by Aussie Arthur Simcock.
I've scanned a section from Phil's Autobiography, pages 172-177 and pages from his little notebooks referring to this and to a 250cc JAP engined racer that was used in the IOM TT in 1931.
Left click on the images to enlarge...






Saturday, October 17, 2009

Phil Irving is well known to those of us interested in British Motorcycles and to digress, his autobiography really is a "must read".......
Following his death, eventually his literature collection was sold and occasionally the purchaser drops by with little "gems" that I make a copy of....better still, if it is Velocette he has of late been giving them to me......
Hope springs eternal.....
From one of Phil's four small black notebooks is a page on a supercharged Velocette that was in development while he was there....as it was early on, it is "Wiffling Clara", which Ivan Rhodes is currently restoring, and the Foxwell supercharger was proving ellusive to source, so he is having one made....PEI has helped with some notes...
Left click on images to enlarge.....























Phil at Veloce a little later, during WW2, was involved with the development of the MAF, a military variant of the MAC.























PEI was offered a job back at the Vincent-HRD company during 1943....















































During 1934, Vincent collaborated with R.C.Cross for the development of a rotary valve cylinder head...pictured is the rider, Millard, with R.C.Cross. Note the cable operated rear brakes.



















At Bathurst, NSW, Australia during the Easter races, Harold Braund is featured on his Vincent "Black Lightning" outfit with passenger Noel Bailey.
















A photo of Kel Carruthers' highly successful 1961 250/4 Honda, restored and just prior to shipment from Australia to his home in the USA.( Years back, I can't recall the date...)
The bike now is in the Barber Motorcycle Museum in Alabama.

















OEC record breaker, with Leo Tobin aboard...details of where and when are sketchy, so I'll follow this up in a later blog.