Sunday, August 8, 2010
Phil Irving's small notebooks, a look at a Vincent oriented one.....final pages
0 comments Posted by car 2011 at 3:22 PMLabels: Phil Irving literature
Thursday, August 5, 2010
Phil Irving's small notebooks, a look at a Vincent oriented one.....more pages
0 comments Posted by car 2011 at 5:52 AMAs 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.
Labels: Phil Irving literature
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Phil Irving's small notebooks, a look at a Vincent oriented one.....
0 comments Posted by car 2011 at 3:35 PMI'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.
Labels: Phil Irving literature
Thursday, June 10, 2010
Phil Irving's design notebooks......four small books that PEI recorded much of his work at Velocettes and Vincents...
0 comments Posted by car 2011 at 6:53 AMI 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...
Labels: Phil Irving literature
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Some items from the late Phil Irving's literature collection and some more from others ............
0 comments Posted by car 2011 at 12:53 AMPhil 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.
Labels: Phil Irving literature








































