Jack Levy's Unorfordox

[666]

Jack raced at Snetterton,i watched from the old hairpin he overtook every bike on the Norwich straight including CV had huge difficulty stopping it and by the time he got round the hairpin most had past him. i think the most he did was about 2 laps

[RP]

CV rang me tonight on another matter and I mentioned that occasion which he remembered well. Apparently CV thought that Jack had decided to go to Norwich after leaving the end of the straight and they had joked about it afterwards. He also mentioned that Jack had bought the gearbox from his 3 wheeler cyclecar which was a hand change "H" configuration (but six speed) and Jack had tried to configure this to change with his foot which resulted in him getting into the wrong gear most of the time. CV described him as an "eccentric genius" and the last time he saw him he was dissappearing into the bushes at Brands.

[steve-e]

I remember the H gear change, saw him wobble his foot around trying to get the thing started on rollers at Lydden I'm sure
He was a hero to us

[Bob B]

Wrong gear or not the beast would still leave rubber in all gears

[RP]

Something else I remember (hope it hasn't been posted before) - there was a notice posted on the fairing "After racing, revive driver with liberal amounts of cool money"

[Jim Sinnott]

Come on fella's i know i have had a crap week, and i love a bit of nostalgia more than most but lets be honest it was a load of rubbish.

Hope this does not offend anyone

[steve-e]

It was not very fast, totally unreliable, strange looking and probably broke all sorts of regs even then.
I don't know what you mean Jim

[Jim Sinnott]

No problems Steve you not the only that dont understand me, most of them related

[RP]

Youre pissed Sinnott...

[Fritz]

I knew about the existance of this machine through the bible of the time MCN,,,,Then one weekend I got to see Jack's latest creation in the flesh at the Lydden circuit. We were there in support of Ian Newton riding George Langridge's TZ 350 at the Marlboro round...

I recall it sounding mighty fine to the point where every one stopped in their tracks and looked towards the track when it was in motion. My second observation was it didn't like corners at all,,,,it was bucking and bouncing all over the place ,but I just thought he was trying too hard.....and the passenger was hanging on for all he was worth..

A closer look at lunch time confirmed to me it was a mid to rear mounted Ford block with a trick twin cam cylinder head, ( l suppose the fore runner of the Cosworth engine used in the rally cars of the same period) but mounted between the driver and passenger,,,,the JPS paint scheme had been incorporated by this time.

I may be wrong here but I am almost certain it was attached to an Imp gearbox or something similar ( I was a young trainee Ford mechanic at the time) and I remember seeing those large rubber donuts fitted to similar vehicles and Triumph 1300/1500 saloons of the same period.


Anyway I found this mighty fine example of the machine in question and it was the one I saw at Lydden,,,,,,,I guess this was taken at Mallory and once again it had stopped for some unknown reason....Or was because the chain had broken,,,,( look closely at what passenger has in his hand )


Regards,


Fritz,,,,

I grew to love sidecars and the people who tried to develop various ideas even if they were flogging dead horse....

[Bob B]

Thanks for pic Fritz, brings all sorts of memories! IIRC correctly the drive train was via a Hewland five speed box which was originally a modified VW box and diff. The drive shaft would have been what was standard technology in single seat racers of the time such as the Lotus 27 using Imp style doughnuts.

[RP]

Graham P found this:

[Bill Lymburn]

I don't understand how he just didn't roll out of that thing on left handers???

[steve-e]

I don't understand how he just didn't roll out of that thing on left handers???

He never got as far as the corners

[RP]

He got as far as the corners, he just didn't go round them. Chris Vincent told me that he was passed by Jack on the Norwich Straight at Snetterton but when they got to the hairpin Jack carried on towards Norwich