V-E-V miscellany, April 1971, April 1971

One of the better-known two-stroke cars, the Valveless, was built by David Brown & Sons between 1908 and 1914. It was notable for a very large two-cycle, two-cylinder engine, both 15.8-h.p. and 19.9-h.p. models being produced, respectively of 4 7/16 in. x 5 in. and 5 in. x 5 in. bore and stroke. The specification was conventional, with the vertical engine water-cooled. Final drive was by DB & S worm drive and it seems that instead of petroil lubrication and pressure system was used. In 1914 the present Sir David Brown remembers being driven in a Valveless car by his mother. The Valveless was built at Huddersfield but sold by a subsidiary company, the Dodson Motor Co. Ltd. The East India Tramcar Co apparently ordered 42 Valveless 25-h.p. engines and gearbox units in 1911, these forming the motive-power for India’s first motorised public transport system.

For many years the David Brown Corporation has been searching for a Valveless car, to restore and exhibit beside its current Aston Martins. The only two known to have survived were in the possession of Durrell, Ebden & Co. Ltd. of Port Elizabeth, South Africa, who imported about 20 of these cars in 1914-15. Mr. A. V. Patterson of the company recently agreed to sell one of these, a rather derelict chassis, to the David Brown Corporation. Their apprentices are restoring it at the DB Central Apprentices’ School near Huddersfield, after which it will be “used for exhibition purposes”—and, we hope, run occasionally at suitable events. A pre-war MG is said to be lying in a valley at Dartford, close to the A2. A 10.4-h.p. Calthorpe with sports body, which may have been raced in the North of England, is to be restored.

The old Cotton motorcycle factory in Gloucester has been demolished, and at Hersham the original ABC works has finally closed. At the time of its AGM in February the VSCC had a membership of 6,111. At its July Silverstone Race Meeting, longer races than are customary will be held, to commemorate the retirement of Secretary Tim Carson, whose last race meeting as organiser this will be.