I have purchased the chassis jig on which Mike Cannon built all his trials cars. Retrieved it last week with the generous help of Ian Moss.
By a happy coincidence, when I marshalled on the recent Stroud Motor Club 'Moss Motors Trial', Nigel Moss brought along a superb photo of Mike Cannon and Stirling Moss in the Cannon workshop. They are standing in front of a car under construction for Stirling and in the background just happens to be the chassis jig.
The jig is naturally quite basic (as are the cars!) but it raises several possibilities :-
1/ Chassis repairs whilst clamped to the genuine jig.
2/ Purchasers of cars that are thought or claimed to be genuine Cannons - can check dimensions with me to see if the car is genuine.
3/ In the future new chassis may be produced. I understand from DVLA that if the chassis is a replica (and having the original jig satisfies the DVLA 100%) and the major components are pre-1972 as per Cannon spec. - then nil-VED status is legitimately available.
I also understand from the grapevine that DVLA are starting to weed out the - " incidences of fraudulent tax-evasion on hot-rods, specials and 4x4's".
I've been working for a while now on setting up a Cannon web page and hopefully that will be up and running this summer.
oh how happy I shall be....to find a Cannon website at last. Considering the number of Cannons produced...and apparently running around, I am amazed there is little in the way of support, kinship, or information. My own example appears to have been produced with Autocross in mind....and had a BMC A-series engine and gearbox inside. However, the mounts, holes, etc are all there for Ford 10hp running gear. It originally had an Austin [eight??] rear axle...which I junked, in favour of a more modern Suzuki van item of the same dimensions and ratio... When I made mine road-legal, back in 1996, I was unable to persuade the DVLA to issue a pre-'72 plate, as it fell in the category of 'vehicle of indeterminate origin'...so got a Q-plate. The presence of very pre-war Ford front axle, Morris 8 brakes, etc did nothing to sway their decision....at the time. It DOES sport some very neat, bolted-on steering arms. Someone once suggested they may be items once marketed by a young fella called Colin Chapman? I have also run it with a Ford 10 motor/box.....the BMC revs higher, so it will go faster..... the chassis has not had any tubes replaced....repaired, yes, but not replaced. and the nosecone is original.....peculiar track control arm from chassis side [rear] to top of diff casing....very short item. I still have an A frame to locate the rear axle...but have temporarily modified it to allow the axle to be bolted onto it, rather than solidly welded together. all shoving up through that single Ford pop rubber spherical joint...that gets perished through getting soaked in gearbox drippings. not conducive to prolongued road usage, I add...
ReplyDeleteAlastair. Amongst the many photos I have seen over the years of Cannons, there was one of a Cannon being autocrossed ...... As regards DVLA, if you still have this car we may well be able to get them to reconsider (they DO revise decisions if more evidence comes along). Have you a photo of the engine bay with an 1172 in it by any chance or of the 1172 mountings even ? All early Cannons used Austin 8 back axles, some using the Military version which I'm told had stronger halfshafts. I will talk to Peter Le Couteur and another gentleman who knew Mike Cannon and see if we can arrive at a date by when 1172's went out of favour in new Cannons. Certainly by 1972 the pre-crossflow Ford was in favour (as is shown in the photo of Stirling's car under construction). I owned my first two Cannons back in the 1960's and have had my hands on several since. So, now I have the jig as well, I might just be getting to the point where DVLA will accept my comments on Cannon's as having some practical authority - certainly more so than Mike Worthington-Williams ..... who has never owned one, nor put a spanner on one and not to put too fine a point on it - knows next to nothing about them. Incidentally when I first owned WKE 555 and mentioned to a fellow Cannon owner that it was a car actually used by Mike C. i.e. a 'works' car, his reaction was to chuckle and say "In that case you'll find the propshaft flange has one Metric bolt, one BSF bolt, one Whitworth bolt .... and one you can't work out !"
ReplyDeleteRef. the rubber liner on the A-frame balljoint. Allards use the same joints on the radius arms to the front axle, possibly slightly bigger in diameter, and many owners used squash balls (with holes cut in the side with a sharp scalpel ) as a super cheap substitute.
ReplyDeleteMine was passed to me by Jim Templeton.....came with a mention of a club [BDC] which may have been the Bedford driving club? It had fiddle brakes which may not have fitted in well with autocross.....? 'Twas cream with red trimmings originally...... yes, the original mounting fittings are still there.....two raised brackets on either chassis leg. To fit my 10hp Ford motor, I fabricated a thick steel bar to run across as engine bearer, supporting the engine by its normal, timing cover system. This also carried my external water pump, and a bracket for an alternator...my idea. a straight bar across the engine bay, supporting the engine, perfectly lines up the gearbox [3 speed] mounting holes in the cockpit. However, the car had NEVER been registered before I got it..... I have understood it even came on a Cannon-built trailer...which I have since had to scrap...I have some piccies of the combination as it arrived....
ReplyDeleteA look in most winter 1950's copy of Autosport will give you a wealth of pictures of Cannons, Dellows and other 50's "home made" trials cars. I bought my copies looking for information on Buckler cars as I still own one. I am happy to look through my copies for information I will scan some pics and put them on the site. Most cars were road registered so pictures showing the reg nailed to a car can be useful ammuniton in the fight with the DVLA I hope to be at Specials day on the 12th August ( Cotswold Wildlife Park, Burford Oxfordshire just off A40 ) Free entry for 1950's specials and driver wheather driven or on Trailer . Ken
ReplyDeleteCannon afficienado's may be interested in an item on Ebay at the moment - a Canon fibreglass 'nose cone' - purported to be 'new-old stock'. Item No. 160251431557. Steve Nikel
ReplyDeletethe above looks more like a CANNON NOSTRIL than a nosecone......what about the other 6 inches or so? I think I will retain my battered and chewed item.....
ReplyDeleteKen. Thanks for the kind offer re scanning photos. That will certainly be a great help and as you say may well assist one or two people with the DVLA. Whilst I have, over the years, accumulated some Fifties Autosports looking for Dellow and Allard photos - access to further copies/photos will be a step forward. I am scanning mine as I go through a small mountain of accumulated motoring magazines and saving the images to disc for future website use. I'm also recording drivers names from results lists. No urgency at all Ken - "scan when you can" - much appreciated. Nigel P.S. Has anyone found an up-to-date list of all the RAC Trials Champions? I started compiling one a week or two ago (because Rex Chappell won it several times in his Cannon) and heres the start :- 1948 Ken Wharton 1949 Ken Wharton 1950 Ken Wharton 1951 Walter (Wally) Waring WHW-Dellow 1952 Cuth Harrison Harford 1953 1954 GH (Geoff Newman) Cannon 1955 GH (Geoff Newman) Cannon TKR 511 1956 1957 1958 1959 1960 1961 1962 Eric Jackson. Possibly should be '63? 1963
ReplyDeleteAlastair. The nose cone is a very genuine item. It just happens to be off one of the later Cannons that used a different form of front suspension. I do know the whereabouts of the mould for the full-height earlier surround.
ReplyDeleteI wasn't doubting its provenance.......just disappointed with its brevity.
ReplyDeleteSize isn't everything
ReplyDeleteI just picked up an old copy of Motor Sport for January 1964. The front cover colour picture is Rex Chappel driving his maroon coloured Cannon, registration XXB 680 to victory on the November 24th 1993 Kentish Border Trial. There is also a report on the trial in the magazine. Interesting that 7 of the 8 top places were driving Cannon's. Stuart Harrold
ReplyDeleteXXB 680 is alive and well and in very good hands. Rex won the RAC Championship a number of times and I need to find out exactly which years so that I can complete more of the table. Doing a Google search I failed to find such a list - hence my interest in compiling one. Any details from period winter magazines gratefully received.
ReplyDeleteWe have the list of RAC Champions from 1948 to date, from the MSA. There are a few gaps Funnily enough Julian and I both started our long trials careers in Cannons, one of which became Impunity 1 (after much re-engineering - the only remaining Cannon bits were the centre parts of the chassis base tubes!) which i won the RAC in as late as 2001. Contact Julian Fack on: j.fack@virgin.net
ReplyDelete