Chronicles of Alan; Lucas 2

When working at Lucas I traveled by Motorcycle, alternating between My Norton Commando Fastback and My Converted Kawasaki 900, several of the other Guys had Bikes as well a Ducati 900 Darmah SS, and John B had a 550 Honda Four.

Working in the Mechanical Workshop was John B ,

he set up Turbochargers, redid the Bearings and Balanced them.

Just for your info , they spun at up to 200,000 rpm , so if not balanced , you can imagine , people thinking you were driving a Car Bomb!

John used to be a Rolls Royce Mechanic,

told me that they never ever ground valves , just cut the seats and then took a hammer and seated the valves, Well if Rolls do it, must work!

I got John to come to my House in Witpoortjie one Saturday , and he could not believe how much more performance and economy I got for him , by going against what the Factories recommended! , I will save this for one of my motorcycle posts.

Roy C , was in the Carburetor Department , we became really Good friends, I used to see Guys walking in carrying sets of Weber Sidedraught Carbs . Roy would ask them what compression , what CC, what they were revving too, and
of course, what make of Car it was and would set the carbs up on the Bench! These were mostly modified Saloon track Cars.

I could not believe this and asked one of the Guy's , are you serious?, reply " If your Carbs are not set by Roy , you don't have a hope of being in the top 5 in your class!" Wow that is quite a statement.

Oh, and BTW Roy's Sister used to date Mike Hailwood

If you do not know that name and you are a Biker, Shame on You!

There were a lot of other interesting Characters at Lucas, Talk next time