World Lawn Speed Record/Don Wales

[quicksilver-wsr]

Staying firmly on thread this time ...

Probably uniquely, I have a way to link lawn-mowers with the World Water Speed Record.

We had a piece of test apparatus years ago - one of Ken Norris's ideas, and we kept it in Ken's hangar at Bournemouth Airport - and it was a towing device to pull scale models of Quicksilver across the water. It was powered by a two-stroke lawn-mower engine, had a Black & Decker Workmate as its "chassis", and a couple of bicycle wheels which directed a long length of fishing-line down to water level so that the model could be towed along to test its planing ability.

This contraption came to be known as "The Mangle" and it did a reasonable job until someone - presumably an employee of Ken's - sneaked in when no-one was looking and stole the Workmate, leaving all the rest of it lying in a heap on the floor.

A pity, because we were just about to "race-tune" it with a more powerful Briggs & Stratton.

There's a photo of it here in the archive, but I doubt it will make it onto our website.

[klingon]

( Lawnmower museum)-Its really interesting, if you like that sort of thing......
Almost beats the Kendal Pencil Museum for heart stopping thrills and Many Hours of Harmless Fun dunnit?

[tkibbie]

How could you guys forget Jimmy Clark! Unfortunatly he passed away far too soon. I love that lawn mower!

[rob565uk]

I'll have you know that I cut my lawn with a fully restored, 24 inch British Anzani Lawnrider that I bought on ebay for £62.01 and brought back to full working order. The only mod was the retirement of the old Villiers engine in favour of a modern, Japanese equivalent.

Bill, respect!

That is an awesome machine and the restoration is outstanding. I suspect the Lawnmower Museum would covet that example.

[CHWk7]

Really nice job Bill and a proper machine none of the modern rortary horrid stuff which I hate with a passion , but where is the grass catcher box?

[Renegadenemo]

Really nice job Bill and a proper machine none of the modern rortary horrid stuff which I hate with a passion , but where is the grass catcher box?

After much searching the world I did acquire a genuine British Anzani grassbox but I didn't have it when that shot was taken. It also has no guards over the engine either, which it's supposed to have, but I finally got those too. The guards over the belts on the left I built from scratch and because I've eaten a few more pies than I ought to my good old Lawnrider turns my grass into perfectly striped, green Axminster much to the envy of everyone who sees it.

[mtskull]

( Lawnmower museum)-Its really interesting, if you like that sort of thing......
Almost beats the Kendal Pencil Museum for heart stopping thrills and Many Hours of Harmless Fun dunnit?

Ah, the Pencil Museum; the happy memories come flooding back! -Mind you I once visited a Snail Museum in Tuscany; that really is a place to go when you've lost the will to live.

[klingon]

Naw-when you've lost the will to live you go to Cumbernauld outside Glasgow-the all time winner of the Carbuncle awards and the place where they would stick the tube if Planet Earth ever needed an enema! -When a newspaper ran a competition for the ugliest building in Britain the people of Cumbernauld voted for the whole town!-it's a really ugly 60's concrete maze with no centre.

[alslad]

The only mod was the retirement of the old Villiers engine in favour of a modern, Japanese equivalent.

I hope the original Villiers lump is on display in a transparent case in your garage, Bill!

Way back when I was an apprentice gardener, we used Ransomes Multimowers that used the Villiers - my right arm was like Popeye's due to the number of pulls needed to get the beggar started. They were later all upgraded to MAG's and Kubotas...

Darren

[Renegadenemo]

I hope the original Villiers lump is on display in a transparent case in your garage, Bill!

I ended up acquiring a small fleet of Lawnriders to get a full set of parts in the end so I have an equal collection of Villiers lumps all bagged and put away in the loft in my garage. The Japanese Robin engine is a straight swap except for its well thought out carb and an ultra-reliable ignition system that means it'll start if you give it so much as a hard stare.

One thing we take for granted these days that certainly wasn't the case in the fifties is just how much tinkering you have to do with machinery of that era just to keep it doing its job, something that's becoming very apparent as we bring things like K7's start system back to life. It's little wonder they spent every hour in that boathouse in 66/67 and got a little fed up in the process.