‘I Use Mine Every Day…’
Philip Clark explains that ‘why not’ is his classic car motto
Why not?! How a 1924 Trojan still tackles the daily commute.
Ihad been looking for one of these amazing cars for years, so when this one came up in 2018, I just couldn’t say no. The most important part of car ownership for me is that you use it like a car, so right from the start, I have used this car daily. I went to work in it this morning… why not. It takes ten minutes longer than a modern car, but when I get to work, my smile is ten miles wider. It does a healthy 35mph on the flat, which is vaguely terrifying. It has just got the one rear brake, plus a transmission brake and no diff. Chain drive – nuff said, really. Oh, you can also put it into reverse as you are going forwards if there is a real emergency… but that’s quite extreme.
Apart from that, it’s a weird old thing. It has a four-cylinder, two-stroke engine connected to an epicyclic gearbox, which sits under the driver’s seat. Two gears – first just gets it moving and second does the rest. And that four-cylinder acts like a twin and is incredibly torquey. It also has flexible con-rods – as the pistons run parallel, the rods are able to flex slightly. The crank runs transversely across the car and the engine itself is horizontal, with two pistons on either side. As the top piston fires it burns through a transfer port to the bottom one… two-stroke perfection.
It only revs to about 1300rpm or so, but that is all going on about five inches from your posterior… so you do tend to feel it. The springs between the box and the lever are a cush drive, so it grabs the drums, which also transmits the drive.
The pedals are in the normal place though… although I’ve never really used the clutch. Under the bonnet at the front is the petrol tank and the carburettor… which has an unfeasibly long inlet port. There’s almost nothing on this car that isn’t completely eccentric. That’s why it’s my daily.’