Scorpion Prototype

[robin craig]

In the "latest" issue of CMV that has just landed in here, the one with the Panzer on the cover, there is a report from W & P 2011.

 

It shows a Scorpion that allegedly belongs to John Hinton, i'm thinking that may infact be Jon Penton as I recall him posting pictures of a restoration.

 

It says in the caption that it had gearbox problems. Does anyone know what the problem was?

 

R

[timbo]

Robin

 

It is Jon Penton's as you correctly state.

 

The problem turned out to be a minor one but served to emphasise the somewhat unique nature of some aspects of this vehicle. The rod which connects to the forward/ reverse selector turned out not to be a solid rod as on production CVRT's but a tube with relatively thin walls. It had fractured in the middle presumably due to fatigue. Being unable to find a suitable length of rod to hand, I provided a long bolt which we removed the head from - we then screwed this into the two ends of the tubes, and punched and drilled two small holes through which split pins could be inserted for security. It seemed to work faultlessly after that.

 

I know Jon was at some point planning to replace this with a proper piece of threaded rod, but I actually think this was quite an elegant solution, given that all we had was a bolt, hacksaw and 2 split pins..!

 

The work was mostly done by Lew who has been building and repairing CVRT's for (ahem) a very long time, and it was a pleasure to watch a master at work...especially when you have a beer in your hand to help the thinking process...

 

Cheers

Timbo

[timbo]

On a separate note Jon, who is something of a dab hand with J60's, also told me that he had rebuilt the engine to produce more bhp, as the original prototypes would have done (220ish I think?). Having seen the speed it went round the arena, I can well believe this as it was like the proverbial scolded cat - and I guess the lack of armour probably helps too...