1913 abc engine

just arrived from new zealand

Keith,
Looks a fine acquisition and a source of further information on the early engines
regards Ian

That’s a significant find!

Some might have spotted how this engine looks very similar to the one in the bike we have at the beginning of our history page

I always thought that bike belonged to some Jack Falshee because that’s all it was written on the back of that picture (as conserved by the ABC company itself) but Keith made me realise he was a racing car driver who did not have anything to do with motorcycles.

FY1180 then showed up in a 1919 picture on MotorCycling alongside a 1914 ABC 500cc with sidecar and the then brand new 400cc ABC Sopwith prototype.

It had gone through some changes with new carb, transmission, tank and handlebars but these were likely made in 1914 when the Claudel Hobson carburettor and chain transmission were adopted on all ABC motorcycles as standard.

Nothing more came to light about FY1189 but in parallel, David Hales told me about a veteran engine at the Southward Car Museum in New Zealand. I tried to find it but never had any luck: the manager of the museum has so many items in the depot that nobody can even walk into it anymore … so I had to stop asking.
Meanwhile … Keith the Facebook geek [..] had all the luck I did not have and managed to buy it from a guy who time ago bought it at auction from Southward.

To close the loop… in 1972 David Hales was in touch with Sir Len Southward, founder of the museum.
In one of his letters, Sir Len explained how he used to work as a message boy for Inglis in the early ‘20s and he received the TT engine from Alfred Wray who rode ABC motorcycles at the 1913-14 Senior TT races on the IoM.

Long story short, Keith’s picture shows the 1913 ABC engine fitted to Alfred Wray’s TT machine. He completed 6 laps with that bike before retiring – best result for ABC that day.
No other veteran ABC TT engine appears to have survived and this might well be the oldest ABC engine in existence.
Well done keith!

Well done indeed Keith.

i think the photo is style cop in the midlands, emerson was going to the ssdt, i think he was second , it was his first time there and he thought the hill was much steeper and had geared up too low, either that or he was geared up for the scottish and thought he was ok. he attached a sidecar and won that class ?