Quiz Archive

1936 Pacey Hassan Special ( About # 162)

No winners this time. Only two jurymembers came up with the right answer, Gerard Lansink and Bart Oosterling. Bart sends a full article. Thanks a lot Bart!

It's a 1929/35 Pacey-Hassan "ca. 4 1/2" Bentley "mutant", a Vintage Special that is still being developed since it has been built for the first time. In John Bateman's "the enthousiast's guide to vintage specials" (p. 141-143) the same car is pictured as it was in 1973. What a difference: nowadays it's carrying more appropriate wheels and tyres instead of the wide modern tyres that were used then. (photos by editor) Built by EW Pacey and brother in law EW Saunders with the help of Walter Hassan: they designed a narrow chassis frame with semi-elliptic suspension all round and tubular crossmembers. Chassis side members were by Rubery Owen. Initial building and development cost were less than GPB 500,- The original 4,5 litre engine came from Pacey's racing Bentley and was modified by boring out to a diameter of 101 mm, using stronger rods and Martlett pistons. Between the block and crankcase up to 6 compression plates could be fitted to in- or decrease compression so that the use of methanol/benzol fuels was possible. This engine was worn out by 1937. Replacement was a 3 litre block bored tot 82 mm on top of a 4,5 bottom half which was stronger, and supercharged by a Zoller compressor driven of the front of the crankshaft. The results were not as expected and the car was replaced by the Bowler Hoffman Bentley Special. During WW2 it was hidden together with another Bentley Special, the Barnato Hassan. After WW2 it was rebuilt as a two-seater by Geoff Cramer in "Zagato Alfa Romeo style". In the 1960's the engine was rebuilt to 4,4 litre specification again (101 x 140 mm) by father and son Morley with the help of Walter Hassan, It was returned to single-seater configuration in the early seventies. Somewhere it also got 2 extra brakes (on the front axle) and the brakes were upgraded to hydraulic operation. In 1974 it was bought by Fuad Mazjub. The 200 bhp quote is a bit to much: according to John Bateman's magnificent book there are "only" 140 horses: the book does not state if this is on methanol or on regular gasoline.

results:
1936 Gold Star trophy: 1st place 122,53 mph winning the 120 mph badge
Brooklands 1936: clocked at 129.03 mph
1936 500 mile: 2nd place 115.96 mph
1937 500 mile: 8th place 120.01 mph

Friday, 12 August 2005