AJS and Matchless Owners Club Limited

Picture:

AJS superbike ???

Description:

not sure what this is I saw it on Facebook, any ideas?

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2346

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Rating:10 Votes:7 (Rating Scale: 1 = worst, 10 = best)

Added on:

31 Dec 2012

Posted by:

greasemonkey62

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7 Comment(s) | Rate this picture

By bunners
31 Dec 2012

Havent got a clue, but it aint half nice

By ajscomboman
31 Dec 2012

AJS blown 500cc V4 as ridden by Walter Rusk. Sammy Miller last rode it at the AJS day at Woolwich and said it won’t be run again as the crankcases are becoming too fragile. Shame as it sounds stunning.

By rex.webb
31 Dec 2012

I was there at "Woolwich " !!!! YES it sounded SUPER .

By Rob Harknett
01 Jan 2013

This is based on the 1936 AJS V4, which was air cooled. It was also available as a road going model with lights etc. I featured it in prewar officers mail bag during 2010

By Ex-member
01 Jan 2013

shame it is getting too fragile to run, I would love to have heard it roar.

By spindle
02 Jan 2013

where other companies might have cut their losses at this point, AMC did not. They commissioned Matt Wright, former New Imperial designer, to do a complete redesign. The result was a water-cooled version with barrels and cylinder heads cast in pairs, and fitted with enclosed valves. All exhaust ports now faced rearwards. Initially a thermo siphon design with a radiator on each side of the front frame downtubes, an impeller type water pump was soon added to the left side of the crankshaft to further aid cooling. Supercharger boost was reduced to 6 psi. Instead of the previous pressure lubrication, oil was now added to the fuel. The new duplex frame had integral rear plunger suspension housings, and the Webb-type girder forks were now graced with a deep finned alloy 8-inch (200 mm) TLS front brake. The bike used a 21-inch (530 mm) front tyre, and a 19-inch (480 mm) rear. It had a six imperial gallon fuel tank.[1] In May 1939 A R (Bob) Foster entered one in the North West 200, but it flooded on the start line. At the 1939 Isle of Man TT two bikes, ridden by Walter Rusk and A R (Bob) Foster, were 11th and 13th, and the supercharged BMWs of Georg Meir and Jock M West took the first two places. Though capable of high speeds, the AJS V4s did not handle well, and blew head gaskets in practice.[1] At the 1939 Ulster GP, the last GP before the War, the two bikes led from the start against Nortons and a supercharged four-cylinder Gilera, but halfway round the first of the 14-mile (23 km) laps, already timed at 135 mph (217 km/h) on one section, A R (Bob) Foster retired with plug trouble. Rusk completed the first lap at a record breaking average of 100.03 mph (160.98 km/h) and a lead of 34 seconds. On the third lap a fork link broke forcing retirement.[1] It is believed that this was caused by mistaken fitment of a 7R fork link instead of the stronger V4 part during servicing. In 1939 the 405 lb (184 kg). dry sump V4 was the first bike to lap the Ulster Grand Prix course at over 100 mph (160 km/h). Then World War II intervened.[2] In June 1946, the AJS V4 finally won, at Chimay in Belgium, ridden by the same Jock M West who had defeated the AJS on a BMW in the TT before the War, and was now AJS Sales Manager. Walter Rusk did not survive the War, and Jock’s mount was the bike Rusk had ridden. A week later at Albi, France, Jock West was in the lead when a crankpin seized and locked. (When Sammy Miller acquired the engine from Jock West thirty years later to rebuild the AJS V4 for his museum, he found the crankpin still seized.)[1] AJS was already developing another supercharged engine, the AJS Porcupine, but, three months after the Albi race, the FIM banned all forms of forced induction for motorcycle racing. The engine used by Walter Rusk in the Ulster GP, with 7.9:1 compression and 16.5 lbf/in² (114 kPa) of boost, made 55 bhp (41 kW) at 7200 rpm on a dynamometer.

By Ex-member
05 Jan 2013

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