Castle flopped; CLASSIC CARS WITH IAN JOHNSON This week: the Castle Three.Byline: IAN JOHNSON Ian Johnson may refer to:
IN THE early 1920s there was a school of thought among some motor designers that three wheels were better than four. Morgan, in particular, was proving this case. But two brothers in Kidderminster decided to take the whole concept a stage further and produce a refined three-wheeler which would appeal to the motorist demanding more comfor t. In truth, the Goodwin brothers were trying to keep their engineering workshops busy after the end of the First World War and they decided they were going to steal a march to march in a covert way; to gain an advantage unobserved; - formerly followed by of, but now by on or upon, and sometimes by over; as, to steal a march upon one's political rivals. See also: Steal on the Morgan by "Rolls-Roycing" the idea. Produced from 1919 to 1922, the Castle Three had all the equipment of a four-wheeler with dynamo dynamo: see generator. DYNAMO - DYNamic MOdels. A language for continuous simulation including economic, industrial and social systems, developed by Phyllis Fox and A.L. Pugh in 1959. lighting, spare wheel and tyre Tyre (tīr), ancient city of Phoenicia, S of Sidon. It is the present-day Sur in Lebanon, a small town on a peninsula jutting into the Mediterranean from the mainland of Syria S of Beirut. and steel artillery wheels instead of the usual wire or wooden disc. The wheels were advertised as being fully interchangeable . But the Goodwins' attempt to create threewheeled comfort had a hidden drawback because the vehicle was extremely heavy, used a lot of fuel and it exceeded the weight limit to make it qualify for a lower tax. It was also the most expensive three-wheeler on offer at the time at pounds 295. At that price it was just as easy to buy a fourwheeler, unless of course you really did want three wheels and drive a car made in Kidderminster, which is otherwise famous for manufacturing carpets. So the writing was on the wall for this car, which was also suffering setbacks with its transmission, which was of a patented pedal-operated two-speed epicyclic ep·i·cy·cle n. 1. In Ptolemaic cosmology, a small circle, the center of which moves on the circumference of a larger circle at whose center is the earth and the circumference of which describes the orbit of one of the planets around the earth. type . The original power unit was a 1,094cc Dorman engine, but production models were fitted with a more powerful 1,208cc Belgian-built engine. A novel feature on early models was a disc rear brake, which had to be replaced with a drum system because it was not powerful enough. Despite 3,300 orders taken at the motorcycle show of the day, only some hundreds were built. The problem, apart from the quirky quirk n. 1. A peculiarity of behavior; an idiosyncrasy: "Every man had his own quirks and twists" Harriet Beecher Stowe. 2. transmission, was that the Goodwins wanted extra space to produce the cars and sought financial backing from one of the local carpet manu facturers . It is said that the carpet maker literally pulled the rug on the car by guaranteeing the loan but later, when things went wrong, ordering all the remaining cars and parts to be sold as scrap and taking over the Goodwins' workshop to extend the carpet business. A four-wheeler, the Castle Four, was built in prototype form in the last year of production, but it was just too late to save the name. The Castle Four still survives, as do a few Castle Threes . A Castle three-wheeler is now part of the collection at the County Museum at Hartlebury near Worcester and the Castle Four is owned by Birmingham City Council, though it is not usually exhibited. CAPTION(S): ON SHOW - a Castle three-wheeler on show at the County Museum at Hartlebury near Worcester |
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