It was the original 600cc design, with its chain-driven overhead cam, that gained the engine a reputation for overheating the rear cylinders – a reputation from which the Ariel would never recover. The Square Four quickly grew to 600cc ahead of its official 1932 release then a full litre in 1936. Originally the Square Four was conceived as a 500cc engine, comprising two 250cc engines. ![]() This would be the last incarnation of the Square Four engine. Certainly, the Ariel would be no match for the Triumph on the race track but for someone who wants to enjoy the sheer pleasure of mid-twentieth century riding the Square Four is hard to beat.Īn extraordinary engine, put simply, one 500 cc engine behind the other. The result is an engine that is torquey, smooth beyond anything else available at the time and a little bit quirky. The drive side of the crankshafts are connected by two massive gears, requiring the cranks to each run in opposite directions. Essentially, the Square Four is two parallel twin engines one behind the other, sharing a common crankcase. ![]() They are two very distinct machines with a common ancestor. One of the most extraordinary motorcycle engines of the twentieth century was scratched out by the designer on the back of a cigarette packet in a London tea-house.Īs far as motorcycle engines go, a discussion over which was Turner’s finest piece could only really be settled in the carpark, and that comes from someone who owns both a Triumph parallel twin and a Square Four (recall the scene at the end of Fight Club where Edward Norton’s character is punching on with the imaginary Tyler Durden?). We know this because the original plans of Turner’s famed Square Four engine were roughed out on the back of an unfolded Wild Woodbines packet. Turner, who has been described as the “most powerful figure in the British motorcycle industry” (Old Bike Australia, 2020), also smoked Wild Woodbines. Along the way, Turner also had some other revolutionary designs including overhead camshaft engines that were driven by bevel gears (25 years before Ducati used the same idea). He designed single-cylinder engines for Ariel and Triumph before introducing his famous Speed Twin into the world back in 1937. That was until I learned they were the durry of choice favoured by Edward Turner.Įdward Turner was an engineer and influential designer who was at the dawn of the Golden Age of Motorcycling. Bronc was the only one I ever knew who smoked Woodbines, thus they became the poor-man’s cigarette, the proclivity of a retired stockman. Everyone I knew smoked Benson & Hedges, Marlborough or Drum. Bronc lived alone with only his cats for company, dozens of cats, he never spent anything of the finer things in life so I assumed Wild Woodbines were a budget cigarette. There would be Bronc, hands behind his back, aged Fletcher Jones trousers, worn old boots – without a hint of socks – and a Woodbine hanging off his lower lip. No sooner than I had the two stroke Suzuki 185 popping through its spark-arrested exhaust system and that feeling I’m being watched would creep over me. Bronc, as he was known, was the unofficial sentinel of the sheds and farm equipment, always there to spring me if I tried to sneak the agg-bike out for a bit of one-on-one motocross. ![]() ![]() For most of my childhood and my teen years we had an old stockman living on our farm.
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