Metallurgique with 21 liter Maybach Zeppelin engine, 1907

[grobmotorix]

Who knows this monster?

[ropat53]

1907 Maybach Metallurgique

[grobmotorix]

 :applause:

[D-type]

Did it have the Maybach engine in 1907 or was it fitted later?

[Wendax]

The engine was fitted in 1910.

The title should be corrected as it is Douglas Fitzpatrick without hyphenation.

[nicanary]

I would like to add that Mr Fitzpatrick didn't do the conversion - he was a well-known character in the North Norfolk area, indeed my father knew him.  He was a bit of an oddball and would often take the car for a drive in the summer and stop at local pubs for a drink. I have no idea who was responsible for the engine installation, or indeed how Mr F got hold of the car, but he owned it for many years until his death.

I meant to add - the date quoted for the engine installation is 1910, and I have found this confirmed on the internet. I wonder how the engineer came by the motor - it is generally accepted that it is a Maybach as fitted to Zeppelins, but they didn't come into commercial service until 1910. It seems unlikely to me that spare engines were available for sale to the public when they were required for a rapidly expanding mode of transport. I CAN understand them being available as war surplus from 1919 onwards, although airship travel was still considered as mainstream right up to the Hindenberg disaster.

Just looked again at the photo - Douglas Fitzpatrick is the man with fair hair on the extreme right of the group.

[grobmotorix]

Thank you very much for all the additional information!

[RayTheRat]

Present-day photos.

Edit: the 2nd car is not the same as the puzzle car, having chain drive rather than shaft drive.

[D-type]

Are both those pictures of the same car as there are noticeable differences?

[nicanary]

Are both those pictures of the same car as there are noticeable differences?

This question is raised on a blogspot which pictures both images. The white car is supposed to be pictured at the 1959 Brighton Speed Trials, but it dosn't look like that venue to me. Plus the chain drive rather gives the game away - the Fitzpatrick car had shaft drive, so there must be two similar cars in the UK.

[grobmotorix]

Plus the chain drive rather gives the game away - the Fitzpatrick car had shaft drive, so there must be two similar cars in the UK

agreed...

[RayTheRat]

Are both those pictures of the same car as there are noticeable differences?

I'm not positive that the #89 car is the same...although it could just be a little more "stripped-down" for racing.

Here's some verbiage from one website about the #89:

"The car was regularly entered in the Brighton Speed Trials, driven by Fitzpatrick. Extant is a photograph of the car, wrongly identified as of 1912, participating in the 1959 trials. It is mentioned in Tony Gardiner's book The Brighton National Speed Trials as having been entered again in 1961. The car, numbered 202, also features in a cine film of the 1964 Brighton trials.

Rupert Lloyd Thomas, commenting on the 1964 footage, quotes from Motor Sport, October 1964, which gives the car's capacity as 21 litres. The same capacity is given for a car described by La Societe Anonyme des Automobiles Métallurgiques as a type AZ, with an airship engine, and based in England (above). This suggests that it is the same car, but Fitzpatrick's had a live axle final drive, not a side-chain. Perhaps this latter car is a Métallurgique Maybach with its more modest original 10 litre engine."

[Allan L]

There's no doubt that the chain-drive car is not "La Metallurgique" as we know her.
Fitzpatrick, writing in 1957, tells us that Maybach told him that the engine was "a proprietory unit they manufactured between 1910 and 1912 for use in motor-boats, airships or for other special purposes."
He also found a Mr Cole, brother of a previous owner, of Brundall, near Norwich, who told him that the car had the engine changed in 1919 with the chassis lengthened some 18" to accommodate it.
As found the final drive bevels were done for and a new pair (37 and 47 teeth, ratio 1.270:1  :D) had to be made.

[RayTheRat]

Note added to the photo post indicating the difference between the two cars.  Thanks to those who've clarified the difference (if I'd had a lick of sense I would have questioned the chain drive of the 2nd car.)

[D-type]

I'm sure that No 89 is not competing at Brighton Speed Trials - there is nowhere on the course with that much greenery.

[RayTheRat]

I'm sure that No 89 is not competing at Brighton Speed Trials - there is nowhere on the course with that much greenery.

One more instance of internet accuracy.   ;)