B.S.A.

Send This Page To A Friend
Fade To White
B.S.A. | Pre War British Sports Cars


During the middle and early 'thirties the B.S.A. three-wheeler was a serious challenger to the supremacy of the Morgan. Indeed, B.S.A. versus Morgan controversies raged wherever owners of the respective makes congregated. So far as maximum speed and sheer performance went, none of the B.S.A. vehicles could look at the super-sports Morgan. On the other hand, the Besa had many things that were lacking in the older design. The four-cylinder version was opening up an entirely new market to people attracted by the smoothness of the power unit and the car-type comfort.

"Blue Star" versions of the B.S.A. were fairly fast, and were capable of good average speeds. In addition, the marque was probably the first to overcome the prejudice against front-wheel drive which had beaten even the excellent Alvis cars. The little Scout was based on a four-wheeled version of the three-wheeler which had first appeared with the Vee-twin air- cooled engine. It was never intended as a sports car in the real sense of the word, but was built for the semi-sporting brigade. The latter like to run about in sporty-looking vehicles, but do not care to run them in competitions. I don't mean that the Scout was a promenade car, but I do maintain that it was never a machine that could seriously be entered in events other than main road type of event. On the other hand, a modified version entitled the Palmer Special had distinct possibilities for sports-car racing.

Good looks it had in plenty, and it was difficult to distinguish it from rear-driven vehicles. This was largely due to the clever way in which the B.S.A. designers had "compressed" the four- cylinder (63.5 x 95-mm., 1204-c.c.) side-valve power unit. In actual fact, this was accomplished by dispensing with water passages between the adjacent cylinders. A two-bearing crank­shaft had a roller race at the rear and a ball race at the front. The front-wheel drive was highly ingenious, and, despite head- shakings by the wiseacres of the period, has thoroughly vindicated itself. In order to shorten the drive assembly as much as possible, the gearbox layshaft was placed high up, so that its forward bearing overlapped the worm wheel of the final drive.

This was also necessary to return the anti-clockwise rotation of the engine, which was placed back to front, to normal. The clutch and gearbox were built up in unit with the engine, and were, of course, mounted in front. The worm drive incor­porated a differential in a front casing. The torque shafts, from either side of the differential assembly, were universally jointed at each end, the joints at the outer ends driving the steering wheels, which were mounted in steering heads carried at the ends of the quarter-elliptic springs. There were four of these springs to each wheel - eight in all.

The last version of the Scout was produced in 1939, and was entitled the Series Six. This had a better performance than the earlier cars, and 70 m.p.h. was quite within its scope, as the engine developed 32 b.h.p. compared with 26 b.h.p. of the earlier models. The cars all handled well, and were notable for their fast cornering and excellent road-holding and suspension. It is indeed a pity that the car was never made available with an engine capable of being tuned, as it had distinct possibilities as a really fast sporting machine for the open road enthusiast.
1933 B.S.A. Front Wheel Drive Sports Three Wheeler
1933 B.S.A. Front-Wheel-Drive Sports Three-Wheeler.
Latest Classic Car Classifieds