Rhode

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Rhode | Pre War British Sports Cars

The Rhode is chiefly remembered for its beautiful little overhead-camshaft power unit. Of 1232-c.c. (66 x 90-mm.), it was a really advanced design when it first appeared around 1924. The overhead, shaft-driven camshaft also drove the dynamo and magneto at its forward end, both units being set at an angle across the engine, at each side, in a particularly accessible position. The lubrication system was highly ingenious; the flywheel dipped into the oil, and threw it, by centrifugal force, up a vertical pipe fitted at the side of the flywheel housing, which led to the o.h.v. gear, from where it was distributed to other parts of the engine.

Rhodes had a fine competition record, and many successes were scored in trials by perfectly standard cars, such as the famous old " occasional four" or "chummy model," as it was sometimes called. The lessons learned in competitive events were incorporated in a snappy little sports car which appeared in 1924. This car was most pleasing to look at, being finished in black, with aluminium wings and bonnet. A four-speed gearbox (ratios 4.2, 6.2, 9.03, and 16.2 to 1) was fitted, and four-wheel braking was standardised. At a time when front brakes tended to be added as an afterthought, the Rhode layout was particularly well designed. Being marketed mainly as a competition car, purchasers had the choice of a solid or differential back-end. The engine was specially tuned; aluminium pistons were used, a special "high-lift" camshaft was fitted, and the exhaust ports streamlined and polished. Crankshaft and conrods were made from high-grade H.T. steel, the fawner being fully counterbalanced. Suspension was by quarter-elliptic all round.

No fantastic claims were made as regards maximum speed by the manufacturers, but it appears to have been capable of a genuine 65 m.p.h. It was an excellent trials car, however, and the o.h.c. power unit was famed for the length of time it would run without attention, and keep its original tune. The Rhode concern was not a large producer of sporting vehicles, output being mainly of popular types. The make continued to be marketed until the early thirties, when manufacture ceased. The Rhode Hawk series of closed cars were first-rate machines, but like many another firm, the company did not survive the acute depression period in the late twenties.
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