The Return of the Twin
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The Return of the Twin! Fiat TwinAir Engine ! ! The twin cylinder engine that has prompted me to look into the history of the twin cylinder automobile engine is the Fiat TwinAir.! The Fiat TwinAir engine, available in some Fiat 500, Panda, and Alfa Romeo Miti's, uses an innovative valve gear technology to optimise performance and efficiency.! With only two cylinders with a total capacity of only 875 cc. and when turbocharged it produces 84 bhp.This in conjunction with an emission level of only 92g/Km, makes it outstanding and a pointer to future engine developments.! Its appropriate that the TwinAir, is produced by Fiat, as they had produced over four million twin cylinder engined cars since 1957.! The TwinAir is in no way related to those previous twins. These first of previous twins were produced for the rear engined 500 Nova, in 1957. An air-cooled parallel twin with a capacity of 479 cc, producing 17 bhp. In 1972 the 500, was joined by the 126, with a similar engine of 594 cc, reducing 23 bhp. This was produced until 1987, the 500, had been discontinued in 1977. The final Fiat twin, was 704 cc, water-cooled unit, producing 26 bhp. First fitted in the 126bis, produced from 1987 to 1992. This engine was available as an option in some markets in the Cinquecento 700, model, produced between 1992 and 1998.! ! ! The Return of the Twin Cylinder Engine into Mainstream Motoring.! ! Since 1998 until the advent of the TwinAir, the twin cylinder engined car has been missing from the mainstream manufacturers showrooms. Historically this was not normally the case, as twins have been produced from the beginning of the motoring era, with fourteen and a half million produced between 1948 and 1998, being a major component of the economy car sector in Europe in that period.! With a few exceptions the twin has been the preserve of the lighter end of the automobile spectrum. Used first in the pioneering cars, the in Voiterettes, followed by the so called cycle cars of the first part of the last century. Finally by the Mini and Micro cars of the middle and later part of the century. Ofter considered the poor relation of the small four cylinder engine the twin cylinder engine has been of great service to many millions of the worlds motorist.! ! Page 1 The Return of the Twin! Daimler Twin! ! Time line! ! The Veteran Era. ! ! The first twin's were produced almost at the beginning of the motoring age by amongst others the greatest pioneers, Daimler, Ford and Benz. Daimler V twin1889. The first Daimler twin designed by Wilhelm Maybach was of a narrow"V" configuration, with a !capacity 565 cc, and produced 1.5 hp.! !1890. A licensed version of this engine was used by Peugeot.! 1891. Panhard and Levisour used and engine of this design in their innovative front engined car, with the clutch and gearbox behind with chains to the rear wheels, starting a fashion that was to be dominant for the next sixty years and was the transition from the !horseless carriage to the automobile.! 1896. In the USA Henry Ford used an in line or parallel twin, with the cylinders lying horizontally, producing three horsepower, for his Quadricycle. He made a total of three of these, the last in 1901. Other twin's that Ford produced, were the first Model A 9hp, in !1903, the Model B, in 1904 and finally the Model F, produced between 1905 and 1906.! 1896. In England Dr Fred Lanchester designed a car with many original features. Amongst them was a twin cylinder engine of unique design. This engine was different from all other twins made before or since, in having four connecting rods to connect the two pistons to two crankshafts, with the aim of producing perfect balance. This was attained but at high cost. Engines of this layout were fitted to Lanchester cars produced between 1906 and " Page 2 The Return of the Twin! Ford Quadricycle! ! 1908. With a capacity of 4106 cc, producing 12 horsepower running at 760 rpm. By then engines of this size had four or more cylinders and this line of development was not repeated. ! ! 1897. Daimler fitted an 1060 cc, water-cooled in line or parallel twin cylinder engine with the cylinders upright, in their "Phenix model, which was still very much a horseless !carriage. ! 1897. Panhard et Levassor produced a front engined design fitted with a Daimler Phenix twin cylinder engine of 1206 cc, producing 4 hp, at 800 rpm, It had a cruising speed of 10 !mph.! 1899. Mors produced the "Petit Duc"' model with a 4 hp, twin cylinder horizontally opposed !engine with air-cooled cylinder barrels and water-cooled heads. ! 1899. Benz produced a 1728 cc, horizontally opposed water-cooled twin named the "Contra engine" that produced five horsepower at 920 rpm. This was fitted at the rear of !the car.! 1899. The Decauville Voiturelle, had a 479 cc, vertical twin mounted in the rear, it !produced 3 hp, at 1,200 rpm.! The "V"usually at 90 degree's, the parallel twin, usually upright, and the horizontally opposed, were the three configuration commonly used for twin cylinder engines, with only !rare variations such as the Lanchester utilised.! 1900. Paul Daimler the son of Gottleib Daimler, created a very significant design the Daimler PD. It had a 4 hp, 1230 cc twin cylinder engine of 86 mm bore and 116 mm stroke with automatic inlet valves and low tension ignition. 40 kph was attained at 850 rpm. The engine was at the front with an integral gearbox and the PD was seen as the fore-runner of the light car and was the inspiration for the next Daimler model the Mercedes prototype of !1901.! ! ! Page 3 The Return of the Twin! Arrel-Johnson! ! The earliest Renault models all voiterettes, had been fitted with a De-Deon single cylinder engines. The Type H14cv of 1902, was the first model to be fitted with an engine manufactured by Renault. This was a water-cooled side-valve inline twin of 1728 cc. producing 14 bhp. at 1200 rpm. A later version of this engine fitted in the Model J. had a capacity of 2280 cc and the Model J. had a top speed of 74 kph. The engines fitted to the H and J models had an automatic inlet valve. The 10/16 cv of 1903 had mechanically operated overhead and side exhaust valves and produced 16 bhp from a capacity of 1885 cc. One of the most famous Renault models was the Type AG 8 cv. of 1905. Fitted with a 1060 cc. water-cooled side-valve twin cylinder engine producing only 8 bhp. The 8 cv. was used as the premier Paris taxi, to well after the first World War, and came to fame as the "Taxi De La Marne"', being used to rush troops to the front in 1914 and saving Paris from being over run by the invading German army. Renault's last twin's were the AX 7/8cv. and! 8/9cv of 1909. A later model using the 1060 cc. engine and a 1205 cc. larger version, !they were produced until 1914.! Two makers during the veteran era, used twin cylinder engines with two pistons per cylinder, One of them was the Scottish maker Arrel-Johnston. A chassis is shown at the !left. They used rocking arms to connect the connecting rods to the crank. ! The other was the French manufacturer Gebron-Brillie who's arrangement is shown in the !drawing. Arrol-Johnston produced a twin until 1909, Gebron-Brillie until 1912.! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! Page 4 The Return of the Twin! ! Albion Engine! ! Edwardian Era.! ! During the Edwardian era thirty percent of the numerous British, European and American manufacturers produced twins.! Twins dominated the eight to ten horsepower classes. with 165 models in that range In comparison, in the same period, only 74 four cylinder engined models were on offer. A total of 330 twins were offered for sale during the period 1906 to 1914. The larger models were mostly produced in the early years of the era. Most larger twins had been discontinued by !the end of the first decade of the twentieth century.! The Albion 16 hp. was an example of the large twin cylinder engined cars of the Edwardian era. On sale from 1906 to 1913, by which time most engines of this size had at !least four cylinders.! Automobiles Grégoire, more simply known as Grégoire, was a French car manufacturer. Established on the Boulevard Devaux in Poissy. Gregoire started off by manufacturing engines in 1903. In 1904, the company started to manufacture automobiles. The design was considered nothing special, but was easily recognisable by its pear-shaped radiator. !The company made cars with single, two and four-cylinder engines.! The Riley 9 hp was the first four wheeled car produced by the company. It had a 1034 cc. water-cooled V twin engine. It was produced from 1907 until 1911. They also produced twin's. The 12/18 hp. with a 2039 cc. engine from 1907 until 1914, and a 10 hp. from 1909 !until 1914. Both with Riley patent side valves.! The first engine produced by Humber in 1902 had twin cylinder's, and they had produced various twins since then.the 8 hp. of 1909/10, was the largest at 1527 cc. and the last of what be considered full size cars at the time. The last twin cylinder engined car produced by Humber was the Humberette of 1913 to1915, which was a 998 cc.