Riley RMA
Text free modernized after collection
series for cars.
The Swedish car buyers knew before WWII only from the racing tracks.
In Sweden there were only a few of these elegant half racing cars.
The name is often connected with the delight of speed.
Riley. Ref 1 |
The Riley car had during the years more or less been produced by hand.
In advertizing the talk was about " individuality and
craftsmanship". The car has also always been exclusive elegant
creation for interested in motorsport. The Swedish prize 14300 Skr
for a 1,5 litres car, tell you that this is a quality built car. The
factory should today 2014 been 106 years if still active.
The best acknowledgement you can give the Riley engine is that
the engine made for the English racing car ERA has taken the basic
constructions for it's engine from Riley.
When English Racing Association was formed 1935 and the firms
interested in this project got together in order to cooperative
build a racing car good enough to compete with the German and French
expensive racing cars. For the first cars they used trimmed Riley
engines. Even the later ERA models had the extraordinarily liter
effect of 173 ps pro 1 liter cylinder volume. This gave the car a
top speed of 274 km/h. All this was based on the Riley factory
experiences. The differences are thet the ERA engine is built of
much more expensive materials and also equipped with a two stages
Rootes compressor. It was Riley that built the engine.
The time for craftsmanship to build a car in England was no more
economic. Riley had been taken over by Morris Motor, and the Morris
chief , Viscount Nuffield was vd in the border. The car can be said
to be the top mark in series MG-Wolseley-Morris. |
The Riley engine is an
interesting example how to how to go around the tax rules.
The cylinder diameter, or after which English tax horses are
counted come from the formula cylinder diameter 49 mm, but
cylinder stroke is 100 mm, compression is 6,5, top rpm 4500
and cylinder volume 1,5 liter. This formula gives 12 English
tax horses which is the tax figure. But if you test this
engine in an engine brake bench gives the real effect of 56
ps.
Riley rear end. Ref 1 |
Other English cars may be conservative. Riley was top
modern and offer details give an engine fantast to lick his
mouth by joy. Valve mechanism was as effective as the same
in a racing car. The cylinder top is equipped with straight
inlet and outlet ports allow the gas to pas without any
resistance. The valve are mounted angled so that the
ignition plugs will be situated in center of the spherical
combustion chamber.
It may be of interest to mention that the piston is 13
m/sec. This is much higher figure than any American car can
show and comparable with ERA where the speed is 10,5. A pure
racing engine.
To be a car with 1,5 liter volume Riley is quite a long
car and it is low to be English.
The total length is 455 cm, broadness 161 cm and height 150
cm. Axle distance is 286 cm. Speed according to catalogue
120 - 128 km/h. A figure which must be a nice construction
is the turning diameter 9 m. Normally for English small cars,
which are considerable shorter than Riley is 11 m. |
