when I saw this picture in the series the Motor Racing one below came from.

Jude and I have had a number of discussion on carburettors, particularly SU carburettors. When I saw this Riley picture it made me think of the greatest Riley racer Freddie Dixon. He was a genius with carburettors and to avoid all the losses incurred with inlet manifolds he fitted SIX SU carburettors to his six cylinder Riley and had great success. The Genius bit comes in tuning them all to give the same mixture to each cylinder.
The SU is a Constant Depression carburettors, and the thought occurs are you allowed to use the word Depression nowadays. You are not allowed to use the word Handicapped now but have to say disabled, the BBC was reproved on this very point only last week . The organisers of the Doncaster November Handicap have had to change the name of this famous Horse Race to The Doncaster November Disabled.
I wonder what is the Politically Correct name for a Constant Depression Carburettor.
Anyway I have included a link for you Jude for a page telling you how the SU works, once you have mastered that we can go onto the Zenith, Amal, Stromberg and Weber’s and may even discuss the delightfully named Binks ‘Ratrap’ of the early years. What we will not touch is the Claudel-Hobson, which despite months of studying the handbook I never got my head round.

Freddie Dixon ‘flying’ round Brooklands in his Riley

Health and Safety 1930’s style. Pouring petrol out of a churn through a funnel into the car. I’m surprised he’s not smoking

Now Jude, just look at that, Six SU’s in a row

More Pictures HERE

More on Freddie Dixon HERE

SU Carburetters HERE

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