Ferret armored car repair in Cincinnati

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Created on Saturday, 21 January 2012 17:21

Luckily for Ferret Scout Car owners in Cincinnati, there are repair resources available to keep the machines on the road.  2 shops in the Madisonville area with Ferret experience are Eurauto and Brindle's Cincinnati Motor Car.  The owners both own Ferrets and other military vehicles, and are enthusiatic collectors.  They also collaborate on projects, with the latest being a Ferret engine swap.

Tim Brockman, who runs Eurauto, owns this particular Ferret, which suffers from a locked up motor.  The repair for this engine would take a lot of expensive machining, as the motor was seriously damaged.  Getting another one from England has gotten prohibitively expensive since 9/11, but luckily he came across a virtually new motor in an ad in Military Vehicles magazine.  The guy in Texas had bought this motor sight unseen to repair a Rolls Royce, but soon realized it wasn't the correct motor.  It sat around his garage for years till he took out the ad to sell it.

Now with the new motor in hand but no time to install it, he farmed the job out to John Brindle who owns Brindle's Cincinnati Motor Car.  Another project in John's lot is a British Scorpian waiting for a new Jaguar motor.  British cars are also John's forte, and he owns several rare cars,  including a '52 Allard K-2 and a Sunbeam Tiger.  Many British cars have gotten a new lease on life going though Cincinnati Motor Car.

The new motor for this Ferret is slightly different, and although there were several motor upgrades through the Ferret's production life, this one seems to be from a Humber Pig, a British armored personnel carrier.  The Ferret has a dry sump system for lubrication, whereas this motor has a wet sump.  Being just another variation on the same motor, everything will bolt up.  As far as getting the engine out, the access is much better than the Mercedes and BMWs usually worked on at the shop.  No worries about extra stuff like air conditioning or catalytic converters to get in your way.  

In an afternoon the engines are sitting side by side to sum up the differences.  One interesting thing about these motors is the small brass cylinder bolted to the thermostat housing.  This holds a rolled up parchment with a detailed history of anything the British Army had done to this motor.  It's also nice to have the original workshop manuals to get the job done right.  When it's done, Cincinnati roadways will host something a little more interesting than it's usual fare of Toyotas and Chevy trucks.

Ferret Scout Car

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Created on Saturday, 21 January 2012 14:20

It doesn't take long for guys who are interested in old British guns to get involved with old British armored vehicles.  The two go together like tea and crumpets (or so I've heard).  One of the easist and coolest ways to get an armored vehicle you can live with is to buy a Ferret.

The Ferret armored scout car is an all steel welded up monocoque tub with a 6 cylinder Rolls Royce engine to replace the successful Dingo armored car used in WW2. The earlier Dingo was an armored shell dropped on a Humber 1 ton truck chassis sporting a Bren gun.  The Ferret's design does away with the frame for a lower center of gravity and more compact arrangement.  For a collector in the states who wants to drive an armored vehicle, the Ferret is a great choice because, as armored vehicles go, it's not that big.  It also rides on 4 rubber tires, has turn signals, mirrors, windshield wipers and all the little bits that the Bureau of Motor Vehicles insist on.

The Ferret was produced from 1952 to 1971, with a total run of 4,400 and were used by the British Army till after the first Gulf War.  They were also used by the other Commonwealth countries, and may still be.  The design and production was done by Daimler, as was the Dingo, and some elements persist.  The vehicle not only has five speeds forward, but in reverse as well (important to get out of trouble as fast as you get into it).  The Ferret scout car version carried a 30 caliber machine gun in a manually traversible turret, with a crew of two.  The liason version had no turret, and a pintle mounted machine gun.

Design and development of the Ferret

Ferret Specifications

The 4 1/2 ton machine can go 100 miles cross country on a 25 gallon tank.  The Rolls engine produces 130 hp, and can almost push the scout car to 60 mph, which makes the Ferret a spiritual successor to the British Light Cavalry, and takes over the scouting and reconnaissance role.  There is, however, no place in the turret to park your sword, however, you could stash your Sten subgun.

Video from Thunderchief35's channel

Mystery Lee Enfield Carbine

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Created on Sunday, 15 January 2012 20:12

While cruising the EuroArms Italia website, I came across this interesting Enfield carbine.  It's obviously a real Lee Enfield cavalry carbine made in 1900, but the stock looks to have been shortened, most likely as a civilian sporter.  It retains most of it's correct and rare attributes, such as the leather site protector and flattened bolt knob.  These were characteristics only for carbines, along with the shorter 6 round magazine, which enabled sliding in and out of saddle buckets easily.  

The carbine version of the Lee series of rifles started around 1895 and were made up until the adoption of the SMLE around 1902.  Volley sights were done away with as this was a short range weapon (but the sights were still graduated to 2000 yards, not so short range).  The barrel lost around 10 inches and the weight reduced by ten pounds.  The earlier rifles had sling hooks also for saddle use, which were universally discontinued on the introduction of Enfield rifling.

With the advent of the Boer War, Enfields were quickly issued to troops shipping out, but were found to shoot off target, as the sealed pattern had defective sights, and the approval process missed that important item.  After quickly modifying the guns in the field, and the factory turning out a correct sight, the Enfield was quickly on it's way to becoming the most long lived rifle of the British empire. 

A 21st century grease gun from MGI

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Created on Thursday, 12 January 2012 00:49

Just when you think you've seen every possible modification to the AR weapon system, another one comes along.  This one is particularly interesting as it's the invention of Mack Gwinn Jr., ex special forces and founder of Bushmaster, one of the leading companies building the AR platform today.  His new company, MGI (MG Industries) has brought the AR to it's next iteration as a completely modular weapons system, able to easily be converted between many calibers from .22 rimfire to .50 Beowolf.

The heart of the Marck 15 (weapon system is a modular lower receiver with a replaceable magazine well, and a quick change barrel and bolt.  This allows quickly converting the rifle to any number of calibers, my favorite being the  .45 acp. This changes the carbine into the spiritual successor to the grease gun, and actually uses original magazines.  The gun isn't much bigger or heavier than the original, especially with the stock collapsed.  Besides being handy, it has a much better chance at being reliable also, the original I had in Vietnam had a disturbing tendency to empty the mag at the slightest bump.  Seems to be an interesting take on the AR-15.