Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Watsonian Centenary Rally

Watsonian Sidecars put on a celebration rally for their centenary this August. Held at Stoneleigh Exhibition Ground in Warwickshire it was a little more low key than expected but mid-August is a busy old time for events and it was still entertaining. Sidecar events are always fun for the amount of ingenious home engineering on display. Part of the interest in attending was inspiration for a personal Bullet / Monza project - more to come. Inspiration was indeed received and a pleasant morning was had oggling the combos..

Beautifully turned out ex-works 1953 350cc Royal Enfield Bullet ISDT combo.
Loads of unique features and perfectly thought out for long distance eventing.
350cc top end on a 500cc bottom for extra flywheel effect.

This home made brute utilised a BMW K100 frame as the basis
with a mid-engined Vauxhall Astra 1.6 diesel turbo providing
forward motion.

Gear lever though what was the petrol tank!

Good access to that diesel motor. Plenty of power and excellent
economy was claimed by the owner / builder.

Cut and shut Reliant Robin body shell provided the donor for
this sidecar. Beautifully made, it follows all the correct Reliant
styling features shrunk and is not just a crudely cut in half
abomination. Married to a Moto Guzzi California 1100.

Very immaculate Lambretta TV175 with Watsonian Bambini sidecar.

Work in progress Lambretta with Bambini and Czechoslovakian
PAV trailer.

Panther M120 with rare Blacknell sidecar.

Styling on the bathtub Thunderbird nicely matches the
Watsonian Monza chair.

Vincent Comet put to serious work.

4 comments:

  1. The Reliant sidecar is called a Phoenix - I built it. It was the second of only 2 and I would like to know the whereabouts of my first one. It was on a Suzuki GSX1100G in tasteful Brown! I'd quite like to buy it back if anyone knows of its whereabouts

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    1. Thanks for the comment and extra details. Nice work in creating the sidecar! Good luck in tracking down your other one.

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  2. Thanks to the power of the internet I now have my original 'Phoenix' sidecar outfit back! its a complete wreck but will rise again! I'll send a couple of pics of the restoration if there's any interest

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    1. Hi Andy. Congrats on finding the Phoenix. Sounds like an interesting story. It'd be great to have some pictures. All the best, Richard

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