ORIGINAL: downunder
ORIGINAL: Bone
Gee, even after 35 years or so, this rear exhaust Taipan 2.5cc still makes me swoon. Yep, sex sells! [8D]
And guess what? That's one of the fairly rare Mk1 Taipans and I only found out about them around a week ago which made me go look at one of mine. Yep, mine's a Mk1 as well and it's the one I've thrashed around in a combat plane before letting my son use it to (over)power a glider. The difference is a bit hard to spot but the first ones used a narrow rear bearing so the crankcase casting is slightly different to the later metal backplate engines (might as well call them Mk2's). I've also got one of the last in the line with the plastic backplate (I think the crankshaft is different too) but that one's new. Apparently they were good for over .5HP at around 22,000 using 40% nitro.
Brian, thanks for that very interesting snippet of information.
I've been blessed with good fortune to come across 6 of those Taipans - 2 metal backplate & 4 plastic backplate versions. Will suss out the other metal backplate one to determine whether it's a Mark I or II
Sadly, I only have 4 of those damn sexy mufflers
I do understand the reasons why they used 40% nitro back in the '70. But now for me, I'm happy to feed it 10% nitro, lots of Castrol M of course, a 7x4 prop & listen to it hum along @ 16,600 RPM. What a glorious sight & sound it is !
By the way, I'm building a hand launched model - no undercarriage, tapered wing, roughly based upon a "Honker" design from the '70's - should be just the thing for the rear exhaust Taipan [8D]