Panther 600 cc Sloper Thumper
It was around 1949. I was hanging' out at the local Matchless, AJS, Panther dealer, Nelson Preston.
Pres, as he was known , was a back alley, garage type dealer. No fancy signs, no advertising, no nuttin' just a hand to mouth dealer in British motorcycles, competing against the local HD and Indian dealers.
On this particular day. Pres found himself with an almost new 1949 Panther 600cc that he couldn't find a home for. The Panther was unique in a number of ways. The cylinder was sloped about 40 degrees and the engine was part of the frame. It had two mufflers for the one cylinder and the idle speed was very slow It was noted for high torque but low horsepower (23!) and was more than marginally undersquare, resulting in a low rpm engine that had high torque and better than average gas mileage. To even further this, Pres had changed the sprockets to a higher ratio.
Pres decided that he could sell this thumper to a dealer in Detroit, who expressed interest in it. Not having a trailer, he looked around his shop and found a solution...................ME!
The next day, I arrived at his garage early and Pres was ready. He climbed into his 1936 Plymouth and I climbed on the Panther. I had some trouble starting this beast as it did not have a manual spark lever. Advancing and retarding of the spark was left to the drill of the engine mechanism. Starting thumpers were easy if the spark was retarded, not so easy if it wasn't. The Panther left me no choice. The spark advance was controlled by some doodad inside the engine. It started hard and the kicking wasn't all that easy either. Evidently Panther realized the hard starting and went back to a manual spark adjust the following year
Finally I lit up the one cylinder Panther and Pres the six cylinder Plymouth, and we were off.
Riding out of Ft. Wayne we took highway 24 northeast and were on our way to Detroit,,,,,,,,,,,, except!
Pres's tired ole Plymouth ran its best at 45 mph and that's where Pres drove it. Now it's 170 miles to Detroit and I knew that it was going to be a loooong day! I had plenty of time to watch the scenery crawl by. I had plenty of time to get used to the widely spaced out thump of that 600cc engine. It seemed like it was barely turning faster than an idle but I had no way of knowing as it had no tach. I swear that it fired at the exact time each telephone pole appeared in slow motion.
The ride was monotonous and long. There were just enough trucks on the road to keep me on my toes.
We arrived at the Detroit city limits and stopped to fill out tanks. The Panther was damn frugal on gas. I don't remember how large the tank was but checking miles and gallons it figured out to 80 miles per gallon!!!! The combination of a long stroke engine, gear ratio, and speed made the Amal carb sip gas. If I didn't have to 'tickle it' and 'strangle' it the mileage might've been even better.
When we arrived at the Detroit dealer, he had changed his mind. He didn't want the Panther. crap!!!
Now I gotta ride the Panther back to Ft Wayne. That bicycle seat was starting to be uncomfortable on the way to Detroit. I could only imagine how it would be on the slow crawl back
We did make it back at a rather late hour, my arse was numb, I don't remember if it was after dark (Lucas, yo know) but I was pooped. The Panther again achieved the same gas mileage 80 miles per gallon! At .25 cents per gallon that was a BIG savings,,,,,,,,,,,,Uhh Right!
I do remember that particular thump of that exhaust, unique even for thumpers. Watch and listen, here it is.
Wayne, solo1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3rJbzPX16OM
