Ford's latest "innovation"

oh, is that the same as advancing the ignition (from a conveniently placed lever on the steering column)?

Richard Web pages:

There were quite few cars that could be started "on the button".

Pedant's Corner

!934 is a bit late for a Bentley to have magneto ingnition. It's even late for a Bentley to be a Bentley as by then they were a sort of sporting Rolls Royce 20/25.

However almost anything with coil ingnition and a hand advance/retard stands a chance of starting with a wiggle of that control provided the engine has stopped in the right place.

Ron Robinson

I thought that was an old dealer expression meaning you pressed the starter button rather than cranking by hand because the battery was knackered?

Think a magneto can only produce a spark when the engine is turning. Coil ignition will produce a spark if the coil is energised and the points opened - done by moving the distributor via an advance/retard lever.

You are right. A magneto is effectively a high output dynamo, so it needs to be turning to produce any output. By contrast, a coil produces a spark when the circuit to it is broken (the spark occurs when the points open)

The early Rolls Royces had both coil and magneto for reliability. But it was the coil circuit that allowed the engine to be started by using the advance/retard control.

I watched one being started like that at a car show. Impressive, but eerie to watch. But the trick worked because there were lots of cylinders, so one was always in the right position to fire, regardless of where the engine stopped. I can't imagine any ECU controlling a

Jim

The message from "R N Robinson" contains these words:

I thought everyone would know that WOBs business died with the Vintage era so I deleted the Rolls that I had originally typed immediate prior to Bentley.

I have no idea whether it was magneto ignition or not as that part of the explanation came relatively recently, actually on this ng IIRC correctly. However the actual demonstration was way back in the distant past which is probably why I can remember it.

Back in 1963 a group of impoverished student apprentices found a 1934 Park Ward 3.5 for sale for £120 in a scrap yard in Staffordshire (near Newport, Shropshire). Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) we could only raise £90 between us and the dealer wouldn't budge. Anyway as I remember it the car was already warmed up when we saw it and the switch in question was an small inoccuous on/off switch on the dashboard.

They already do, AM DB9 etc.

smarshall ( snipped-for-privacy@gmx.co.uk) gurgled happily, sounding much like they were saying:

Ford sold Aston Martin last summer.

And Ford supply the engine to AM, from a facilty in Cologne

Yes, AM occupy a very small corner of the Ford plant there. It's also entirely Aston Martin branded, they did a thorough job in making it as un-Ford as possible. A tiny spec of (British Racing?) green in a sea of blue.