We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember snipped-for-privacy@italiancar.co.uk (SteveH) saying something like:
Spagthorpe Sequentor I4.
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Commonly called the EyeFour because of the novel arrangement of the wheels - inline from front to back and all driven.
Seating: 4
Power: 110bhp tangential flange drive multi-reciprocating steam generator.
Fuel : Peat.
Transmission: Multiple chain drive to all four wheels.
Carrying Capacity: 4 Europeans or 20 Sherpas.
CO2/100km: 100tonnes.
The Sequentor was a brave and foolhardy attempt to capitalise on the need for expeditionary vehicles during the period of Himalayan exploration of the 20s. The inline4 configuration was arrived at because of the narrow mountain tracks making access by conventional expedition vehicles difficult or impossible.
Drive was taken from the output sprocket of the engine and fed through a series of countershafts and pulleys to a jackshaft immediately behind each wheel. The drive chain was actually run on the rim of the wheel, thus doing away with the need for tyres and avoiding the prevalent puncture hazard on the high rocky passes.
Like many of Spagthorpe's innovations, the project was doomed for lack of research and plain common sense. No Sequentor ever made it beyond the foothills, let alone to Everest base camp. Indeed it became a common sight to see a Sequentor being carried on long poles by up to 20 Sherpas after having shed a wheel or two.