MASCOT November-December 1984

A second helping of Roadster information this Issue with - THE ROADSTER FRONT: Fanbelts

Bill Haverly

In a world of fanbelts Ferodo is the name to be reckoned with. Like Lucas in the auto-electrical field,, the major manufacturer is used as a yardstick for cross reference by most of the other companies. As there were at least ten other fanbelt makers in the post war Singer era, any comparative information is always useful when trying to find a particular belt for an engine.

All goes well until an error occurs in the Ferodo master catalogue, for this can be perpetuated down the line by all the other manufacturers. The mistake here affects the Roadster fanbelts, of which there were three main types fitted through the series: V172, V392 and V170. Ferodo would have us believe there were four, and the odd one out is V176, credited with fitting the immediate prewar Roadster and the Bantam Van of 1938 - 40. With an outer length of 28 39/64" (in case that is not clear, particularly to readers abroad, that means 28 full inches plus a further thirty nine sixty fourths of an inch Ed.) it cannot possibly fit the 1074 cc engine, and after investigation, Ferodo suggest that it belongs to the earlier 972 cc Singer unit of 1933-37.