Beauty of Ford's ABF was in the two-stroke engine

I have received a letter from a Motor Sport reader who informs me that he has recently purchased a ‘Pup’, which I believe looked rather like a Kingsbury Junior and of which only two examples were made by a Mr Robert O Ford of Kenilworth. It was in 1923 that I saw a photograph of the other car that Mr Ford created, namely the ABF or ‘All British Ford’, which had a racing appearance and the number 26 on a roundel. But investigation proved the shell was in fact the body of a 10/30hp Alvis, ‘Yodol Dodol Doh’, beneath which lay Mr Ford’s design of a two-stroke engine but of a rather superior kind.

It had four cylinders in a vee-formation and a two-throw, two-bearing crankshaft which made it possible for one cylinder of the 90-degree vee engine to deliver a charge to its neighbouring cylinder while it was on its firing stroke. It had water-cooled cylinder blocks with a bore and stroke of 66x89mm (1216cc). Truncated aluminium pistons ran in liners pressed into the sump, their lower ends acting as the charge pumps. An aluminium crankcase and H-section conrods were used and the bearings were of white metal, except for the crankshaft which ran in die-cast bushes. Lubrication was by jet feed to the big-ends and by pressure to the main bearings, from a plunger pump driven from the front of the crankshaft, a second gear here driving the dynamo. There was a three-speed in-unit gearbox and full cantilever suspension, the worm rear axle located by radius rods and torque tube. Mr Ford planned to start production, but in the event only this one ABF was ever built.

After World War II the ABF was discovered by Tom Potter who also bought the Pup, but again they went to ground until Peter Russell found the ABF and restored it, using it as an everyday car. However, eventually becoming interested in other vintage cars, he disposed of it and I believe it went to America.