Anyone know this carb?

[xjoegtix]

Hey guys a friend of mine asked me what I thought this carb setup came off. Has a Lucas manifold. Thought maybe one of you would know.

[Steve@Rennsport]

Someone modified an IDA carb to fit that application.

[xjoegtix]

Charles Lucas* made the cap and manifold for that carb but why? So weird to make that full cast manifold to only use one side.

[xjoegtix]

I wonder if they tuned one carb for a certain application and the other side for something else and you could just switch it maybe.

[xjoegtix]

I found that it's for a historic f3 screamer. I'm still unsure why it's only one sided.

[john walker's workshop]

The Lucas bunch did some weird shiite.

[chris_seven]

Charles Lucas was an F3 Racer and formed Charles Lucas Engineering in 1965 - The company grew and changed to Titan and ended up building a range of small single seaters.

They still exist today and still make very well designed parts

About Us | Titan

This carb and manifold would have been used on a Cosworth MAE Formula Junior/Formula 3 engine.

The MAE was an early derivative of the Kent Family of Ford Engines. It was a 1 litre engine and in the Ford Anglia 105E produced 39 BHP

Cosworth used this basic engine to produce the MAE which firmly established Cosworth as a very successful race engine supplier.

The MAE had sleeves brazed into the head to convert it from a siamesed inlet port side draft to a 4 downdraft port engine - towards the final stages a few specially cast DD heads were produced.

The regs only permitted a single choke carb and most MAE engines used a 'split' IDA on a number of specially cast manifolds made by different suppliers.

In its final guise in 1965 the MAE produced 115BHP at 9500rpm. This generation of engine used Titanium Valve Spring Retainers which were stunning at that time and the BMC Formula Junior engine used in Jackie Stewarts Cooper (run by Ken Tyrell) was widely advertised for using Ti Con Rods.

These engines are the mainstay of Historic F3 Racing in the UK and Europe now and this carb manifold is quite collectible/reasonably valuable.

I saw an MAE head with a Cut IDA and intake manifold sell last year for around $6000.00

Some manufacturers soldered up the fuel supply to one of the jets and cut the extra choke off the body - hence the 'split' designation.

The Lucas design capped the carb.

The MAE was used by Lotus, Brabham, Cooper and most of the famous teams that eventually dominated F1 and was instrumental in the development of the DFV.

There is a reasonable amount of information about Charles Lucas on the web.

I used a pair of split 46 IDA's and an Early TI Alfasud we used to race in Group 1 in around 1978/79

The regs allowed a change in the size of the carb but not the manufacturer not the number of chokes.

The early Alfa Sud had a twin choke on a dreadful 'log' manifold n the centre of the flat 4 with each branch of the manifold being about 15" long,

We used 2 x 46IDA carbs split some only used 2 x chokes and made short stuby Siamesed manifolds machined from an alloy block and bolted it all together.

1286 cc engine - 126BHP at 8500 with an Alquatti gearbox, Cam and Pawl LSD and 4 pot Brembo brakes.

A real hoot but not always entirely reliable and I then had to give up for a few years to concentrate on my research Project.