The gentleman’s ride
IN 1928 A YOUNG MOTORCYCLE DESIGNER called Edward Turner arrived for an interview at the Ariel factory in Birmingham. He was trying to interest big manufacturers in his Turner Special, a long stroke 350cc single with a gear driven overhead camshaft.
He tried BSA first, but their response was lukewarm; so he hoped that Ariel would be more receptive. But it wasn’t the Turner Special that piqued Ariel’s interest, but a rough sketch on the back of an opened-out Woodbine packet for a new and very different engine: a 500cc with four pistons arranged in a square formation.
After several months of negotiation, Jack Sangster, boss at Ariel, decided to give Turner his big chance.
The Ariel Square Four was born in 1929, and it was worlds ahead of the opposition. As well as four cylinders it featured unit construction, wet sump lubrication, a horizontally split crankcase and an overhead camshaft. Despite being what looked on paper to be relatively complex, the original engine was compact enough to fit into the frame used by Ariel for a 250cc single. The resulting prototype weighed just 280lb and could travel at 90mph.
It was, basically, two parallel twin 250s, one behind the other, with the front crankshaft connected to the rear with centrally mounted helical gears. The concept produced a motor that was incredibly smooth for the day, as the twin cranks balanced each other out. One of the first road tests reported that you could balance a glass brim-full with water on the engine while it was running without spilling a drop.
The second prototype, which used the frame from Ariel’s 497cc Sloper, was heavier than the first by some margin
