| Facellia owners will be aware that silence is not one of the
virtues of the Pont-à-Mousson masterpiece (except when it's broken of course). Almost all
of the noise comes from Carlo Marchetti's extraordinary idea to mount the camshafts on
ball races in cast iron "Plummers blocks" - two per camshaft. Thus is the centre
unsupported... The resultant 'whip' leads to high frequency oscillation of the
camshaft sprockets and consequent wear of the chain. As no automatic tensioner is fitted,
the rate of increase of noise is exponential. Some years ago we asked Phil Kidsley of
Cosworth to suggest improvements to the Pont-à-Mousson design. His suggestions have now
been turned into metal, and the results are shown here in these photos. To set the scene
for those perhaps unfamiliar with the Facellia motor, I start with photos of the original
designs.
John Barton
(reproduced from FaceLetter of May 2001)
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