Jade Warrior was, as it turned out, the last in a line of beautifully engineered projects from the genius (not used lightly) of Ag MacPhail. Ag's background was as an engineer out of DeHavilland aircraft and Ford AVO, Slough, creators of the original GT40. Ag was an engineering free spirit and seemed to find little enjoyment from working in a team. He went on to find his reward from working as a plumber by day and building his bikes by night.
The technical standards were always quite revolutionary. Ag's 'bike' career culminated in the building of Jade Warrior. It was born out of The McCoy, a 1300 tri-car and in its final form the spec ran as:
1300cc 'home' built 4 cylinder in-line mounted transversely across the chassis. The barrels and pistons were cast from patterns created by Ag MacPhail and Mick Hand, together with crank and rods to their own spec. Drive was through a torque converter via toothed belt to a F5000 rear wheel and tyre. The head was from a Cosworth DFV. Fuelling was, in its final development, through a home-built injection system and 2 litre blower, although shown here as a twin choke SU carb set-up.
By the time Ag was forced into retirement through ill-health, Jade Warrior was able to run mid-eights on straight methanol.
Jade Warrior BW pic shows Jade Warrior on one its earliest appearances, probably about 1973 at the Pod.
The connection to Keith Parnell is that Ag, Mick and Keith teamed-up as McCoy Dynamics and used this team umbrella to move their respective technologies forwards.
The significance of the burn-out is the ground effect generated from the exhaust depression. This is shown on J Warrior RHS and is the tubing running down in front of the rear wheel shroud to the skirt running just above the mechanic's head. Ag makes a rare frontal appearance just to the left of the pic. J Warrior LHS shows Mick topping-up the oil.
Once seen, this 'bike' was never forgotten. Ag laid prone, steering from the unique handle bar arrangement, steering a modified scooter wheel. The single 'gear' of the torque converter was engaged and the motor was wound up against a transmission brake. On the green light the brake was released. The motor note was almost constant and uninterrupted all the way up the quarter. Any wheel spin was dealt with by the torque converter, effectively altering the 'gearing' upwards until the wheel caught up with the engine output.
