Wigan Album

No reverse just lift the front and turn it round.
Kick start I think.

My neighbour in Kendal Road Ince had one of these. He lifted the bonnet to kick start the Villiers engine, then he had to run round to the door and get in. more often than not just as he sat in it stopped so he had to do it all again. I was helpless laughing by the time he had done this for the eighth time. I wish I had filmed it it would have got the £250 from "You've been framed"

a bloke i worked with at Kraft foods had one.when we finished work we had to turn left towards the east lancs road.he went across it and i turned left onto it.as he was going across this young girl turned right into his path ,hit the front end and carried on up the lancs .i never laughed as much in my life.he was sat in the car and the front was ten feet to his left.what made it better is, that he was a right nasty character

Great photo
It would be worth quite a lot of money now if you still had it.They had a 250cc villiers engine. Some where fitted with a self starter called a Dynastart. This was a strange device that changed the alternator into a starter motor so that it could be started from inside the car.But even more strange was by the turn of a switch you could alter the ignition timeing so the engine would run backwards giveing you a reverse. A two stroke engine will run backwards.

Nothing to do with the Bond, but yes, 2 strokes can run backwards. In 1959 I started driving a Commer truck with a Two stroke engine and if you stopped at traffic lights on a slight up gradient, when you let the clutch out if you were not carefull, it could kick back slightly and when you released the clutch, even in forward gear, the lorry went backwards. I had to stall it in gear with the brakes hard on and then re-start the engine. E.T.