The Clanford Clan 0.24 cc sideport diesel was commissioned by the well-known English model engine writer and collector Mike Clanford, author of the 1988 book entitled "A Pictorial A to Z of Vintage and Classic Model Airplane Engines". The original Clanford Clan series was manufactured in England by a firm called Prototype and Precision Engineering. The availability of the engine was first announced in the February 1992 issue of “AeroModeller” magazine.
A test of the engine by Richard Herbert subsequently appeared in the August 1992 issue of "AeroModeller". Richard encountered some difficulties with his test example, leading to a somewhat unflattering review and a less-than-stellar reputation which has dogged the engine ever since. However, subsequent testing by my mate Maris Dislers as well as myself has demonstrated that in all probability Richard's engine was flawed in some way, because the three examples that we have tried between us have all been excellent runners. A full report on this engine will appear on this website in due course.
The Clan 0.24 cc diesel is not to be confused with the far earlier Clan 0.9 cc model from Scotland which appeared in early 1947 and passed through several variants before vanishing from the scene in mid 1948. The story of this earlier engine has been covered in a separate article on this website.
The original production run of some 500 engines sold out fairly quickly. Mike Clanford later arranged for the manufacture of a further batch of engines by the CS company of Shanghai, China. These were produced in both 0.24 cc and 0.48 cc variants. Theye were unfortunately saddled with a few design and manufacturing issues which did nothing to improve the engine's somewhat chequered reputation.
Examples of both the original British-made engines and the later CS examples still appear fairly regularly on eBay and elsewhere. Many of them are still New In Box because the engine’s reputation led many people to view them as collectible curiosities rather than practical model engines. In reality, a good example is a very practical and useful little engine, especially among the original series.
Maris Dislers' detailed review of this nice little engine may be found elsewhere on this website.
