>I wouldn't be suprised if Reynolds also had a hand in racing car
>tubular frame structures as well.
I don't know about racing cars with Reynolds tubing, but many race car spaceframes were made from tubing very similar to bicycle tubing. The Cisitalia, which was one of the first spaceframe cars, was financed by an Italian industrialist who owned, among others, a bicycle factory. I read that the tubes used for the frame came from surplus stocks at the bicycle factory.
I once saw a Cisitalia in a part-dismantled state, and it was a beautiful piece of design, making the strongest structure with a minimum of tubing.
The mighty Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR race cars of the mid-1950s had spaceframes made from 25 mm diameter tubing, a little less than an inch... Strong enough to hold a 300 horsepower engine, two people and go at speeds up to 170 mph. I do believe the walls were thicker than those of high-end bicycles, something like 2 mm rather than 0.5-1 mm found on Reynolds 531.
Back to Reynolds, there was a car connection. The Swallow Doretti was a car with Triumph mechanicals and a frame made from large-diameter tubes. The reason for making that car was simple: TI (Tube Investments) owned both Swallow and Reynolds... and was looking for an outlet for more tubing. I have no idea whether the tubing was in any way similar to the bicycle tubes we like so much.
Jan Heine
Editor
Bicycle Quarterly
2116 Western Ave.
Seattle WA 98121
http://www.vintagebicyclepress.com