Pete,
Do not accept the earlier posts and descriptions of the significance of your attached photo item.
This device is a major component whose purpose is to convert latex based hollow do-nut shaped fittings at the extreme rear corners of the vehicle into carbon-based vapor,
and cotton-based undergarments into collection receptacles for exhausted effluent.
The latter function is as the result of a neuro- physio exchange colloquially known as "scaring the sh1t out of you".
The component, whose correct description is " a geologically based, molecularly altered casting, in the shape of a truncated cone", contains sets of various diameter cylinders, around whose periphery are machined intermeshing peaks and troughs, and are carried on parallel shafts whose centres are consistent with the main casting.
These assemblies convert rotationeal energy into linear acceleration at lightning speeds, often leading to the aforementioned latex vapourisation and cotton ruination.
The item which initiates this entire phenomenon, is missing from the photo, and is a flat dish-shaped assembly supported by the shown splined shaft, and consisting of helically- wound thrust-absorbance coils and friction-repelling contact surfaces.
This device, known as the clutch, is operated by the left extreme lower appendage of a sometimes, mentally deficient operator.
** Footnote
Should any of the above nomenclature be unclear to American readers, an application of the "Laws for British Sports Cars", as recently posted by CobraBill, should be applied.
As a British subject (Bermudian) I thought some-one needed to clarify this issue.
