Engine Punk

The Musee is part of a complex of industrial buildings that are far more pleasing on the eye than the corrugated steel sheds we get nowadays. Earlier this year, my road trip in France through the Vienne region coincided with a public history day with free entrance to museums and my hosts recommended this museum in  Châtellerault - not to be confused with Chateauroux not far away. I couldn't decide if this was a wooden frame or metal painted to look like wood Châtellerault was more of a centre of armament production but you can have too much of swords and guns. Le Grand Atelier includes a history of the famous nineteenth century Black Cat shadow theatre and the Auto, Velo, Moto collection of cars, bikes and motorcycles. Godier Genoud monocoque framed Kawasaki I appreciated the building. It’s elegantly plain and outside are two massive chimneys that shout power although they actually pumped smoke into the atmosphere. All is clean and quiet now – one advantage, I suppose of a post-ind...

The "engraved" side of the commemorative medallion (Photo : Wikimedia) Regular readers of this irregular web log may remember the thunderous silence surrounding revelations over the world’s first motor race. It wasn’t when you first thought it was! Unless you read about here of course. Or here . In short, its was a race between two steam engines in 1867 when the Red Flag Act was in force. That slight legal technicality may have resulted in it being conducted covertly and no-one would have heard about it had not The Engineer magazine published a short paragraph about it after it had occurred. I tried to stir things up in 2017 as the 150th anniversary approached but interest from anyone in the Old Trafford area of Manchester amounted to a big fat zero. They seem to have no interest in historic sporting events whatsoever, even - or especially - if the first ever motor race finished on their doorstep. Steam car builder and researcher Karl A. Petersen was who first put m...

Great shot - despite rain and gloomy light - of Peter Stobbs on Jab and Left hook. (Photo : Paul Jones) I marshalled on this year’s Camel Classic, since I’ve had the engine and gearbox out and in with the Arkley-MG to replace some oil seals. First spell of duty was on Jab and Left Hook, which I remembered as having a difficult restart but finding it took some time. Like all cats looking grey at twilight, all trials sections in the forest look the same when its dimpsy. It only really became apparent when one walked up a turn off from the main track in Hustyn Woods that the course markers became visible.   Fellow marshals were Matt Tyrell and Laurence Payne and we had walkie talkies because there was no clear line of sight. All solo bikes and car classes 5-8 had to do the restart. I was interested in everyone’s technique. The choices were, stay low on the flatter approach and get out of the greasy mud or get as high as possible and risk not getting away where the hill got steeper...