Engine Punk

Where have all the good reads gone? More books are being published than ever before but it seems more difficult for me to find books I really like. It's old conundrum - I want something original but a bit like something else, an imitation of The Hobbitt or Terry Pratchett. (Yeah, I know Terry Pratchett's an imitator but in a good way with real jokes.) As a writer I am also a reader and at risk of sounding arrogant it was the lack of something worthy of my attention that often motivated to write my own stories. Nowadays it's so rare to read something original that you discover by accident and then come to re-visit. It's hard enough to find something when your looking for it. Occasionally, I've found something brilliant without really trying like The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, as translated brilliantly by Lucia Graves. That's the problem with reading. How do we find something we like without searching for ages and ultimately giving up? ...

This caught my eye the other day. Dodge says its Zeo concept sport wagon shown at the Paris Show is "designed for driving enthusiasts and tree-huggers alike". That’s me! It's a four-passenger sport wagon, powered by a single 268-horsepower electric motor with a lithium-ion battery. With rear wheel drive it can do 0-60 in 5.7 seconds and go 250 miles (400 km) between charges - once the technology is perfected. So long as the technology works, I can fix it and afford it (economically and environmentally) I'll have one. But I can't have one now because the technology is not tried and tested. The Chrysler Corporation is working with "multiple suppliers" on developing batteries that deliver a 300 mile range. The favourite power source seems to be lithium-ion batteries like that in my cordless Dremel although they'll probably be a bit bigger. And take longer to re-charge. In other words the Dodge Zeo doesn't actually go yet. And when it d...

The Paris Show this week was marked by financial and economic gloom. European car manufacturers have been unable to escape tough targets on emissions for new cars and the credit crunch means fewer customers. They are pleading with us to buy their new models and are gearing up to sell us little cars to suit our shallower pockets. Life style vehicles such as SUVs, 4x4s and cross over vehicles – I’ve never really understood this term – are falling rapidly and interest is now in small cheap cars that don’t pollute. The aspirational Chelsea tractors of the noughties “said something about you as a person”, such as like you’re such a lard arse you can’t get out of a car with a seat height lower than your hips and that you want to look adventurous when the only reason you drive a 4x4 is because you’re too fat to walk anywhere and had to drive there. I see this as a good thing. The conspicuous consumption that was spoken of just before the internet bubble burst (remember that?) happe...

I had a good graphic design session with Rebecca Morton at Red Snapper last night. You'll have heard of Beck before on this blog. Dammit - you'll have eaten yoghurt from the pots she designed for Rachel's Organic Yoghurt and seen her work on the Milk Marque lorries. Here she is in action, pointing out something important I hadn't spotted. Of course, as soon as she'd shown me what was wrong it was obvious. She also showed me the amazing things the full verison of Photoshop can do. Well, some of them anyway. "Look how easily I can get rid of the blemishes," she said. "What blemishes?" I replied. I'd been really careful not to get oily fingerprints on my work but there they were. And then there they were - gone. In the hands of an expert like Beck the results were frankly mind blowing - and so quick to make! We've experimented with a couple of ideas but the favourite so far seems to be a refined version of that mugged togethe...

Here's the new cover illustrations for The Horsepower Whisperer . As with any picture on this blog or the one known as Engine Punk if you click on the image you'll see a large image. I was happy enough with the earlier cover design for some time but as soon as I'd revamped my website it looked a little staid. I realized I could do better and ever since then my publishing adventure has been on hold while I embarked on a remembering-how-to-paint trip. I donned blinkers and stopped doing many of the other things I enjoy like writing and welding in my determination to add as much pizzazz as I could to my covers. It became an obsession and I entered that dark tunnel where you strive for perfection knowing that it is really an impossible dream. I never really know what keeps me going during these times for there are no travelling companions but at last I have emerged, blinking in the sunlight, reconciled to the lack of perfection but reasonably happy with the result. It’s be...

He may be ginger by nature but Ginger reckons his lucky colour is silver Amazon is great and here's why. One of "My recommendations" that kept cropping up was an album called Black Leather Mojo. Then I saw it listed against The Flaming Sideburns, The Hellacopters and Iggy Pop - people who bought this also bought Silver Ginger 5. So I put my faith in Amazon and the people who buy from it and took a small risk. As my mate Matt would say, "Am I ever glad I did!" Ginger from the Silver Ginger 5 is the main man from The Wildhearts. He's one of those guys who's a star in another universe, one where talent and graft are rewarded. Unfortunately, that universe is not this one. I've still manged to stumble across Ginger and his music though and i think I might start mining it. Black Leather Mojo is muscular glam-rock. It's one anthemic song after another and is so riff laden the sun would implode if another track was included. Actually, this i...

It's happened again. Each time I blog about Siva Llama's, another one turns up. I stated on VT 22.1 that the total of known survivors was 4. Well I was wrong. There are in fact 5.  This Portugese Siva Llama looks remarkably well looked after This example features on Franka’s website which is well worth visiting if just for all the information on the many Imp specials that exist. She has even tracked down information on the Whomobile, Dr Who's hover car that was really an Imp powered trike underneath some 1970's space age glass fibre. Thanks for digging up this splendid example of a Siva Llama, Franka.  The rear tailgate looks like a professional moulding and the thick rubber seal would suggest its window is glass. It was spotted by an “Imp enthusiast from Porto , Portugal ” in the town of Porto near the gardens of “Palácio de Cristal” ( Crystal Palace ), on 25th April 2008 . It’s a very smart van version like mine although mine doesn’t have a tai...