Engine Punk

"Excuse me, gentleman of the MCC, but we're looking for Blue Hills 2. Can you direct us?" "Certainly, my good fellow, just drive straight into the sun and you can't miss it." Entered in the 2011 Land's End Trial was this marvellous 1927 Austin 20, which I saw climb Blue Hills 2. Austin 20s are typically lumbering great beasts that were available either as saloons weighing as much as 1 ¾ tons or bare chassis to be clothed down by similarly heavy bespoke bodywork. This one belonging to Tim and Jack Kemp of Landridnod Wells has the rakish looks of a more exalted sporting machinery. I really like the hot rod or sports car look of this machine and the old style wheels suit it perfectly. Surely this would be eligible for VSCC events? This is the old variety with a 3620cc 95 x 127mm side valve four instead of the later sixes, a perfect powerplant with grunt aplenty for the west country hills. Herbert Austin was inspired by Hudson designs and incorpora...

Well though out and subtle in a muddy sort of way So Suzuki never made an GSP500? Somebody has. I spotted this outfit at the start of the 2011 Land's End Trial at Plusha Services. I walked passed it only to pause and turn back. At first glance, it's nothing special but then you notice the double overhead cam twin. It's greater than the sum its parts. The 500 was a sensible ride to work bike. The SP370 was a twinshock traillie from the seventies. A clandestine liaison between the two and this wonderful love child is the result. I liked this a lot and despite all the fun that we had on that Triumph outfit I wonder what it would be like as a solo machine. Good on the road but perhaps a little heavy in the mud? Maybe it is best as an outfit - it keeps the perversity of motorcycling asymmetric.

Somewhere in a car park near you, a motorsport happening could be starting. Unfortunately, that spectacular Wasp outfit isn't going to get very far. Shame. So instead of actually competing in this event I had to settle for being a spectator. It wasn't quite the same but I still enjoyed myself. I went up to to Plusha Services to see the Cornish starters off. and it made a pleasant change to see the machinery without being lampered in mud. Pete's looking quietly confident here. I see he's fitted a longer swing arm to the outfit he shares with Shani, the redoubtable Cox-Triumph Among the bikes were Pete and Shani Adams who are campaigning the ex-Team Robert Triumph sidecar outfit (VT No.16 ) that Rob and I used to play with, the one which caused us to become airborne and morph into Ginger and Binky. Pete and Shani were hoping to get further than a mile down the road this year because last year they suddenly struck valve problems. They set off alright but I d...

It's engineless! Team Robert were at this stage grubby but unbowed. Close but so far away, it was a sterling effort by your brave boys but in the end our dream didn't come true. It all began to go wrong when Rob discovered what was making the funny tapping noise when he revved the engine on the Candidi Provocatore Allard. This machine is now under his stewardship and he discovered that a stud holding on the centre main bearing had broken, allowing the main bearing cap to fret about. If you look closely you will see only one stud for the centre main cap. The other stud is in two pieces, one of which is still in the block. Rob tried drilling it out and did a good job but the main bearing cap would still need replacing. To get the replacement to fit the block properly, that would need line boring the block caps and that's an engine out and strip job. Doesn't the oil pump look vulnerable without the sump on? This can sometimes happen on these engines if they...

Although looking dignified in black, many Mk1 Wolseley 1500s were spectacularly two-tone. Their lines seem to suit that sort of paint job Wolseley - ah! the name - it sounds to me like a slightly sozzled English bank manager, Captain Mainwaring's disreputable brother. Wolseley could be an adjective for wobbly wooziness whereas it is really a name synonomous with quality motoring and advanced aero-engine manufacture. Fought over by the William Morris and Herbert Austin for its expertise in overhead camshaft designs, the marque of Wolseley became a luxury Morris as British motor manufacturers emulated the American big 3 in its marketing structure as well as its mass production techniques. Wolseley subsequently  suffered the indignity of badge engineering under BMC but survived as a make of motor car until 1975. And straight from the stranger than fiction department, woolly old Wolseley has its origins in sheep shearing equipment. There used to be one of these machines preserv...

On the left a Foden steam tractor. On the right a Tasker Little Giant steam tractor. Both different approaches to what a steam tractor for the road should look like. There were many rumours about this year's show, largely to do with the introduction of a £5 entry fee for cars, motorbikes and tractors. Many of my friends refused to go, saying that this move would kill the goose that laid the golden egg and that people were just getting greedy when times were harder than ever. In the fortnight before the show, idle barbie-side talk (the summer equivalent of idle fireside talk) was that support was so poor cancellation was being discussed. I thought I'd go along anyway and to be honest you wouldn't have known there'd been all these problems, although there didn't seem to be quite so much there. It's a wonderful setting and I really hope no geese are killed and we can all make golden omelettes. Boconnoc featured tractor pulling again this year. Those beer ...

Eventually I have established that the server for my website was changed by my internet provider and when the old address was switched off my pictures disappeared some time after the change over. Older posts were affected and it took me some time to notice this. A couple of years ago the link from my Anarchadia website connected to the old server and for a while it appeared that Engine Punk wasn't being updated. Regular readers may remember their favourites showing my impressions of the Lincoln Vintage Vehicle Society as the most recent blog entry. So it wasn't a Blogger problem as such.It was me changing IT horses in mid-stream. No backup is now available because all the change occurred 2009, so it's a case of re-loading the images but the blog needs a bit of weed (still damn and blast tho). Work is going on in the background to restore the old posts in bite sized chunks, like when I'm waiting for the immersion heater to boil the bath water after some intensi...