Engine Punk

Phil Hosken, chairman of the Trevithick Society, tells me that, when it comes to branding, a five letter word is important. Some companies go to great lengths to create a suitable five letter word for their corporations and trademarks. It's not universal but once you start the five letter word game, it's difficult to stop. Says Phil, "One sees companies like Toyota and Panasonic choosing prestige names such as Lexus and Lumix for their top of the range models. Think of made-up names like Yaris. Notice the Austin 7 cars weren't called Chapmans (or Colins come to that!). What happened to Turners? Have you noticed a change in emphasis from Chrysler to Dodge for imports from Daimler-Chrysler? General Motors, which wavered about using the acronym GM, is now solidly known as GM (Gee-em). Same with BLMC. A whole host of names from Wolseley to Nuffield Tractors filtered down to Em-Gee Rover." Consequently, Phil chose the name Be-Tec for his zero carbon ...

Of all the four wheeled contrivances at Wiscombe earlier this month the Salamanda Special was the one I wanted to take home the most. It was cute enough to wear as a badge. It looked as if it might have been piloted by a glamorous aviatrix, like the Wind Flower from Phillip Reeve's Mortal Engines quartet. The Salamanda Special is a recently built Austin 7 special but it looks like no other. The overall style, craftsmanship and attention to detail are what made it stand out. The more I looked at it in the paddock at Wiscombe Park at this month's recent VSCC meeting, the more I noticed to admire. The rear bodywork is beautifully made out of laminated strips of birch wood ply. A wide leather strip running down from the filler cap prevents fuel spills from staining the woodwork or affecting the varnish. Inside, the aluminium bracing hints at airship construction. The headlamps are authentic Marchal items and contribute to the Salamanda Special's frontal expressio...

I've been listening to this double compilation album for weeks now, ever since I went up to Bristol to see Stiff Little Fingers. My mate Gary lent me an album by The Saints a few years ago and I was bowled over by them. Here was that late seventies punk vitality but with a sound that's very distinctive to my ears. In short, I began to rave about The Saints and everyone thought I was going on about All Saints who are prettier, have sweeter voices but lack the power of guitar and drum. Amazon suggested Do the Pop! to me using previous purchases as a guide. I added it to me wish list and eventually I succumbed. I didn't listen to it until Gary and I undertook the long haul from Plymouth to Bristol. And the more we listened to it the more we liked it. And with 50 tracks there's an awful lot of it to like. I like contemporary high octane stuff but Do the Pop! features two and a half hours of authentic Ozzie surf rock and garage punk. It's from that musical period t...

Definitely a Vintage Thing At risk of sounding blasé , I've had fan e-mails before now. However, last week I had my first ever real piece of fan mail and I'm very excited about it. Here it is and what a good choice of subject for a postcard. I know it's not cool but I still get excited that some complete stranger has enjoyed my work. And thanks to it being a postcard, my postman must be pretty impressed as well. I think this justifies the funny feeling that I've had for some time. I seem to be creating ripples on the internet and in people's minds. Sometimes the ripples reach the far shore and come back to me. Meanwhile, I've been trying to drum up some local media interest but so far it hasn't happened. (That's why I haven't been blogging for a while, that and Blogger not accepting blogs for a bit.) So far the ripples haven't come back to me but I have that funny feeling that if I splash around a bit more they will. In the meantime,...

This old book has introduced me to some new Cornish legends. It's essentially a travelogue of 3 friends touring the county in the early twentieth century when there was already an awareness of an older world passing. The tone is archaically humorous and gets annoying after a while but I was surprised how much I learnt. And some of it is genuinely funny. Like the legend of St Ia, who sailed across from Ireland on a cabbage leaf. King Tewdrig was fed up with so many saints entering Cornwall and putting a strain on the local economy. He passed a law that "foreigners without luggage, or visible means of subsistence are not allowed into the kingdom." St Ia pointed to the cabbage and claimed it was luggage and also a form of subsistence but King Tewdrig's customs officers pointed out it was pickled so a manufactured article. St Ia committed herself to the waves once more and was carried on to St Ives where she planted her cabbage leaf an grew a miraculous crop of pickle...

Some friends of mine moved house last weekend and returned some books to me. Among those that definitely were mine was one that definitely wasn't. This was "Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance" by Robert Pirsig. I think I borrowed another copy out of the library years ago but I've now given this one a good home. I thought all that business about being Phaedrus was a lot of precious rubbish but I still enjoyed this book. I dipped into it again and, as I read about listening to one's machine and getting to know it, I was immediately struck about how little time I have for this these days. Running a publishing empire in your spare time does that to you. So I'm going to do something about increasing the zen in my life. I need to commune with my old motors more and lose myself in the act of drawing and writing. I never stopped doing these things - it's just that my mind is on so many other things at the moment. That's okay. My thoughts just need...

Of all the motorcycles at Wiscombe last weekend this was the one that I liked the most. And there were a lot that I liked very much. It's a much modified dirt track Douglas and it's one of those bikes that the more you look at it, the more you notice interesting details about it. I also had the chance to talk to Malcolm Herwin who was campaigning it. Malcolm (wasn't he Ogri's mate?) only recently put the bike together. It had been chopped around a bit for grass track racing but that has subsequently added to its specialness. Dirt track Duggies were incredibly popular from the earliest days of speedway. Their long wheelbase and low centre of gravity suited the new craze and in 1929 alone over 1200 were sold. But the JAP 500 single soon rivalled Douglas' early success and riders adopted a different style to suite the more top heavy vertical single. Douglas DT5 500s grew obsolete as the company lurched from one financial crisis to another throughout the 30s. DT5 e...

Well, Wiscombe came up trumps. It was even better than I expected and I ran into a number of old friends. The weather was spectacularly good with Vintage Things as far as the eye could see and I made the most of the relaxed and friendly atmosphere in the paddock. Conditions for racing were ideal and good times were had by all, even those of us not competing. I went up with Pete Low the famous ex-Army Armstrong despatch bike expert. Er, that's the bike that's ex-army not Reverend Low. We bumped into Mike Luff and Peter Chitty of the Citroen Specials Club. Later, Pete Low also got recognised by Rodney, another Citroen Specialist - I said he was famous (Pete not Rodney. If Rodney was more famous I could remember his surname. He's undoubtedly much more memorable by those who know him better. Sorry Rodders) Rodney was also there with his Lomax and as happens when fellow enthusiasts meet we compared notes and admired each other's mechanical contrivances at the end of ...

Tomorrow I will be at the Wiscombe Park Vintage Thing Fest. It's fifty years since the Vintage Sports Car Club staged a hillclimb at the glorious Wiscombe Park hillclimb between in Sidmouth and Honiton in South East Devon and there's a big commemorative meeting tomorrow - Sunday 11th. Today was a practice session and bikes were competing, too. We were treated to a procession of very special machinery and many of the drivers were going for it. Unfortunately, a Proteus C-Type Jag overcooked it at the Sawbench Hairpin and came straight for some of mates who were spectating. Fortunately it hit a tree and span to a halt. The driver was okay but his beautiful car was a bit knocked around. It was being used the way it was intended and can be rebuilt and no marshals, spectators or competitors needed rebuilding. That was the only down side to a great day and I am really looking forward to tomorrow. Just by way of a taster here's a sample of today's Vintage Things. Ea...

My books has enjoyed a little flurry of commercial success on Amazon again, enough for it to pop back into the Top 100 for Contemporary Fantasy. I think it peaked at Number 60 in the Top 100. I've printed off the listing from Amazon by way of a momento because nobody I know really understands how this works. I probably won't be Number 60 for long. But I at least I can say that I made it that far and have the print out to prove it. I just need to publicise this and keep my foot on the publicity gas pedal.

For many weeks now I have been approached by people asking me about progress on The Wormington Lamb. I thought there was something wrong with their ears. Some people have a kind of aural dyslexia. My grandparents had a cleaning lady who suffered terribly from this. Her domestic heating was powered by coloured gas. She was particularly proud of the pompous grass that grew in her garden. But with so many people asking me about The Wormington Lamb I was convinced that this hearing deficiency was becoming a twenty-first century epidemic. They never made this mistake when they saw the title written down. My fears for their health have now ceased, however. My own ears have now been opened because I heard a recording of me talking - quite clearly - all about The Wormington Lamb. Hearing myself speak on a recording is always a something of a shock. I sound much posher than I really am. Imagine my surprise when I heard me, quite distinctly, talking about The Wormington Lamb. Somehow, I manage t...

Everyone should have a scrap buddy. Rob Robinson-Collins is mine. You'll have heard about him before on this blog and I do what I can to be his scrap buddy. This is how it works. If either of us becomes tempted by a desirable piece of scrap, they ring the other up and enthuse all about it. The scrap buddy's job is to offer wise counsel to the scrap addict and generally talk them out of temptation and get them back on the tidy uncluttered road to impossible self-righteousnes. "Right," says the scrap buddy to the scrap addict. "All you want is one car and one bike and that's it." Of course, it never works like that. We always start out with the best intention but before long the scrap addicts enthusiasm gets the better of both of us and the scrap buddy will interrupt the ravings of the scrap addict with a small but significant question. "How much did you say they want for it?" Or "And has it got any shiny bits with it?" ...

A sign has appeared in the window of Liskeard library. "Beat the Credit Crunch - borrow books from the library!" Obviously it doesn't apply to The Horsepower Whisperer, because it isn't available from libraries - yet - but this just goes to show what difficult trading conditions there are at the moment. But it won't last for ever. Apparently there are 7 steps in impinging on your potential customers awareness before a sale is made. So while the credit crunch is on I must impinge like a looney.