Engine Punk

Steam Punk is a close but older relative of Engine Punk. I don’t want to get bogged down in defining differences right now - I aspire to breakdown barriers not reinforce them - but with the exciting prospect of the Steampunk Kernow party in Falmouth , with its nautical theme and evocation of the age of exploration, I’ve indulged in some ancestral delving into the first generation steam punk activities of my grandfather's favourite uncle. From an ancient scrapbook, I am fortunate to have this watercolour self-portrait of Great Uncle Walter. On the same page were very small photos of gondolas and heavily flooded streets. Great Uncle Walter is world famous in my family. Like me, he was a man of many parts, except that most of mine are old car and bike parts. Great Uncle Walter was an artist, a photographer, sailor, entrepreneur, founder member of the Falmouth volunteer fire brigade and inventor. His portrait of the Mayor of Falmouth still hangs in the civic chambers. Among his sur...

This Simca 1500 Spéciale sounded big but was a docile enough machine to take to the Supermarch é How many racing cars can you use for shopping? Along with many others at the Le Mans Classic last year, we were waiting for the local supermarket to open up when something low, blue and gruff hove into few, piloted by two glamorous females who could only be French. I quickly approached and made such a fist of mangling their language they graciously chose to practice their already excellent English. In the short minutes before the stampede when the doors opened I established that they were actually competing in the races and that their blue bolide was docile enough to deal with traffic and fetch some bottled water. "They" were Olivia and Alexandra du Boucheron who were sharing the car with their brothers, Olivier and Edouard. The car belonged to their father who'd had it for years and who let them each have a drive in the four heats for that particular plateau or grid...

Beautifully presented and beautifully presented. Not my mate's Clan but a very fine example nonetheless. Have you noticed how most Vintage Things are worth more as the total of their parts? It seems to be the opposite of gestalt , where some things are worth more than the sum of their parts. I was talking to a friend the other day who owns a very nice Clan Crusader, probably the nicest Clan Crusader you've ever seen. It's all set up for rallying with a big bore engine, twin 40s on the right manifold, a very rare and strong gearbox and - perhaps best of all - a very lightweight shell. He's considering selling it because he has a growing family and won't get to use it properly for a while. However, having assembled all these glorious bits to create what could be the ultimate Clan, he's faced with the prospect of breaking it up because the sum total of the parts is £15,000 and nobody would ever spend that on a Clan. But they would spend £5-6k on the engine, ...

If I knew what the collective noun is for pre-war MGs is, I could have used it here. But nobody could use the lavatories at Fingle. This year's trial will probably be remembered for the heavy overnight downpours that washed some hills clean of mud but made others incredibly difficult. I set out for Fingle Bridge a little later than I planned and consequently missed all the bikes going through, apart from two stragglers. One of their mates in a Suzuki X90 said they were all leaking wet, though. He was thoroughly enjoying his dry clothes and heater. Dudley Sterry's MG J2 has a supercharged XPAG engine and an MGB back axle. It still looks the part and is a very special special. Goes well, too. Fingle was not very difficult at all. In fact, it wasn't really very interesting to watch as it was less of a challenge this year than I remember.  A nonchalant thumbs up from Dave Turner as he and Rob Robinson-Collins make light work of Fingle. I wanted to see Dave...

The Charleston Special - that's what the owner called it and even he wasn't sure this was right.  To anyone expecting to read about 2CVs, sorry - this Charleston Special is based on a Hillman Imp. It turned up at the ARCC (Association of Rootes Car Clubs) Rally at Blenhiem Palace in 2000, intrigued lots of people quite apart from myself and then dropped out of our lives. The owner at the time admitted to not knowing a great deal about it and it was up for sale so probably has changed hands at least once since then. The low pivot point of the front wishbones would hamper off road performance but on road performance must have been like a little go-kart. UVA produced the F30, which was a purely road going version of their Fugitive kit. Apparently too many people were fitting Rover V8s into the back of the off-road rails and making badly over-engined (note that these weren't not well over engineered ) monstrosities. More isn't always more. What I do know is that it...

This post is more of a request for more info. Many years ago at a long forgotten location I took these photos of this special. Unfortunately, I did not take a picture of the info presented alongside this bike since this was back in the days before I had my digital camera and had to be a bit more discriminating about what I snapped before the inevitable happened and I ran out of film. All I know is this. I spotted the Shaw Velo at a show up country and Netley Marsh near Southampton suggests itself only because some other photos in the pile that harboured these images suggested they might have have been taken at Netley Marsh. The engine is an ohv Velocette and the frame has plunger rear suspension with Earles-type leading link forks. Best of all, though, are the cable operated twin front discs! The black and white photos that accompanied the thoughtfully provided info are of the bike in competition. If nobody out there can't satisfy my curiosity, I'll approach the Old ...