Engine Punk

At first I thought this was a very rare Husqvarna vee twin but then I saw the tank badge. I've just got back from this year's Goodwood Revival and this machine is the one that made most of an impression on me, despite the great and the good and the presence of many other thoroughbred racing machines. This James vee-twin was propped up outside one of the "member's only" pavilions that blight the Goodwood Revival for the ordinary enthusiast. I stopped and stared and so did another chap in RAF uniform. He had a two-stroke James and an MAC Velocette and this machine had stopped him in his tracks. neither of us was aware that James had ever made such a machine and it occurred to me that maybe it was a "special" using a JAP engine. The only thing was, it looked like a production bike and had that well-used and well-loved patina that you can't fake. As soon as I got home I did some ferreting around in the Boogie Wundaland archives (this is a joke n...

You've seen this side before Earlier this year I took the opportunity at Wiscombe Park to study the other side of this Sunbeam Model 90, which I spotted at last year's meet propped up against some Portaloos. But this was not the view I was expecting. According to my information a Model 90 should have a head like this. I really like the "architecture" of a single cylinder motorcycle engine But what was revealed was this. This Sunbeam looks fast despite the fairly high bars for hauling the bike round the bends but looks like it'll stop thanks to the nice big front brake. I know I should have spotted that it was a single port head even when looking at it in the rain from the drive side. I can only assume that this bike is powered by the later version of this engine, which would make it a Model 95. The trouble is, Sunbeam motorcycles of this era are rather obscure. Their best years were the vintage ones and post war everyone remembers them...

If it looks right, it is right. I mentioned this car when I visited Wiscombe Park hillclimb for the VSCC event in May. Having camped overnight, the day dawned wet under foot but brightening overhead. One of our neighbours asked me if would help him start his car while Pete Low packed away his tent so, thinking it was a member of the public in a bit of a fix, I said okay and wandered over. Imagine my surprise with this little baby, a supercharged Riley Big 4 with three SU carburettors. Its caretaker was the youngest out of three generations of the Spollen family and my job was to hold the seat squab over the bellmouths to act as a choke. In the end, the engine didn't need me at all. We flooded it once with my operating my cushion but it struck me that this car was very well sorted and preferred to breathe the Wiscombe air without any restriction. However, I was able to ask many questions about this car. It had been assembled some years ago by the grandfather and was raced ...

Some Dellows await their turn by Wiscombe House. They do as well on tarmac as on the trials sections, just adding to the confusion about trialling and hillclimbing. A little rain on the Saturday post meridian put nobody off and was the exception rather than the rule despite dire weather forecasts. I think the moral here is use your classic machinery in the way its creators intended and the gods will smile. The plan had been hatched months before the event by Pete Low and me for a trip up to East Devon for the annual VSCC hillclimb in this wonderful part of the world just inland from Branscombe. It was a trip down for Pete, though, because he lives in Essex, an area where there are few hills worthy of climbing quickly in a mechanical contrivance, and we camped at Wiscombe so that we wouldn't miss out on the derring-do. I prefer two seater sports cars to the GP monopostos but F3 bolides appeal hugely to me. Any bigger, though and it ought to seat two. It's good to share bu...