Engine Punk

A Tasker Little Giant showman's tractor basks in the sunshine with a Robey convertible in the background - that's convertible as in convertible from a tractor to a roller. At last the sun really shone and, after weeks of rumours that the the Boconnoc Steam Fair would be cancelled like so many others due to boggy conditions, we all got horrendously sunburnt. Not that anybody really minded. Just look at everyone glowing in the sunshine. A VX4/90 and a Dolomite Sprint sink their differences and wallow in bonhomie  It struck me that although there were many, many cars at the show, there weren't that many bikes. If the bikes lacked in numbers, the quality was high. This proddy racer Commando was my favourite bike. But there were loads of tractors and the tractor pulling was good to watch. Rear wheels spinning, tyre cleats getting smaller with ever run and the front wheels skipping across the ground with big engines on open pipes - luvverly! I particularly e...

As bought This is the Vintage Thing that burst its top hose on the way to Le Mans. It's my Monster Mazda that was renamed Le Monster Mazda in the expectation that it would get us there but it didn't. However, I've got into the habit of calling it that and the name has stuck. So have the L and the E that I've added to the Monster Energy drink logos down its flanks. The home made bodykit made it look very heavy, especially from the rear My involvement with Le Monster Mazda began with a long standing appreciation of the Mazda 323F that was made from 1995 to 1998 (check). These always struck me as a concept car that had somehow made it into production - later 323s are appallingly bland by comparison - and when I spoke to people who owned them they said they loved them. The engines were especially sweet and the best one of the lot from my piston-headed, Engine Punk standpoint was the V6. So I did what any normal person would do. I put a search on Ebay for one an...

A Le Mans start at Le Mans. Rolling starts are much safer but don't create the same spectacle. After a false start, I still went to this year's Le Mans Classic, the false start courtesy of a burst top radiator hose on a forthcoming Vintage Thing wot I own ( watch this space ). It happened on the way to the ferry in Plymouth and fortunately not on the other side of the channel so if it was going to happen that's the way it should've happened. A quick regrouping and assessment of the amount of stuff we proposed taking and the available vehicles at our disposal resulted in us choosing my neighbour's Land Rover Defender as fallback transport. Andrew the tractor man said it handled better loaded down with all our gear and was surprisingly economical on such a long run. Now is not the time to forget your Jag is left hand drive. Or to put your leg through the steering wheel. Fortunately, Alex Buncombe, in the C Type and Peter Mulder in the Gullwing Merc don'...