Engine Punk

From my own phorographic archives (cardboard boxes of uncatalogued old prints) comes this very old photo of the Candidi Provocatores Allard J1 when owned and driven by Graham Greenwell. This must have been the 1987 Testing Trial at Mere on Salisbury Plain - 30 years ago... Despite mishaps, injuries, illness and mechanical vissicitudes, the Candidi Provocatores will be riding again in the 2017 Exeter Trial on 6th to 7th January. Binky has been slaving away by himself on the car and has the rear axle fitted with another pair of new and matched halfshafts that don't bind in the diff. He's taking the opportunity to refresh the handbrake linkage and fit an alloy inlet manifold as well. Information Technology is fine so long as it's not duff info or flaky tech. The internet is on my side again now but this blog becaame a little - shall we say - dormant backalong but regular followers will remember that we broke the offside shaft on the Exeter last year so are hoping not t...

It looks so innocent I bought this car with the intention of robbing its engine but during the drive home its fat torque curve endeared it to me and I couldn't kill it. I was looking for a replacement engine for Mighty Whitey (VT No.44) and through suddenly not having a van anymore buying a running car gave me the means of getting  said engine to the Boogie Wundaland workshop as well as the opportunity to see how it went. I did not expect this little diesel Peugeot to go quite so well. I changed my plans forthwith and bought a 1.9 turbo diesel Citroen Xantia to sacrifice instead to get my dear old van going again but that is another story. 1.7 litres of blown dieseasel The engine in Michael Morpeugeot is very similar to the 1769cc unit in my Citroen C15D but comes with a turbo and a five speed box. The character is thus transformed. Instead of a frugal slogger, this powertrain takes this little car on a romp to the top of any hill and then wants another challenge an...

Good old Lee - he'd brought some overalls just in case Well, we had great plans the other day to fit a luvverly pair of specially shortened drive shafts into the rear axle of the Candidi Provocatores Allard, refit the axle and do the Testing Trial the following weekend but it didn't work out. This was the view along the good shaft and - as you can see - it's twisted along the length of the keyway and probably wouldn't transmit power for much longer We did a trial fit of the driveshafts and turning them in the diff it sounded "funny" - funny as in odd. This is the end of the broken shaft Bolting it up locked the diff and not in a good way. A lot of head scratching followed but we were heartened by the arrival of one of our buds, Lee Peck, motorsport nutcase, engineer and all round good egg. After more scrutiny, it would appear that the newly machined driveshafts are not a matched pair and that one of them has the gears machined into it at ...

Binky points out what looks like a piece of snapped steel carrot still in the hub This weekend I whizzed up to Binky Towers to help make good the damage what we done to it in the Exeter Trial, namely replace the halfshafts. People in the know have told us to replace both shafts and not just the one that's broken. The theory is that the survivor is probably structurally compromised in some way and will fail before too long when subjected to the sort of stress we'll put it under. It's far better to get a pair, although I suppose we could have the unbroken one tested somehow. The rear wheel was decidedly wonky The Allard hadn't moved since it was put away when it came home from Ilsington so we gingerly pushed it out of Rob's packed workshop into the carport where it usually lives. This has been boxed in with scaffolding until recently to fit solar panels to the roof of their house. Once the car was in our operating theatre for the day, we jacked it up and rem...

Every garage should have one - a Ridge Cannon When we snapped the offside driveshaft on the Candidi Provocatores Allard things looked bad for an entry in this year's Land's End. However, through the powers of social maxima, which is social media for larger than life characters, Lee Peck put me in touch with Brian Partridge. Brian won his class on the Exeter while Binky and I were snapping things so there was no pressue for a new bouncer/navigator. Stuart Crouch was to have obliged as animated ballast but his wife snapped her Achilles tendon and he had to pull out. Regular Engine Punk browsers may remember Stuart and Will enabling us to start at Popham when our coil packed up. I am trying to present this substitution as partly returning that huge favour. Binky, on the other hand, spent Easter at home for the first time in ages. I think Mrs Binky is okay about this. The scaffolding for the solar panels has been dismantled so he can get the Allard in its usual hom...

Let's hope the weather is this good again Team Robert won't be in the 2016 Land's End Trial because we still have to sort out the broken halfshaft. Logistically, this happened at the wrong time for The Odd Couple at Wobbly Cottage (Mr and Mrs Binky) for the Allard's usual home was barred by scaffolding and their garage is only just big enough to get the car in. I was going to go up this weekend and lend a hand now that the scaffle is gone and the carport accessible but, due me having the snots and other real world issues impinging on the sunny world of classic trials, this has been postponed until after Easter. We weren't going to be ready for the LET anyway and hadn't entered but... I will now be bouncing for Brian Partridge in his Class 8 Cannon. Brian took the Class Award on the Exeter and bouncing/shouting directions duties usually fall to our mutual friend Stuart Crouch. However, Stuart's had to drop out due to family illness and Brian and...

My neighbour calls it a little grey slug but forgets how it rushed her to a radiology appointment in Derriford, England, when her hospital car didn't show - so that would be a slug as in a bullet then Let me share a secret with you. The New Mini is not really the new Mini. The new Mini is actually the K11 Micra. The New Mini is a fashion accessory - almost one of those ultimately disposable handbag cars you get in this year's colour - and not what you could call basic transport. In the BMW Mini's defence I will admit to admiring the new Cooper S and friends who own them rave about the build quality and reliability. They are good cars and, thanks to the supercharged versions, have brought cheap blowers to the masses of special builders throughout the land, but the Mini DNA has got lost somewhere. That is probably because that mis-placed DNA ended up with those lovers of all things Mini, those Japanese fellows. And fellowettes. They even built a factory in Britain to ...