Engine Punk

This Leyland felt like an old friend Whilst travelling the country to acquire even more Vintage Things, I was passing by Lincoln and had time to stop at the pioneering transport museum. Many years ago, when I was but a lad, I received a Blandford book of buses as a Christmas present and it contained illustrations of several vehicles owned or preserved by members of the Lincoln Vintage Vehicle Society . I read this tome frequently - well, looking at the colour pictures was more like it - and it seemed to me that something special was happening up at Lincoln. The Lincoln Vintage Vehicle Society, or LVVS, had a special aura about it. It was the benchmark for other enthusiasts whose enthusiasm also got the better of them. From what I could make out, nearly everyone in Lincoln had a Leyland Lion parked beside their bungalow or a Guy Arab in pieces. Over the years, those self same vehicles occasionally popped up on my radar to reinforce the pioneering status of the LVVS. Visiting the LV...

It was while surfing for information about 1750 cc Allegros in connection with my recent post about the Austin Allegro Equipe and I discovered the Allegro All-Ego. I don't have a television and I don't read The Sun newspaper so the exploits of the All-Ego had passed me by. It seems to have gathered a certain amount of notoriety in its short life for it recently went to auction and realised a heady £5500 on 29th October, 2008. And having posted about it fleetingly on the Engine Punk Litmus blog (for I reckon it demonstrates hands on rolling sculpture better than anything), I feel sufficiently well-disposed towards it to claim it as a Vintage Thing. The All-Ego was built from a 1977 1100 cc Austin Allegro by the legendary car customiser Andy Saunders. He accomplished this feat in three days in December 2006 for a television pilot programme called Juice My Lemon, described by Saunders “as a cross between the American programme Pimp My Ride and The Benny Hill Show.” As mo...

Tempted? It was during a rather ribald discussion with some of my motor cycling friends that the question arose -- what is the motorcycling equivalent of an Austin Allegro? My Austin Allegro is a particularly nice example but that doesn't stop them taking the piss out of it. I know that it is not one of the world's greatest cars and some people voted these chubby little cars the worst ones of all time but I like to point out that much of the Allegro's vital organs are shared with the Mini, which, at about the same time, was voted the greatest car of all time. It seems odd to me that two cars with the same engine, gearbox and the clutch from the same manufacturer, and with suspension systems that follow the same damperless and space saving concept, could be both the best and the worst between them. But, as we say in Cornwall, "There it is and there you are." And as some deeply philosophical type might also say, "Less is more." After a great deal of...

It's mainstream and the accepted thing among motoring fascists to hate these cars so immediately I don't. And having sampled one for myself I can see the merits of an Austin Allegro The Austin Allegro has been voted the Worst Car Ever and I feel compelled to leap to defend this much misunderstood little car. Allegros are far too mainstream to normally feature as a Vintage Thing but if those of us who make the rules can't break 'em, who can? Aye, and there's the rub. Everybody's heard about Allegros, especially after this dubious accolade. They are famous for all the wrong reasons. But at least they are famous. Who ever remembers the Chrysler (later Talbot) Sunbeam? Or the Datsun Cherry? What about all those grey porridge Japanese cars like Datsun Cherrys and Mazda 626s that sank the likes of British Leyland? Okay, so they may have had some help from cars like the Marina, the Maxi and - yes - the Allegro but hundreds of thousands of these ostensibly better...

Don't worry it's nothing weird, just a Fiesta that's been got at by Ed Holloway After all the shock horror stories in the publishing world this week (see my Anarchadia book blog on the right if you're interested) let's have another Vintage Thing. This is another device from that affable automotive anarchist Ed Holloway. I was already familiar with his work having seen the Weeny Leaper in action - see VT 11 - when the Tryagain Trycycle hove into view while I was spectating on the Land's End Trial a few years ago. (I'm sorry - I can't find relevant programme in the Boogie Wundaland archives. Er, that's where I live. Maybe someone out there can advise me?) Of course, it had to be Ed. The Tryagain Trycycle cleared the section but provoked a round of tut-tutting and disapproving remarks from the marshals and spectators. It seems that this such sort of thing shouldn't be allowed and could bring the sport of trialling into disrepute although n...

It failed the clear the section at Warleggan but raised many smiles. And a little outrage On Easter Saturday 1992 I was marshalling at Warleggan on Bodmin Moor, during an MCC Classic Trial, the Land’s End. This includes motorcycle combinations and trikes and these run in the motorbike classes that precede the car classes. We still had many bikes to pass through the observed section when through the woods and around the lower corner came a high revving Allegro. Oh no, we all thought, somebody’s skipped a few hills and is too far down the running order. However, as the car went by some of it seemed to be missing… This was my first acquaintance with the notorious Weeny Leaper. It failed the section, along with many others, and I had a quick chat with the driver and constructor, that affable automotive anarchist, Ed Holloway of Bexleyheath in Kent. Entered as Number 66 and running in the Class D for three wheelers, he told me that he had only completed the car that week and had ...