Engine Punk

The demonstrator of the Continuation Series at the Goodwood Revival this year One idea that I'm currently working on in one of my books is the idea of digitised automobiles and motorbikes - you design them on a computer or request a replica GT40 or something and then a molecular workshop makes one in double quick time for you. From the Alvis spares specialist and restoration experts Red Triangle you can now get a brand new Alvis 4.3 litre tourer. This car was introduced at the wrong time as 77 cars that had been sanctioned by the board were never built as World War Two intervened. Post war Britain was happy for any sort of car and so those 77 cars were never built - until now. I saw the demonstrator at the Goodwood Revival earlier this year and was immediately struck by the craftsmanship - this is a handbuilt automo. I was also intrigued by the idea of making this kind of replica. It's not really a replica! Red Triangle have provided spares to Alvis owners for yea...

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'...

This Morris Minor looks a little deflated but in a good way Posting about the Kilo Sports reminded me of this car which I spotted in the tax exempt car park at the 2010 Goodwood Revival. It's not been chopped and channelled but it's been sectioned in the style of the US hotrodders and could have been what the Barris Brothers would've produced had they gotten their grubby mitts on a Moggy Thou during the fifties. However, as it's a monococque, the sectioning process is much harder. It involves chopping right through the car not once but twice and removing the strip that's left in between these tow cuts. Of course, being a well-rounded little jelly-mould, the cuts are not going to be straight, at least not if the end result is to justify the effort. Nice picnic basket madam. Perhaps a bit more bulge to the bonnet, though? What is so clever about this is that the unaltered greenhouse area doesn't look out of place on the lowered shoulders of the section...

Foxbat - wasn't that the code name for a Russian cold war fighter? Just a bijou follow-up-ette to my musings on the Jag shooting brake. Mr Valve Bounce left a comment and pointed me to the Bonhams website but there's still some mystery surrounding it.. Nobody knows who made it, although another existed back along (good Cornish expression). This car is thought to be the sole survivor and historians have suggested it was made as a competition tender for long distance motor sport events. It is properly known as the Foxbat. I'd spotted the badge on the rear door at the time but forgot about this when I uploaded the admiitedly rather dark pictures. I still say it took a genius to realise the concept of blending a Moggy with a Coventry cat. But how does that make a Foxbat? On my screen at home they don't look so murky but there's something fitting about this car emerging from the shadows.

Also at Goodwood this year, but actually competing was the Ferrari breadvan. And now, motivated by simple devilry following the last post on a Jaguar XK150 shooting brake, here is the Ferrari "Breadvan" modelled by Drogo on a 250GT. I'd first seen this car at the Le Mans Classic in 2010 but I'd heard about it years before that.  Whoosh! This car divides opinion but I like it. I think they find the straightlines don't match the curves but that roofline is the blurred streak from the top of the windscreen and I particularly like the effect from the rear. It looks so fast! Its nose is beautifully styled, too. Apparently, it was nicknamed "Anastasia", which around Modena is a derogatory name for an ugly woman but it looks pretty good to me. This car is low, lower than the kneecaps of a grasshopper. It was not built for its load carrying abilities. Although the rear window is hinged, just try to get anything in it. Or out of it. After...

From the side the lines almost flow nicely I went to the Goodwood Revival again this year and, despite the corporate hostility to the genuine enthusiast that's built into this event, still enjoyed myself tremendously. The racing was good the cars were amazing and there was a special dirtbike-heroes-of-yesteryear display, complete with classic scramblers and their riders. I particularly liked the way they had a burn up on the grass round the circuit. But out of everything, this is pne of the machines that intrigued me - difficult when it comes to four wheeled vehicular contrivances I know but bear with me. Parked by the entrance and exit, was this Jaguar XK150 shooting brake. As I'm sure you've guessed by now the rear end is Morris Minor Traveller. I was fascinated by it. It's something I would never have thought of doing and makes a lot of sense. Many woodies were produced in Britain during the late forties due to material shortages and Government restrictions...

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...