Engine Punk

Goonhavern 2011 and there's nothing on the roads I mentioned a sprint or time trial on this blog some time ago, held in a decade when a nimby was unknown and folk were more like to say Yes on my back roads The time trial was held in Goonhavern during the 1920s and here is the "now" view compared with the "then" view below, when people said "Let's see what'll she do mister!" and had their own friendly little time trials on public roads. Here, I'm standing in the middle of the A3075 road facing out of the village, looking towards Newquay. There's a 30 mph sped limit here now and that black sign on the left facing traffic coming up the hill reminds you if you're going too fast. Goonhavern 1920s with a stripped down Calthorpe approaching the starting line Things haven't changed so much since the 20s. The road isn't much wider - it probably was always the width of a drover's road so shepherds could drive she...

Just to the left of here, I went to school - 50 years too late to see this motorsport event but better late than never I found this wonderfully evocative picture the other day. It shows a speed trial taking place on a public road in Cornwall in the 1920s and I can’t help thinking that this is the way things should be today. Here's a close up of the start - smell the fumes, hear the snatches of conversation A group of people have got together to answer that eternal question posed by street urchins to motorists the world over, to wit “What’ll she do, mister?” In finding out, it looks like they’re having a lot of innocent fun. It appears organised but in a delightfully spontaneous way as if the above question has just been answered by a “Well, let’s find out shall we?” Back then there were no nimbies. In Cornwall at any rate they were all yombars – yes, on my back roads! Except that this isn’t actually a back road. It’s the A3075 from Newquay to Redruth. The start line is ...

The beast at bay I am currently researching Vincent motorcycles because Nick Hob, the Horsepower Whisperer and central character in my book of that name, rides a highly modified one. The reputation of the Vincent stands head and shoulders above any of its contemporaries. When introduced, it was the fastest production roadster on two, three or four wheels - and that probably includes some aircraft as they take off and land. This is an example of the very first Vincent V-twin, the series A Vincent-HRD Rapide. Legend has it that the two Phils, Phil Vincent and Phil Irving, were in the drawing office one day when a breeze caused two blueprints of their recently introduced 500cc single to land one upon another in a vee formation. The potential was obvious and, once Phil Irving had designed a new crankcase, the machine became an awe-inspiring reality. By adopting an angle of 47 degrees between the cylinder barrels, the same tooling for the single cylinder versions could be used. ...

I took me ages to get hold of this little book again I've got a stack of post-Christmas reading to get through but this slim volume is what is currently receiving my attention at the moment. I first encountered Alfred Hitchcock's The Monster Museum in the library of Goonhavern County Primary school. I would have been no more than eleven. However, some of the short stories have stayed with me over the years and while I was researching something else on Amazon, I stumbled across this little beauty for sale at a penny. How can they trade at that sort of price? So here it is, in my hands again, after all this time. My favourites still are (in order of merit) The Microscopic Giants by Paul Ernst, Slime by Joseph Payne Brennan, The Day of the Dragon by Guy Endore and The King of the Cats by Stephen Vincent Benet. I was searching for The King of the Cats and although the King of the Cats is not really a monster it's a good yarn. I was interested to see that a children...