Engine Punk

Some Dellows await their turn by Wiscombe House. They do as well on tarmac as on the trials sections, just adding to the confusion about trialling and hillclimbing. A little rain on the Saturday post meridian put nobody off and was the exception rather than the rule despite dire weather forecasts. I think the moral here is use your classic machinery in the way its creators intended and the gods will smile. The plan had been hatched months before the event by Pete Low and me for a trip up to East Devon for the annual VSCC hillclimb in this wonderful part of the world just inland from Branscombe. It was a trip down for Pete, though, because he lives in Essex, an area where there are few hills worthy of climbing quickly in a mechanical contrivance, and we camped at Wiscombe so that we wouldn't miss out on the derring-do. I prefer two seater sports cars to the GP monopostos but F3 bolides appeal hugely to me. Any bigger, though and it ought to seat two. It's good to share bu...

If Mr Jo-jo does not still exist, something very similar ought to be created. Photo provided by Phil Peters. Back in June 2008 I waxed lyrical about Mrs Jo-jo , probably the most highly developed of all Brooklands Austin 7s. Last week, Phil Peters got in touch about Mr Jo-jo. He'd been given a photograph of it by an elderly friend and neighbour and liked it so much he's put it on his blog . In his search for info on Mr Jo-jo he found my comments on the distaff side of the equipe but all I know about Mr Jo-jo is what I've been able to glean from The Austin 7 Source Book by Brain Purves, in which a copy of this very photo appears. Mr Jo-jo was an Austin 7 Gordon England Cup model, Gordon England being an aviation pioneer and Austin 7 racer who subsequently offered his own sporting bodies on the baby Austin chassis. The Cup model was a very neat Austin 7 two seater introduced in 1925 and named either after the Goerges Boillot Cup at Boulogne or the Rudge Whitworth Bi...

What sort of art can you race? This sort The Salamanda Special is for sale here . Of course, I would like to own it but the price is POA and I'm fresh out of POAs. What this car is, though, (and sorry if I go on about this) is the best example of steam punk as applied to the internal combustion engine that I can think of. It doesn't look Victorian but is sort of Victorian-plus-in-a-good-way. I read somewhere that steam pink was the celebration of the joy of making and this little car has that in shed loads. You can use it or just gaze at it. Designed and built by Oliver Way and his team, it's one of those rare cars where I don't think I'd want to change anything about its looks. It's art but not in the way culture vultures might know it - to their loss of course. It's the detailing that sets the Salamanda special apart. Look at this distressed strip of leather or canvas (or something) that protects the plywood laminate bodywork from drips of fuel T...