Engine Punk

I f anyone asks me about a c ar or a bike or any sort of Vintage Thing (old or new) that I don't know, I au tomatically want to know more. When Gordon Johnston got in touch about his Gilbern T11 he had my full attention. (Photo : Gordon Johnston) When I started the Vintage Thing series on Engine Punk I intended to feature only those VTs that had physically crossed my path and been subject to the old Mk1 eyeball.  But as soon as I saw photos of Gordon's car I was hooked and had to know more. Gordon's opening gambit was that he found Engine Punk interesting but couldn't see anything on Gilberns.   I have a long standing interest in Gilberns. They were famous for being made in Wales and were robust sporting coupes that could seat almost four people at a pinch. Most of the ones I came across were powered by Ford's redoubtable Essex V6 and they had simple lines that avoided many of the awkward angles from which contemporary low production cars suffered during...

The sun shone again on the Run to the Sun this year and in addition to peachy 23 windowed microbuses like this example there many other fine examples of automotive art present at the show'n'shine on Sunday. My sister said I was mad to go for many people who have live around Newquay believe RTTS causes nothing but trouble with the local toughs picking fights with louts from a line when I saw nothing but people having a good time, admiring each other's handicraft and relaxing in the weather. This machine won spirit of the event award and I featured it on this blog last year. At that stage, it still looked a bit like a Beetle but now resembles a tannalised log cabin on wheels that -- against all the laws of probability -- has been souped up. In the space of just 12 months, it's had a pretty radical reworking and about the only clue to the retention of the running gear underneath was the voodoo dolls head gear knob. Rust patination was demonstrated by a...