Engine Punk

While at Adrian Booth’s workshop the other day, I spotted this interesting old trails special. I’d gone over to nearby Doublebois (pronounced Double Boys) to discuss the shortening of a Volvo torque tube so that the vital organs of said Volvo could be insinuated into Morris Minor. Adrian can do strange and wonderful things with steel and aluminium and is another of life’s great enthusiasts. The Hobsy or Hobbsie Special  “What’s this old thing on the trailer?” I asked him.  “It was called a Hobsy but it hasn’t done much work. The chassis rotten and it’s a bit of a lash up, really. I’m having a clear out and this is going.” “I wish I’d brought my digital camera,” I said. “Then I could record its final moments.” “Oh you can borrow mine,” Adrian replied.  So despite my lack of foresight, the Hobsy Special did not go unrecorded.  Very little is known about it. It had a 1600 Ford Kent engine, that was reputed to have been ...

A background sketch from the Anarchadia website is this working drawing for the Cadillac Platinumide I’ll have a go at most things and this website is largely my own effort but after years of doing–it–myself and practising self–reliance, I have discovered that sometimes – sometimes – it’s better to get an expert to do it for you.  It depends whether you want to learn how to do it or not. You may never need to do it ever again. It also depends how long it takes to reach a reasonable standard. Do you have the time or do you want a quick result? And, most importantly in my opinion, it depends if you enjoy it. If you don’t I believe it shows. With the website, I was lucky – beginner’s luck, I suppose. I had a brilliant book to refer to. I wouldn’t have got anywhere without Build your website the right way using HTML & CSS by Ian Lloyd. Not only was I able to get the something together that worked but I began to understand how it worked. If I had any problems I used the S...

Horsepower whispering with a Ginetta G21S Six foot of two by two timber isn’t in everyone’s toolkit. The day I helped my mate Pete Low re–assemble the engine in his Ginetta, neither of us had such a thing. Pete’s day job is vicar of St Budeaux in Plymouth . This means the days off he gets are Mondays. Fortunately, last week I had a clear Monday so our packed diaries coincided for once and we were able to start work in earnest on his car. When I arrived at the vicarage, it was immediately apparent that he’d bought all the gaskets and assembled a fine array of hand and power tools. He’d even arranged for good weather. Pete’s Ginetta is a G21S. He’d bought it with a reconditioned engine that needed re–assembling. The ordinary G21 has a 1725cc engine made by the now–defunct Rootes group for the Hillman Hunter range. The G21S has a special head developed by Holbay, which was used in the sportier Hunters and Rapiers. All we had to do was fit the cylinder head, carburettors and exhau...

David Hockney made a fortune out of doing photos like this Hidden away in the steep sided combes of south–western Britain, concealed behind unremarkable facades in market towns and sleepy hamlets, tucked deep down into wooded valleys or crouched against the elements on wind blasted heaths and moors, something is stirring. This is Britain ’s crumple zone against the Atlantic and, against very long odds, Cornwall is still home to an ongoing automotive tradition that has been quietly surviving for over two hundred years. If someone announced that they had written a book on Cornwall ’s motor industry, a very slim volume would probably be the result – not so much a book as a pamphlet. Being able to produce over 150 well illustrated A4 pages initially seems nothing short of remarkable. Having read Cornwall ’s Motor Industry by Peter Tutthill, it’s clear that he has unearthed a wealth of material and some fascinating insights into a surprisingly varied cottage industry. I am also...

Any resemblance to St Piran's Cross is purely intentional. The noteworthy thing about this cross, which stands in dunes above Perranporth, is that the arms of the Celtic wheeled cross have rotated. The arms have become spokes and the cross is more than a wheel than ever. Anarchadia Publishing is an independent small publisher that’s publishing the first part of the Soul Trader trilogy, entitled The Horsepower Whisperer. Between each part of the Soul Trader trilogy, stand alone stories featuring some of the characters from The Horsepower Whisperer will also be published. The first of these, The Wormton Lamb, is currently in the editorial process and will follow soon after the launch of The Horsepower Whisperer. All these stories are set in and around Anarchadia, an anarchic arcadia and temperate archipelago somewhere off the north west cost of Yerp.    There's an element of self parody to some of my work but the books are real enough Books from Anarchadia wil...