Engine Punk

A few weeks ago, I had a comment on this very blog that mentioned voice-activated dictation software. It described Dragon NaturallySpeaking as a secret weapon when it came to formatting text documents in readiness for publishing. I've had a lot of problems with using Word and PDF generators but had got around it by using Open Office Writer. I was interested to hear about this Dragon product as another alternative to using Word. It was as I researched Dragon NaturallySpeaking that I realised that this might be an alternative to learning to touch type. I had already embarked upon a touch typing course (E-typing) but it soon became apparent that I would never be as quick as I fought or spoke. I am a reasonably fast two fingered typist but very often my ideas come spilling out of my brain and my fingers trip themselves up. In fact, I seem to be getting less accurate as I get older. I decided to try Dragon NaturallySpeaking and ordered the Preferred version, complete with a Phili...

I was near Andover at the weekend with my neighbour and tractor man Andrew. We dropped in on my scrap buddy, Rob Robinson-Collins who has a weakness for Allards. Here are Rob and Andrew in Rob and Tina's back garden. If ever Rob rings me up to tell me that he has discovered another Allard, or parts thereof, I don't dissuade him. I encourage him. I'm happy to say that he is rarely in any doubt about the desirability of any Allard or Allard parts so it is not difficult for him to follow my advice to, "Buy it!" We both realise that this is not really what having a scrap buddy is all about. What should happen, is that one of us says to the other, "Look, what you really want is just one car and one motorbike and that's it." Sometimes, one of us might actually say this but it is quickly ignored. Very often, this sentence is not uttered at all. Here, Rob is explaining the niceties of shortening an Allard chassis to Andrew's boots. You may have not...

Both The Horsepower Whisperer and The Wormton Lamb are now in revision at Lightning Source. I can enter my account area to monitor progress and once the revisions have been accepted I will order proofs. It's a case of checking every day now. Once that stage is complete, I should get proofs in a couple of working days. In the meantime, I've been working on the next part of the Soul Trader trilogy. The title for this is The Grey Ones. This is also the title of a short story by J B Priestley, which I really enjoyed. The story is completely different but if anyone challenges me about it I'll say I'm paying "an homage" to it. I probably mentioned this before, but I raved about this story on a car club forum a few years ago. Everyone was griping about the growing police state and the sense of big brother watching you and slowly grinding our spirits down. I recommended J B Priestley's story to those in need and many years later at a meeting in Edinbu...

This 1940 Dodge D15 truck belongs to John Sartain and is a companion to his half ton Dodge ambulance (VT No. 32) . It has the commercial pattern cab that was superseded by the more easily repairable military pattern and would originally have had a general-purpose steel body and can reverse tilt cover. It was built by the Chrysler Corporation of Canada Ltd in Windsor, Ontario in 1940 and many examples of this type of truck were exported to Russia as well as Britain. The engine was a six cylinder 95 brake horsepower side valve 230.2 cubic inch unit shared with the US examples but those had three speed boxes while this one has four forward speeds. Due to the large numbers produced, spares are not as much a problem as you would think, even after all this time. John has found some replacement front wings in preparation for a forthcoming restoration. He's also acquired a spare engine even though there's nothing wrong with the one's that fitted. I don't think the ch...

While on a quest for tractor parts in Hampshire last weekend, Andrew the tractor man and I came across this fine example of World War II Dodge ambulance. It belongs to motorcycle enthusiast John Sartain and dates from 1941. Its official nomenclature is a T215-WC27 and 6422 of this type of ambulance are recorded as being supplied to the US Army and the UK under Lend-Lease. T215 is the model type and WC27 denotes the ambulance body. It has a six cylinder flat head 230.2 cubic inch engine with a 3.25 inch bore and 4.625 inch stroke. This equates to 82.55mm x 117.475mm and 3772cc. This design was essentially a stroked version of the engine in the late 1930's Dodge passenger car range and produced 92 brake horsepower at 3000 rpm and 170 ft lbs at 1200 rpm. The idea of Lend-Lease was to pull the resources of the Allied forces without a formal engagement of United States of America in the Second World War and the US made available material valued at more than $42 billion to 44 co...

While looking through some old photographs I found this shot of a dirt track Douglas at Wiscombe Park hill climb back in 1998 (I think). This shot reminded me why I like this design so much - for such an old bike, it looks like it's doing a 100mph even propped up against a Transit. The bike wheels and low slung engine all shout speed to me and although it's a hard tail and I prefer sprung frames any attempt to give it springing would alter the simple lines of the bike. The handle bars look like a bit too practical. I'd like to see this machine with drop handlebars like a racing push bike. And the gearchange on the tank and the shape of the tank itself make you realise this is an old bike. But the concept of the dirt track Douglas seems so modern to me. Because it has a front brake this is probably the road going version of the dirt track Duggie - the SW5. The speedway biked lacked any sort of front brake and the gearchange was usually locked in one position. Me? I ...

Stephen Pate has sent me some more images of the special brakes for the A series Vincent TTR that he's restoring. Again, they are things of beauty and were sourced by the Japanese and American TTR owners working together. When I saw the pre-restoration state of the machine I thought how unnecessary but now that I realise its historic nature, I appreciate the responsibility that goes with owning something like this. Without the special TTR forks and brakes this bike was close to being "only" another A series Vincent. Now that the right parts have been sourced, just bolting them on wouldn't be right. Besides, earlier restoration work on this bike did not come up to standard. There's an opportunity here to review the condition of the whole machine and ensure its survival for many years to come. In fact, Steve says that the condition of the special forks was a real mess and that after shot blasting he ended up building a jig and then disassembling the forks befor...