Engine Punk

Some black and white publicity photos of the Siva Llama turned up on eBay a few weeks ago. I watched them after being tipped off about them by Graeme Pearson the editor of the Imp Club magazine. I didn't bid but they've found a good home though because they now appear on Franka's site. The registration of the car depicted is a new one on me. I have a short list of known cars and hope that this one is an unknown survivor. There's something that inspires camaraderie between the owners of obscure motor cars. At the ARCC (Association of Rootes Car Clubs) Rally at Blenheim Palace in 2000, I met an affable chap from the Clan Crusader owners club called Jim McEwan. I was attending with my Siva Llama at that particular show and he was fascinated by it. Jim was the club historian for the Clan Crusaders and we had a long and enthusiastic talk. Over the next 18 months or so, he sent me a number of articles that featured a Siva Llama. These weren't just photocopies -- th...

I had a pleasant surprise on Friday when I return from work. The proof for The Wormton Lamb had arrived. Here is, resplendent in its new cover design. I've been checking it through over the weekend and on Sunday night was delighted to be able to send Lightning Source a message accepting this proof. I had a couple of e-mails from Lightning Source today confirming the dispatch of two separate orders of copies of The Wormton Lamb. A carton of 20 will soon be arriving at my door as well as a solitary copy but I must ordered for some reason months ago. It serves to remind me how long this process has taken and what a milestone I have reached. All I have to do is publicise it so -- tell your friends!

Ray Morrisey hit the news yesterday for, at the age of 49, he has just achieved the milestone of attending 5000 separate gigs over the course of the last 35 years. On his website, he lists all the bands that he's seen. It looks as if he would go and see anyone but his great favourites are the punk bands. Nowadays, he is something of a gig-going celebrity and he can blag his way into most venues. I was talking to my punk rock buddy Gary about Ray Morrisey. It could be said that we are contemporaries of Ray and may have rubbed shoulders or moshed with him. Gary reckoned that Ray wasn't terribly discerning in which bands he saw but was willing to forgive him this in view of his consuming passion for punk rock. Gary is another of those people who keeps a close record of all the gigs that he's seen. He's well into his hundreds and points out that as Ray lives in London he has far greater opportunity of seeing a wider variety and greater quantity of bands that we do sto...

There aren't many engines that burst out of the engine bay and assume a life of their own but the flathead Ford V8 is definitely one of them. Look - there's one that's escaped even now, wriggling across the pebbles of my scrap buddy's drive. As Rob puts it, this engine won World War 2. That's a bit of an exaggeration but it was really what the flathead Ford V8 got up to afterwards that makes if of interest to me and marks it out as a Vintage Thing in its own right. You've probably heard of the phrase Anglo-American Bastard? It was coined by Michael Sedgwick and covers a wide variety of British cars that used big, low-stressed American engines in stripped down chassis and lightweight bodywork. This trend began before World War II with things like the Brough Superior and Railton and carried on right up into the sixties with the Gordon-Keeble, Bristol and Jensen. Some of these cars weren't so much Anglo-American bastards but more love children. Liberat...

I imagine my introduction to H P Lovecraft's work was similar to that of most people. I found "The Haunter in the Dark" in a collection of short horror stories. It stood out as one of the best and in searching other anthologies for more of the same I tripped over "The Thing on the Doorstep" and encountered "The Rats in the Walls". By then I was hooked and had to have all three of his anthologies. Howard Phillips Lovecraft is one writer to whom I often return. I really like the idea of ancient towns such as Arkham being in such a modern nation as the USA and Miskatonic University is so obviously full of reading matter that ought to have been burnt due to insane and unworldly messages it contains that I want a reader's ticket. He's a master at discreetly building tension. Some of his throw away lines are just dreadful - quite literally full of dread. His writing style is so fevered as to be quite over the top but it works beautifully and I...

Like many people, I enjoy reading Clive Cussler's adventure novels. Dirk Pitt is a proper hero. He's just about believable and manages to get out of the most amazing scrapes using technology and his own skills. He's an all-action man with intellect and meets an rescues some very beautiful and intelligent women. He's also a car nut so I feel that I have a good deal in common with him but really that's where the similarity ends. Back in 2006, I heard about the court case in Hollywood featuring Clive Cussler. He'd fallen out with the principal backer of the film, billionaire Philip Anschutz. Cussler claimed the script wasn't true to his original story and Anschutz reckoned Cussler had deceived him over how many books he'd sold. They ended up counter-suing each other and have probably spent more in legal fees than the 5-8 million dollars they've been awarded by various courts and judges. What could have been an exciting new film franchise was practic...

At the 2008 Exeter Kit Car Show, I was particularly struck by the range of electric cars on offer. It seems that the kit car industry, by virtue of its smaller size, is in a position to respond to environmental pressures more quickly than mainstream manufacturers. The Battery Vehicles Society had a stand at the show and featured among the more obvious alternative technologies this Mulliner bodied Wilson, which was built from 1935 to 1936 in Leicester. As built, this car would have had a 40 mile range for every charge and a top speed of 27 mph. Only 40 were made but the owner of this example has another and rumours persist of others languishing in gardens in places like Birmingham. He told me that the realistic range for this car is now down to 20 miles because the batteries are a bit tired. I think that is allowed. A drop-off in performance is only to be expected after 70 years but that is definitely what I call sustainable motoring. The guys on the electric vehicle stand were ve...