Engine Punk

At Bromley Motor Pageant many years ago (in about 1994?), I came across this fine example of the traditional special builder's art. The Empire Special is better looking than many professionally produced kitcars. I suppose it scores in being able to use the right sort of components for the overall look and nothing jars or looks out of place. Even the rather archaic front independent suspension looks right. Most cars that look like that were not specials would have had beam axles and cart springs. The use of Morris Minor IFS and lever arm dampers makes it look old but sophisticated. The list of components, which the anonymous owner or constructor thoughtfully provided, is interesting. Axles front and back are Morris Minor and the wheels are TR3 on splined adaptors. A Morris 8 donated its windscreen, bonnet, grille and radiator and the scuttle - a complicated shape - was moulded from that of an MG Magna. This was a smart move. We all like wheeled aluminium panels but the humps for the...

The Buckingham 4 valve JAP was built by Graham Buckingham, a technician at Coventry Polytechnic when I was a student there in the early eighties. I was making a mock up of motorcycle riding positions for a project and he took an interest in what I was doing and eventually let slip that he had designed and built a motorcycle. I was immediately fascinated and in response to my constant questions brought in what remained of it. The curious influence of the moon and tides on the flotsam and jetsam of my photographic print collection brought these snaps of it to the surface the other day so I thought I would record what I could remember of it now before these snaps disappear again. The engine was a four valve conversion of – no less – a speedway 490cc JAP engine. Graham said he had a mate who worked in the Jaguar drawing office and it was he who drew up the head. I think he said the valves were Jaguar parts. No Jaguar engine had four valves per cylinder until much later. The camshafts were ...

Well, as I'd hoped, I've made contact with the owner of the Centron mentioned on here as Vintage Thing No. 53 . It belongs to Gerald Dawson who has confirmed that it was once black. He's kindly passed on some better images of his car to use on this blog. As the registration number is the same as the Statestyle car that I once knew, Gerald's car must be that demonstrator as well as the Lalande show car. As you may have gathered I have a soft spot for the Centron. I think the front end styling is highly successful but there are some awkward angles to the window aperture in profile. Softer lines here might improve the overall look but the kamm tail doesn't bother me at all. Gerald's Centron is a striking motorcar. Gerald says, "By the time I got it, it had already been painted red, with a black vinyl roof. The auction catalogue I was given describes it as a black show car, and that it was featured in a magazine article. I have been unable to find which magazin...

Designating my XR4x4 a Vintage Thing the other day reminded me of the reaction casued by the introduction of the Sierra. It was a revolution. The V&A ran an exhibition at the Boilerhouse Project called The Car Programme - 52 months to Job One or How they designed the Ford Sierra. I visited this exhibition in the first year of my Industrial Design course at Coventry Poly. At the time there were all manner of rumours circulating about the Sierra and its high profile departure from the boxy lines of the Cortina. It was said that all the design staff had been sacked and that Ford would be re-introducing the Cortina following poor sales. Of course, none of this was true but it's difficult to appreciate the shock of the new that followed the Sierra's introduction. Walter Hayes, Ford of Europe's Vice-Chairman said the introduction of the Sierra and replacement of the Cortina was "the only example in history where a company killed off a brand leader." However, I bet h...

I've recently been contacted by Gareth Jones who owns this Ginetta G26. It's a rather smarter G26 than the one that we fetched home and Gareth is looking for some wheels with the right offset to fill the arches and make his car sit on the road properly. Mondeo wheels look wrong. He says that "the Cortina wheel bolt pattern is quite common among Peugeots and many others, but the offset normally used on FWD cars is different, and the Ginetta needs something that’s deep-dish to make it visually correct too!" Since my close up encounter with a G26, the styling has grown on me and I have to say that of the G26 family this version with the pop up lights is the best. Some angles still look a little odd but once you know where not to look you stop looking at it that way - don't you? Okay, it's like an itch that you've got to scratch and takes a little discipline but it's somewhere around the rear quarter that I feel it's a little awkward but only from a c...

The Steam Punk exhibition at the Museum of the History of Science at Oxford was small but perfectly formed. I really enjoyed the show and now many ideas are running round my head - like a steam punk version of Thunderbirds for one. You know - Thunderbird 1 is made out of rivetted bronze, Thunderbird 2 is a supersonic air ship and Thunderbird 3 is like the Nautilus from Walt Disney's 20,000 Leagues under the Sea . This was my favourite, a Stirling hot air engine made by Jos de Vink in Holland. Stirling engines have featured on Engine Punk before ( Nothing but hot air ) but for transport purposes they aren't practical. However, for stationary work they're ideal. All they need is the slightest temperature or pressure difference to get their displacers fluttering. They run at a constant slow speed so could charge up a battery or generate hydrogen for all sorts of interesting uses. And when they look this good, they could be a show piece of your energy efficient home. They...

This is my Ford Sierra XR4x4, parked without concern on a muddy verge at a speed hillclimb last year - well, in a muddy verge for it was so wet. This old car is a bit of a monster - impertinent hot hatches come by but I real them when it comes to Hamburger Hill on the A30. Their little four pot screamers may match my old V6 for power but don't have the torque. They're probably more economic to run though - 28 mpg is good for my monster. But it's a sophisticated monster. With its four-wheel drive, fuel injection, and anti-lock brakes, this 25-year-old car was very sophisticated for its day. Having usurped to be XR4i from the range of performance Fords, the XR4x4 was in turn superseded by the Ford Sierra Cosworth but it wouldn't go away. The XR 4x4 was too useful. It wasn't as highly strung as the Cossie and was a very good tow car. Its engine was relatively lowly stressed and was the ideal powerplant when the car eventually entered the twilight world of the old, f...