Engine Punk

That Austin radiator may suggest motoring for the masses but this is motor car is a cut above AND came before the Austin 7 Whilst awaiting our turn at Rodney's Revenge on the 2012 Land's End Trial, your brave boys in the Candidi Provacatore team car caught up with this lovely old Austin 20 sports car. I'd seen it ascend Blue Hills 2 in the 2011 event and admired it then. This time I managed to get a better look. Step aboard and go trialling What I like about this car is that it shows what can be done by stripping down a heavy old vintage saloon and fitting it with a much lighter body. A ratty old Austin 20 saloon isn't that valuable and - although they do have their followers - to restore one to pristine condition would take a lot of time and money. There are plenty of very smart ones about, too. We were pumping up tyres at the time so I forgot to ask what mods had been done but it probably doesn't stop at the twin SUs I always thought of Austin...

Duncan Welch told me that the 1996 Testing Trial was where the Old Spot Piglet first appeared I was sorry to hear of the demise of this rare breed. At the Bridgwater Control on the 2012 Land's End Trial I got chatting to fellow competitor Duncan Welch who was campaigning his cunningly disguised Austin Healey Sprite. It seems that the Old Spot Piglet, one of his earlier creations, has been cut up. You've had sheep dog trials - now you've got piglet trials He built the Old Spot Piglet around 1996 with the intention of creating the ultimate Class D special for use in classic trials organised by the Motor Cycling Club such as the Land's End, Exeter and Edinburgh Trials. For those who don't know, Class D caters for three wheelers below 1300cc and includes motorcycle and sidecar combinations as well as three wheelers of a more symmetrical disposition. Duncan got a Gold award first time out with the Old Spot Piglet and in a brief but brilliant career with this ...

A six-wheeled ice cream - more refreshing than a four wheeled one. This post is prompted by an alert from one of my Imp Club mates, James Henderson, about a six-wheeled Hustler ice cream van for sale on Ebay. The general reaction was "Wow that's rare!" and "How cooler could you get than a six-wheeled ice cream van?" Mine was "But I've bought an ice cream from one of those!" According to the vendor only 7 were made and the one I saw was in Scotland in 2007 (check). It was on the sea front at North Berwick and as soon as I spotted the six-wheeled Hustler ice cream van, I had to have an ice cream from it. The Mini-based Hustler range of kit cars took angular to new extremes. They sprang from the prolific drawing board of William Towns who throughout the eighties seemed intent on designing cars with a ruler. If you're careful about proportion it should theoretically look okay. Some of his designs worked, some didn't but in my opinion ...

Nimbus was, and is, low. Note the great scallop cut out of the bonnet to allow hot air from the front mounted radiator to escape. I'm not into personal plates but TOY711 seems quite appropriate. Nimbus is a very low hillclimber built by Don Parker and powered by a supercharged 1293cc Mini engine and gearbox mounted at the back. The bodyshell is a much modified moulding originally intended for a GSM Delta, a rare breed of kit car that came to Blighty from South Africa in 1960. However, Nimbus pre-dates the GSM Delta by some years (nobody is now sure by how many). As built in the fifties, it had aluminium bodywork to clothe its spaceframe chassis and a front mounted Riley engine, which was subsequently replaced by a transverse Ford sidevalve engine. This drove through a Norton gearbox and chain to a rigid rear axle and apparently was a pig to handle. Must've been that rigid rear axle, I guess. Anyway, by the time I saw this curiosity at Prescott Hillclimb in 1984 (incide...

Magma's engine was unique Magma is actually one of the series of Tarkus trikes built by Jake Challenger and comes between the original DKW and Citroen powered one that inspired Kermit and the BMW 3 cylinder radial engined device to be sold at auction by Bonhams at Stafford on 29th April. Stainless Citroen GS wheel trims match the stainless Brooklands can I saw Magma at the Stafford Microcar Rallyin 1994 when that was for sale. I had a quick word with the owner and have subsequently realised this was the only (but first) time I've actually met Jake Challenger although we've since corresponded quite a bit over the years. I was mightily intrigued by Magma and only found out later that it was really one of Jake's Tarkus series. If you look carefully you can just make out the tank for the dry sump system That spectacular engine is a one-off consisting of the barrels and heads from two Weslake 500 speedway engines on a special one-off crankcase. The barrels...

It took at least two generations of family members several years to find this article so you can imagine how pleased we were to see this - the top half of the title page. I am very excited about this because a very long search has just ended successfully. Various family members have been looking for this for years and now my Uncle David and I have found our little Holy Grail. Great Uncle Walter's duplex boat- a kind of early catamaran - has been revealed at last and in a most unexpected way. World famous among out family members, this odd vessel is mentioned in an unpublished biography of my great great grandmother, Susanna, written by her grand daughter, Winifred Scott. It's been a cause celebre across more than three generations because it's remained out of reach for so long. Regular readers may remember Great Uncle Walter . He was uncle to my grandfather and to my mother's Auntie Winnie. He was a war artist, entrepreneur, photographer, writer and inventor an...

The most amazing of Jake Challenger's trikes is for sale (Photo : Bonhams) As I mentioned earlier, Jake Challenger created a series of special three wheelers named Tarkus after the ELP track and the last of the series (I'm tempted to say latest for you never know) is this device featuring a 3 cylinder radial engine of his own design that uses BMW R100 barrels and cylinder heads. Stable as a very stable thing, if you're going to leap aboard Tarkus be sure you're wearing split screen goggles and a sheepskin jacket (Photo : Jake Challenger) I had an e-mail from Jake this weekend to say he's selling it and having spoken to him again and found out some more details I can divulge that it's in Bonhams Motorcycle auction at Stafford on 29th April . Unfortunately, his wife Cynthia has had a knee replacement and can no longer get in Tarkus. The standard BMW components look like they should've been made for use in a radial 3 cylinder engine (Photo : B...