Engine Punk

Captain Sensible is mature beyond his years (in a reverse direction of course) Photo : Official Damned website The Damned played in Falmouth at the Princess Pavilions last night and were like a tin of Ronseal - they did exactly what is said on the label. The Princess Pavilions is an old theatre that is growing older disgracefully but has recently been done up - a contradiction in terms but it seemed to welcome such outrageousness from these punk pioneers. The Damned have always had a strong image and Dave Vanian the gothfather looked very much at home. He can sing, too. I reckon Dave's got one of the best voices in rock today and he still delivers. During the set, the drummer, Pinch, was watching some overpaid prima donna's kicking a pig's bladder about and kept updating some of the audience who might have been interested in the score but this didn't detract at all from the show and added to the humour and intimacy. Apparently, the desired outcome was achieved ...

This man is going to buy something with two wheels and very soon This little bike caught our attention at Wiscombe Park. Most things in black and gold do but Pete had some cash burning a hole in his pocket (which has now become a Matchless single) and we began to have covetous thoughts about Velocette 250s. Of nearly square dimensions (78 x 78.5mm), the MOV is a rev-happy little chappy. According to Titch Allen in his splendid book The Velocette Saga , David Holmes developed his MOV to spin up to 10,000rpm and subsequnetly reduced the rev range to 8,500 to provide more useable power on the race track. It must be nice for the rider to know they're nowhere near the bloodline when they're ringing its neck. It would still do 100mph, and although it's a production bike, the Suzuki X7 was billed as the first ton up 250 when that was introduced in 1979. That would be 30 years after the MOV went out of production and - of course - the two bikes are not really comparable as on...

The Triangle Skinner Special awaits its turn in the paddock at sunny Wiscombe Park this year. The Triangle Skinner is yet another special to which John Bolster introduced me with his classic book Specials . It seems incredible to me now that it began life as a 1931 Morris Minor and the side valve version at that, which was built to sell at £100. Nowadays, it sports a straight eight Hudson engine of 4168cc. Little remains of that 847cc Morris Minor. It was rather a special Morris Minor, for it was a publicity stunt that used special steel cylinder blocks albeit of the same 57 x 83mm dimensions as the iron production variety. These allowed lubrication pressures of 70 psi and had a bevel drive for a vertically mounted supercharger. Equipped with a Powerplus blower and single seater bodywork it was campaigned by Bill van der Becke (who is also famous for the Becke Powerplus, which used a Wolseley ohc engine) and was officially sanctioned in a weak moment by Sir William Morris himsel...

I closely watch this man play but still can't fathom how he does it. (Photo :  Efestivals) I've seen Wilko Johnson and his band twice now and been blown away both times by perfectly crafted blues rock, belted out by three of the best musicians in the business. They look like they're melting as cotton shirts assume a shine like wet-look vinyl. It's a good look on these guys, though, as they draw on the energy from the crowd, energy they put out to begin with but get back with interest. Latin-scholar Wilko looks scary but isn't really. He's not machine gunning you with his guitar he's peppering your soul with licks you can't understand even when he's explaining them in slow mo on YouTube. How he plays his guitar is still a mystery when he strives to make it look simple. He's left handed but plays as if he's right handed, which goes some way to make sense, and loops his thumb over the top of the guitar to play rhythm. Beyond that, I'm ...

Running as No.42 on the Saturday at the VSCC meeting at Wiscombe Park, RIP shows off its Morgan ancestry parked next to a slightly more venerable 1924 example. The RIP Special leapt out at me from the pages of John Bateman's Enthusiast's Guide to Vintage Specials . This book is a splendid sequel to John Bolster's earlier tome on the breed, entitled simply Specials , and features some weird and wonderful mechanical contrivances, all built with sole purpose of going fast up a hill. RIP is the minimalist expression of that Holy Grail, the four wheeled motorbike. Actually, RIP is a four wheeled Morgan three-wheeler. Possibly RIP's best view. Tailgaters are not a problem. That doped canvas is what I like best about the RIP Special and gives this little car its name. RIP is rakish For a long time I was given to understand that conversions of Morgan three-wheelers into mere cars never had the desired expectation of improving performance. Perhaps have a diff-less...

We'd only just parked up when we spotted this fire engine red Guzzi The annual pilgrimage to Wiscombe got off to a good start. We hadn't even got out of the carpark when Pete Low and I spotted this bacon slicer Moto Guzzi that had turned up to watch. Funnily enough, Pete and I just been saying that one of the unmissable experiences at Wiscombe was the breakfast bap in the morning after camping under canvas. For greatest effect the egg should be slightly runny and ooze all the way down your forearm. This year I surpassed myself and managed to get egg all down my trousers and on my boots. High performance breakfast baps are indeed something "special" at Wiscombe. Must be the critical mass of all those vintage specials And here is one of those vintage specials - Wasp II (check?) - on opposite lock with cylinder heads akimbo at the recently resurfaced Martini Hairpin The weather was good, too, despite being wet for days on end beforehand. The car park and paddo...

The Kayne Special III finds grip from the line at Werrington This machine caught my eye at Werrington Hillclimb. It's the Kayne Special, actually the last of a series of 3 built by John Cooper (not the one who did the Minis but another John Cooper whose world famous among MG owners)  using MGB components and this one had a Rover V8. It was originally built in 1983 as a tow car with a slushbox for the other Kayne Specials but when drivers were allowed to drive more than one car at meetings John changed to a manual box and got serious with it. Looking and sounding good, this Kayne Special has MGB IFS and semi-elliptic leaf springs It's been sold on now and sports a comprehensive roll cage which spoils its clean lines for me. So who ever heard of a hillclimb car rolling? Remember that Renault 5 Turbo in an earlier post about a meeting at Werrington? As I see more and more Locost Caterfields with cages like this, my eyes are becoming used to them but a traditionally ...