Engine Punk

Credit where credit is due - the staff at Liskeard and Plymouth railway stations did a great job of dealing with weather related problems last Friday. This is not a scene of uproar and crowds at Plymouth railway station - it is one of quiet efficiency with passengers already on the replacement coaches laid on in lieu of the cancelled trains due to weather. I had tickets from Liskeard to Andover with return tickets from Exeter to Liskeard as part of my travel plan to start in and return home from the 2014 Exeter Trial. But it wasn't to be. Lightning strikes knocked out the signalling in Cornwall during the morning so nothing was moving in Cornwall at all. At Liskeard, Jo and Sonya organised buses for us and as I was travelling beyond Plymouth I was on the first minibus. But at Plymouth it became apparent that further lightning strikes in Devon and flooding beyond Exeter meant that plans to stop services at Plymouth and redirect them eastwards wouldn't work. A...

The future of classic trials? The Suzuki X-90 is a car that has only just begun to have its day and even then it's having it in the obscure world of classic trialling. Not only that but it's the unloved two wheel drive variety that's found favour. The X-90 was one of those niche cars that may have made sense when the concept was pitched to senior executives but, once let loose in the market place with everybody else looking at it, it didn't actually make a lot of sense. I can sort of understand where Suzuki were coming from. So many people aspire to the lifestyle that a four wheel drive vehicle apparently indicates that you are enjoying that it could be sensible to offer them the look of it without all the tiresome heavy duty stuff that any self-respecting hairdresser doesn't need. And no disrespect to hairdressers - for many years the MGB was known for being a hairdresser's car. The MGB had the look of a sports car without all that tiresome performa...

The Candid Provocateurs ride again in the Allard J1 Binky and I will be in the 2014 Exeter Trial again this weekend. We are in Binky's Candid Provocatere Allard J1 again. Nothing else compares to it really. We dipped out last year because he had flu but as a spectator I actually had a great time and met a lot of others who for, various reasons, were also not competing. This year it's all systems go so - last minute disasters notwithstanding - we should see you on the hills if we're not popping too many wheelies (he said hopefully) - not that a 1947 Allard J1 would ever do anything so vulgar. Was that a kiss of death? Should I have left it until after the event to say that we are actually in it? Time (and grip) will tell.

This little engine nearly rusted away entirely. For nearly 30 years it lay in its shed at Dorothea Quarry in North Wales with parts being taken to keep other engines running. Gradually the shed collapsed around it but in 1970 it was rescued by enthusiast Dave Walker. Dorothea remained in storage until 1989 when Kate Bowman took pity on it. Her husband had already done that with other quarry Hunslets, such as Covertcoat from Dinorwic and Lillian from Port Penryhn but even he did not share her enthusiasm for the task ahead and everyone else thought it was too far gone to be restored There's a brilliant picture of it in the cafe at the steam railway. As it's in colour you can see how rusty it was after 30 years in the open with the rubble of its shed around it. Dorothea under restoration in July 2009 Anyway, Kate had the engine in steam by December 2001 using Covertcoat 's boiler and Dorothea returned to traffic on the Launceston Steam Railway at Easter 2012. ...

This is the official photograph of Jerry's Imp from the 1987 Land's End Trial. I am hidden by the screen but Jerry is driving and Mike Evason is bouncing furiously. I think this is Darracott - which we would've failed. This is an ongoing project, one that my old mate Jerry Goater began and one that I hope I will get to a stage where it can be used again, for projects, like cars or motorbikes, are not finished off until they are destroyed utterly, when they have no further future. The Jemp rests in a corner of my garage, dry stored and awaiting its turn. It's not finished - it has a future. It began as a standard Imp saloon in a sort of mustard grey colour and Jerry learnt to drive in it. It belonged to his parents. Sheila and Steve, but it sort of became his in 1985 when we were on our industrial placements. Y'see, we were studying Industrial Design/Transport at Coventry Polytechnic and Jerry's dad was a CDT teacher and they had this grinder and this we...

Also known as the Batmobile, the Impaler polarises opinion. Most people "get it", but a minority hated it. This just serves to prove that even in the 21st century there are a few people still without a sense of humour. Without the Imp behind it you could be forgiven for thinking the Impaler is mahoosive The Impale r - also for obvious reasons known as the Batmobile -  was owned a few years ago by the likeable Hughes family from East Lancashire. They bought as a running car but there was a lot wrong with it when they got it. The engine was sealed into the bodywork so inaccessible for maintenance. Fortunately, Paul runs a drag racing V8 Imp (more of that another time maybe) and by the time this car graced the scene at the 2011 Imp National Rally in Bangor, North Wales, it was quite useable - if not entirely practical. Next time I'll get a less cluttered background but at least you can see how small it is Apart for the walling up of the engine, whoever created ...

This could only be a French car This is a car that I don't fit. I sat in a Mehari years ago one and was struck by the lack of foot and legroom. Why this was so I don't know. I've never had this trouble with 2CVs. Look at those little corrugations The Mehari is a sub-culture car within 2CV circles and is made of unrusting Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene panels (or ABS to you) that unfortunately are supported by a metal frame and a standard 2CV chassis. Replace the rotting chassis with a galvanised one (as so many 2CVs sport these days) and galvanise the body frame as well and you have sustainable fun motoring. To look at, the Mehari couldn't be anything other than French. That either puts you off or makes it highly desirable. It's not a world car designed by committee even though it's a fast running dromedary (a kind of camel designed by just one person) that gives the Mehari its name. This car has national identity. It's so redolent of the s...