luckyseven
Posted a lot
Owning sneering dismissive pedantry since 1970
Posts: 3,839
Club RR Member Number: 45
|
|
Sept 15, 2012 22:58:50 GMT
|
Right then, here's my report from said event. By way of background for anyone who isn't familiar, the National Speed Trials is organised by the Brighton and Hove Motor Club, and is the longest-running motorsport event in the world. This was the 107th iteration. Originally intended as an opportunity for the gentleman motorist to explore the parameters of their amazing motorised conveyance, the event takes advantage of the long straight wide promenade road along Madeira Drive on Brighton Sea Front. The road is closed for the day and a proper timing system set up to allow quarter-mile runs to be recorded over a whole range of different classes of vehicle; vintage, modern, competition and street, two, three and four-wheeled. The setting is thus one of the most incongruous and evocative of any motorsport event, taking place amidst the Victorian ironmongery and pebbly shoreline of Brighton, and I for one love it. There's nowhere else you can sit by the washing waves and watch high-octane point-proving taking place a couple off feet away... well, short of cruising with the draggers along Havana's Malecon, anyway. The crowds always flock to the event, from passers-by just stopping to take advantage of the free viewing afforded by the top road overlooking the prom, to died-in-the-wool motoring enthusiasts who know each car in great depth and are exploiting the informality of the event and the opportunity to wander around the "pits" and literally get touching-distance close to the cars. Plenty of people turn up in or on their own cool vehicles; the bike park especially is a good place to see amazing transportation, if only because it stretches along the seafront from where the Trials barriers finish. By way of illustration, a few scene-setting pics; Random punters parking up and getting into "the zone"  The view isn't too shoddy  This is the view the other way, along the strip past the distinctive pillars of Madeira Drive towards Black Rock. Bonus 197mph Allard included for scale purposes  Crowds? Oh, yes  This is touching distance to your motorsport icons, this is. The start line thronged by spectators. Oh, and a priceless Maserati Monza  This is the one "show" where I don't think I've ever been to it and it's rained. Certainly this year it was HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT! (That's a big "hot", not a long "hoot" by the way!). Here's a seagull enjoying watching the water-skiing in the glorious sunshine  The prom road during the week has bollards and K-Rail on it because it's long been a hang-out for petrolheads (or as the Daily Mail would have it, boy racers) who gather of a night-time. The Council put in the obstacles to stop impromptu races but obligingly enough, anyone of a mind to do so is grateful to them for the chicanes livening up their "track". All vestiges of this are vanished for the Speed Trials day, obviously.... though some slight traces remain of those nocturnal equivalents to todays' racers, if you look closely  And as always, plenty of genuine characters turn up for the trials, from octagenarians still campaigning their cars after decades to new blood finding their feet in the world of motorsport  Right, enough scene-setting, we'd better get on, hadn't we? This year I couldn't get out of work unfortunately (the Trials are always on the Saturday because the Ace Cafe to Brighton bike run takes place on the Sunday). That meant I had to get down the Trials early and then go off to work a late turn at two, so I didn't have as much time as I'd have liked to get everything in. It didn't help that the event was thrown into chaos early doors because the police had the West end of the road cordoned off. Sadly, some old dude had been stabbed to death during the early hours and half the event site was being held locked down as a crime scene! The competitior's cars were arriving and being stashed wherever there was space, and it took ages for the valiant organisers to battle through and get them into the right classes where they belonged when the police finally took their chemistry sets and went home. So, let's go on a whistle-stop tour before the schoolbell metaphorically rings and playtime is over, yeah? Let's start with something a bit funky, shall we, and what better way to open than with one of the ultimate expessions of a modern-day supercar...  That's a giveaway right there, innit! Not just "any old" Lamborghini, if indeed there is such a thing...  ...but a shiny new Aventador. Evil in black  and how incongruous parked up amongst the litter and debris left over from a clubber's night out in Brighton  The Speed Trials seems to attract a certain mindset of car owner, those who love their cars but aren't desparately precious about them. This seems to be shown neatly here by the numberplate casually folded in half to stick to the car's V-shaped nose, and the timing light actuator seemingly made secure by reams of yellow and black hazard tape!  This is definitely one of those cars that's fractal; the closer you look the deeper you find yourself going into seemingly never-ending layers of detail and finish  Whislt the bit you need immediate information upgrades from is simple and straighforward,  on the rest of it, the designers let themsleves indulge in the traditional Lambo excess and shock & awe    That gaping rear orifice in full;  Driven like it's meant to be, too, here it is giving some beans off the start line  |
| |
|
|
|
|
luckyseven
Posted a lot
Owning sneering dismissive pedantry since 1970
Posts: 3,839
Club RR Member Number: 45
|
|
Sept 15, 2012 22:59:38 GMT
|
Something altogether more serene now, and a rather lovely old Bentley  ...being used a a table for the owner's bacon sarnie  lol! See what I mean about the competitors being down-to-earth? He was very apologetic about spoiling my shot with his breakfast, but I think it rather makes it. This is the total opposite end of the spectrum to Lambo excess, but just as many fine details to pore over;    I never get tired of taking pics of the instruments, especially of old cars. They're fascinating little works of art in their own right, not least because they perform a function as well as looking nice. Here's my new favourite ammeter, lol  Suitably manly horn. OOoer  and here it is giving what-ho along the strip. If this pic was scratch and sniff it'd smell like hot oil and old leather  Not all the competitors come in obscenely rare and expensive cars. They all have merit in their own way, though, it's just a matter of how you look at it. By way of illustration, here's one of the more maligned products from a certain Fenland motorsport legend  Yes, OK it might have been blighted with the engine and drivetrain from an asthmatic farmer's runabout Renault 16, turned backwards and chugging out an unremarkable 78bhp in original tune. And yes, the driving position was somewhat akin to a chimp steering a deckchair. And yes, the cabin was incredibly hot and poorly laid-out without even the "luxury" of opening windows to alleiviate the discomfort... ....but. This was the first proper production mid-engined roadcar, it had the best road-holding ever seen at the time, being literally unstickable, the Lotus engineers managed to squeeze the power output to half as much again at around 130bhp, thus producing one of the purest expressionsof an entire package being far more than the sum of its parts. It's only two inches taller than the much-worshipped GT40 and a damned sight more aerodynamic at a coefficient of drag around 0.29. This was, essentially, Colin Chapman bringing his hard-won Formula One knowledge and skill to a road car for the cognoscenti. See? It's just a matter of perspective. And, yeah, it does look like a breadvan...  And while we're on the subject of slightly awkward Lotus styling excercises, here's another one;  the rather unusual Elan 2+2  which seems like a lot of effort to go to just to beastlify the beautiful lines of the original Elan, all for the sake of installing two utterly pointless rear seats only a midget or double amputee would find acceptable. But then, I own two RX-7s which are the ultimate expression of "dwarf-bucket" seats, so what do I know?  I have to say, I love the JPS colourscheme though, especially that metalflake roof  Any motorsport event inevitably attracts swarms of Cobras (collective noun for Cobras, anyone? I've got a "knot" in my mind from somewhere)...OK, attracts a knot of Cobras. This is one of those cars that nowadays every time you see one you assume it's a replica, and most are...  that's a Dax. This is a Roadcraft  this hardtopped one I took a load of pics of at the Wings And Wheels show, so I'll restrict myself to just the one  Who cares if they're reps or what, though? Any car weighing the same as a beercan but with a big-inch V8 is a laugh in my book. Especially when it has curves like this  This one's apparently a proper 427 Cu in. The real deal? Hmmm, certainly seems to be  |
| |
|
|
luckyseven
Posted a lot
Owning sneering dismissive pedantry since 1970
Posts: 3,839
Club RR Member Number: 45
|
|
Sept 15, 2012 23:00:19 GMT
|
Needless to say the Cobras aren't the only interpretation of big-cube American grunt. There's bound to be one or two of these sort of things around;  My favourite Mustang bodyshape, too, the fastback coupe   "Those" rear light Toyota so wanted to copy for the original Celica...  This modern Roush-built supercharged Mustang GT filled the niche at the other end of the Mustang field...errr, stable? Beastly thing that did the most immense burnouts imaginable!  and just by way of British-American detente, here's one of my favourite cars from the Gathering making another appearance, the V8-engined Cortina  why didn't Ford make a "proper" one of these? I reckon they'd have sold all they could make. In fact, make one now, I'd buy one!   ....and in case you're getting Yanked-out (no, not a euphemism for anything dirty) here's something quintissentially British to calm you down  Sprite parks next to the only car that could make it look big! Still, this one has a big heart under the skin  and patriotic, too. Excellent  obligatory arty one;  Quite a few Datsuns blundering about the place, though no old ones this year. Usually there are 240Zs and the like, but I didn't see any. Had to content myself with taking "that" shot of GTRs that everyone always takes  I would have took full-body pic of this Midnight Purple R33 because it's my favourite GTR in my favourite colour, but it was getting late by the time I stumbled across it and I got fed up waiting for a big enough gap in the people milling around so this is all I got;  Here's a white R35 waiting patiently for the previous cars' burnout to subside enough for it to stage. This is where even the most capable 4WD cars end up looking a bit peewee against the RWD burnout monsters, lol. A bit like lining up at the next urinal to Ron Jeremy but knowing you're just about to go and smash Pippa Middlton's back doors in. As it were. Hmmmm, colourful metaphor drops on author from the ether rather unexpectedly....  |
| |
|
|
luckyseven
Posted a lot
Owning sneering dismissive pedantry since 1970
Posts: 3,839
Club RR Member Number: 45
|
|
Sept 15, 2012 23:01:11 GMT
|
How about a nice old Jag XK140 with some wonderful "used" patination to it?  Slot-disc side exit silencer and cut slick tyres. Not yer average classic Jasg, then...  I have a lot of love for this TVR  not just because any Tuscan is a thing of great purpose, redolent of true British eccentricity and bonkers power-over-practicality ethos, but also because this particular one has been modified extensively whilst apparently keeping the irreverance and sense of fun essential to the marque  big beastly bonnet bulge necessary to cover big beastly engine. And the Nawwwwwwwwws system, of course!  more side-exit righteousness  but wait, what was that? Oh, yes. Carbon-kevlar composite Dymag hoops on each corner as well. OOoooh! These caused me to have quite a serious trouser accident  obligatory arty one, lol;  Not to be outdone, even the "stock" TVR there, this T350C...  ..made up for it's borderline mundanity (like, not!) by doing the most bonkers, smokiest burnouts possible!  Good job I brought the Bat-smoke-screen, Robin! They'll never find us in here!  Unfortunately, the Council continue to be utter  -pots and kept the middle tier of the prom shut this year again. Allegedly they reckon it's because it's not safe for large numbers of people (though it seemed fine when they left it open for the Olympics events here). This means that despite the valiant efforts of the B&HMC to expand the viewing areas around the start line, there's only so much spectator space available. TBH, in previous years it was rammed even with the balcony open, so no surprise you have to be willing to fight, or patient enough to wait, for a space to become available at the front. As I had to get to work and was rather pressed for time I didn't get anywhere near enough action shots of the actual runs. Brighton and Hove Council, sort it the **** out. If it's really that dangerous, make it bloody safe. If it's not, open it up. You're ruining it for everyone. [/RANT] Right, now the ugly bit's over with...how about something nice and calming. Like maybe a supercharged Riley Falcon  with a blower about the same size as the engine itself! (Note the owner checking the tyres and apparently a similar age to the car itself. Dude!)  Perhaps the pics so far have skewed towards presenting the event as something for road and modified cars, but this isn't the case at all. These do make up the bulk, but they also rub shoulders with plenty of dedicated competition machinery, such as this Van Dieman. I've a serious amount of lust for this; the entire thing is raw carbon fibre. Lovely!  and single-seaters like this Pilbeam exploit their excellent traction and power-to-weight ratios to consistently be amonst the fastest cars each year  Not sure if this is the exact car, but certainly a Pilbeam (if not this one) has been fastest overall in several years' Trials. Admittedly, the awesome and absurd Gold Puma did monster everything a few years running by hitting consistent nines, but that wasn't here this year  The track machinery is where some mad innovation can be found, too, such as in this CCS Force from SJS Motorcycles here slumbering under it's umbrella  Yeah, very nice with it's O.Z. lightweight competition wheels and it's carbon tub bodywork peeking through the paint, but what's a bike shop doing with a four-wheeler then?  Quite simply, it's driven by TWO Suzuki Hayabusa GSX1300R engines, giving it a 2.6 litre displacement over eight cylinders, and a rev range of about 11000 rpm. Cool enough for ya? It's certainly quick!  |
| |
|
|
luckyseven
Posted a lot
Owning sneering dismissive pedantry since 1970
Posts: 3,839
Club RR Member Number: 45
|
|
Sept 15, 2012 23:01:54 GMT
|
Since we're on the subject of bike engines, shall we have some bikes? Yeah, why not? First, a sad announcement and whilst we all know the old cliche that motorsport is dangerous, no-one wants this to happen; www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-sussex-19544273R.I.P. I'm not 100% but I'm pretty sure that this is the outfit in question that crashed with such tragic consequences;  If so, it's a real shame as far as the machine's concerned as well, because it's been one of my favourites at the Speed Trials for a long time. I love the barn-door engineering of it, the way it's completely different to any other sidecar outfit.... and the CB1100XX Blackbird engine, of course. Sad times  Right, on to more cheerful stuff, and here's another outfit, a solo running with ballast rather than passenger. Considering that's an extremely valuable old Vincent in there somewhere, it's great to see it being treated with utter heresy!  What an excellent hairy-arsed loon. Salutations, sir!  Just for contrast, here's a static pic of Stevenage's finest engineering product, the work of art that is a Vincent twin;  In fact, as I mentioned earlier, wandering past the "customer" bike park can produce as many gems as the pits. For example  yeah, it's been resto-ed, but this would appear to be an original Kawasaki Z900, the project codenamed New York Steak and designed specifically to royally p*** on Honda's bonfire; once the Flying H revelaed the birth of the new Superbike with it's CB750-4 (which was like the moon landings in it's day), Kwak unrolled it's vastly superior male member in the shape of an extra 150ccs of four-cylinder man-muscle and the Big Zed slid into endless biking folklore. If you're a Hahhhhhhnda fan you'll probably see it different.... but you'll be wrong lol  but not wishing to seem partisan (oddly, I've probably owned more Hondas than any other make of vehicle, despite never quite falling in love...) here's the aforementioned original superbike, a CB750  also found randomly wedged in a bit of the bike park  Back to the competition stuff, and here's a strange take on the trike/sidecar ethic; the "Bishop" Trevor Duckworth's bonkers "cyclecar" powered by a Yam LC two-stroke engine with rather tumescent expansion chambers! Glorious insanity  As always, outfit crew are amongst the maddest motorsport competitors. Outright bravery to dangle with your face inches away from fast-moving tarmac, even on more civilised machines like this Triumph TBird  Think the owner of this GSXR oil-boiler knows a thing or two about burnouts  Bit of fettling between practice runs. Appropriately, three hands required for working on this BSA Rocket 3!  This fella requires massive respect; he's a paraplegic and thus has no use of his legs. Getting on the bike requires some assistance... and some velcro  but once he's on he's the same as every other competitor, he just needs a hand to keep the bike upright while staging! He does trackdays, too. Hard man. Also pulled the most mahoosivest minging wheelie of the day, which I failed utterly to get a pic of. Nuff respec'  Here's somethin a wee bit spesh;  Yeah, "only" a 350cc twin, not a full-fat 500-four, but when was the last time you saw a real MV Agusta (not an ersatz, plastic, rebadged Ducati?)  Brutal simplicity  This translates broadly as "WE won loads more world championships than YOU, nyah nyah nayh". And yeah, the competition was on decades-obsolete Norton twins and embryonic J complexities, and yeah, Agusta could afford the best riders like Agostini, but damn they did win a lot of championships!  Back in the day when the stock factory frames and running gear were like bendy liquorice glued together with pigeon curse word, the art of the bespoke chassis builder was much sought-after. Dresda were probably most famous for re-hanging Triumphs and Nortons and such, but here's one with a CB750-4 Honda heartbeat   |
| |
|
|
luckyseven
Posted a lot
Owning sneering dismissive pedantry since 1970
Posts: 3,839
Club RR Member Number: 45
|
|
Sept 15, 2012 23:02:52 GMT
|
The gayest emblem ever on any vehicle ever? The Douglas "Coo-eee" Highlander  Here's a bit of a thing  A genuine Ducati Corse Desmosiedici. This is a racing Grand Prix bike for the road, a limited edition monster. It's the equivalent of errr....I dunno, who the hell drives for Ferrari nowadays? Alonso is it? trundling down the prom in his F1 car with a couple of Cibies nailed to the nosecone and a number plate velcroed on the back. Mmmm, carbon fibre digi dash  Here it is launching, and who can blame the rider for not trying to get all the 197 horses down in one go (note flat angle on throttle wrist, lol). Like, farrrrk, there are plenty of cars here that produce less power than that!  And just like London buses, don't see one for ages and then two come along all at once. Here's one in the bike park as I was walking off to go to work. Dude was just parking up his road-going Desmosedici RR. Like, what are the odds  This made me chuckle and gained my respect at the same time.  at first glance it looks like some old Triton-styled thing, maybe a Norton featherbed frame with an archetypal caff-racer tank. Look a bit closer and you see how well it flatters to deceive  Yep, it's the archetypal despatch hack that Hahhhhnda weirdly decided to make into their flagship Grand Tourer mid-eighties to combat the other J manufacturer's craze for turbocharging. Kawasaki had the GPz750, Suzuki the surreally ugly XN850 and Yamaha the Seca (an pretty name for a dullard XJ650 drone). Honda, being Honda, went mad and chose the least suitable platform in their range, the opposed-twin CX650, in it's indescribably hideous Eurostyle faired form. Why? Because they were the biggest bike manufacturer in the world, because they damned well could and because ol' Soichiro had instilled a culture of making things their way despite any exterior pressures. The resulting bike was grotesquely ugly, like gag a buzzard ugly, and too heavy, compromised by wretched suspension with nonsensical anti-dive and heavy Comstar splitrims. It didn't handle any better than the stock camel-on-ice of the original "Plastic Maggot" CXs but now had turbo lag thrown in for added shats and giggles. And a huge "OBRUT" sticker on the front fairing so anyone could read in their rearview mirror what they were about to be rear-ended by as the turbo spooled up at the wrong moment and the rider found how lacking the feeble brakes were. Awesome, the eighties rocked. This one may well be just as bizarre to ride, but it done't arf look a hell of a lot better than when it left Japan  This dude was one of my heroes of the day, riding his bizzarre De Dion Bouton tricycle thing  He got a huge cheer as he staged it, and an even bigger one as it became clear he had to pedal it up to a certain speed to get the damned thing to actually fire and run under it's own power. I can't tell you the time he ran, my sundial ran out of batteries  I've always had a thing for two strokes, the smell, the crackle of the spannies, the knife-edge of traction and reliability, the addictive hit of the powerband and involuntary wheelies. I suspect it's one of the reasons I graduated to rotary cars, which have a lot of similarities. Here's one of the original 2T widowmakers, the Kawasaki H1 500 triple. Mad bonkers engine in a bendy frame, forks the diameter of your little finger and brakes that made more noise than friction. Hard  And this is the one that started the love for me, a Yamaha RD LC. Beautiful purity. I had a YPVS 350 that broke my heart, my wallet and scared me stupid most of the time, but by God what a bike when it worked! All hail Elsie!  This old dude was running a Honda GP racer, though I suspect it's a replica  maybe not, it's certainly some kind of Honda four, listed as a CR in the programme, but whether it's a lightly-breathed 500-4 or the genuine deal I dunno. Lets just say it's a very rare thing to find a genuine one outside a museum. But it does look mighty fine  Another of Stevenage's finest, a Vinnie twin with an Egli-built chassis  As you'd expect the modern superbikes are the ones that truly trouble the timesheets. Plenty of modded dragsters with long swingarms, forced induction and NOS systems rock up. This GSXR thou is only lightly breathed, but when they make around 180 brake as stock out the box... well you can see why it's still spinning well into the launch!  Richard Albarn of TTS Tuning brought along the dragger's weapon of choice, a Hayabusa GSX1300R, modified in the TTS idiom with a Rotrex centrifugal supercharger  hanging off their usual excellent bespoke engineering. Mmmm, milled billet, lovely  This beastly pink Busa was the fastest thing I saw all morning, even in practice it was putting down 9.4somethings at 160something mph  You have a bike like this, you paint it whatever colour you damned well please  A break from the Suzuki grunt came in the form of this Italian stallion. Although not much 916 elegance left, this Duke still cuts quite a dash  |
| |
|
|
luckyseven
Posted a lot
Owning sneering dismissive pedantry since 1970
Posts: 3,839
Club RR Member Number: 45
|
|
Sept 15, 2012 23:04:01 GMT
|
Back on four wheels, then, and back with the American muscle. This time a v10 truck engine with a minimal amount of sportscar wrapped around it  the convertible too. Noice  oddly, two of my favourite cars there were the same car, separated by several years. Here's one  A second-gen late sixties Corvette, immaculately finished. This was simply the "support vehicle" for one of the bike teams, how awesome is that!  Hmmm, those Americans and their rocket-power motifs!  Interior's just perfect; twin cockpit pods like a fighter plane, Hurst shifter, big symetrica instruments in the dash, that weird vertical Corvette tape deck...  ...and here's the other;  a First-gen 1962 (I think) Corvette  I love this car. It's just a perfect size, shape and style. I love the details, the way the seats are sculpted into the very bodywork  the way that despite the evident restoration, original pieces and their wear have been left to add character  I love the insane Art Deco movie theatre of a dashboard  I love the subtle (for a Yanktank) use of chrome detailing to bring out the shapes  And most of all I just love the way it looks... right  Mmmm  Sorry, was I going on a bit then? Ooops. Have one of Hinckley's finest to make up for it  coming at you from out of the wilds of Leicestershire, an Ultima  A self assembly tupperware torpedo (or turnkey version for those with more money than time) on a spaceframe alloy chassis. Looks pretty well though, doesn't it?  I got told off for describing the GTR as ugly in a good way on my W&W thread, so I was trying to find the angles on this Cantrac one. Hmmm, getting there. Looks nice and cosy, anway  |
| |
|
|
luckyseven
Posted a lot
Owning sneering dismissive pedantry since 1970
Posts: 3,839
Club RR Member Number: 45
|
|
Sept 15, 2012 23:05:24 GMT
|
Some scattered quick looks around now, first up one of my favourite cars of any genre, of any time  Nice to see this Dodge '47 coupe back here after it utterly destroyed its rear axle here last year. MurderDeathKill looks and more grunt than a Swedish porno  A pair of supercharged V8s from different ends of the Island... a Coventry Jag built by Ford and designed by a Newport Pagnell ex-Aston bloke, and a American GM Vauxhall from Luton as built by Australian Holden dudes.. not forgetting that Vauxhall have essentially been Opels for some while now. Christ, this modern age is complicated innit. Err... here's an XKR-S and a Monaro VXR  Sense of humour included. Love to know what wax he uses, too. Damn, it's shiny!  W-I-I-I-I-I-D-E Mini  A Noble from before they started adding three noughts to the end of the pricetag  Morgan four-seater looked ...well, it looked like every other Morgan except the ones with glaucoma from the front. Looked slightly clumsy from the back where the extra seats dragged it out a bit  Oooh  Oh god, yes  That's it, I'm there. D-Type is straight-up gorgeous any which way you look at it  Don't see too many of these lying around  Anyone who recognised a Davrian 7, Wales' supercar offering, give yourself a credit and a big shiny gold star at the end of the week. Rare beast!  Cossie! 'Scort! Top bombing!  Cossie errr Caterham!  Or whatever it actually is. Lotus 7 derivative anyway. Must be downright terrifying when it comes on-boost, sitting an inch off the floor in a car weighing the same as Heather Mills' left leg  and some more Caterham tidyness, world's shiniest shiny zorst meets carbon mudguard goodness  More 'scort tidy engine room  Every Harris-engined Escort I've ever seen has been similarly immaculate. They must refuse to work on or supply parts for cars you couldn't eat your dinner off or something  |
| |
|
|
luckyseven
Posted a lot
Owning sneering dismissive pedantry since 1970
Posts: 3,839
Club RR Member Number: 45
|
|
Sept 15, 2012 23:06:30 GMT
|
I suppose this was inevitable, really;  Looks like a pretty tidy RX-7 FD, got some nice bits like Blitz Technospeed splitrims, carbon bootlid, Big Gay Wing, late-model front bumper, etc. Gets off the line well  One look at the camel's leg gear lever should give you the wink something's not as God and Mazda intended though  Ahhhh...  yeah, it's got one of those horrid reciprocating things under the bonnet  To be fair to the owner, he's done the work himself and to a really high standard, so kudos for that. Whatever your personal take on de-rotarising rotaries, I respect the engineering skill and sheer balls it takes to do this to one  Even if it is sacriledge hahaha So while we're on a roll, here's another  Andy Embling (papercup's) immaculate, and I do mean immaculate LS-engined FD  As modified by the incomparable Craig (Tinker-27), fabrication guru at DynoTorque up in Brum. How Andy keeps it so pristine when it's been apart more often than...well, than my one, even... and it's visited the gravel at Snetterton where there are no slow places to crash (sorry, mate) is beyond me. But you have to admit, it's pretty nice  even with the Willday-spec green drag wheels up t'back lol. Lets concentrate on the front end then. Here's the man himself fiddling tyre pressures trying to get any sort of traction from the front tyres given the hot conditions and stupidly grunty drivetrain  and a glimpse at the interior. Have to admit, the clock conversion to twin digi gauges is one I've often wanted to do myself (never had the money) because it's just so neat. And the stock FD gauges are just so pointlessly inaccurate. Not in this pic, but Craig proves it is possible to do an LS-conversion and not end up with a gearstick like a DAF truck  Gets down the road well. Here are the Willday-spec drag tyres failing to cope...  It's a shame to have to post two such pretty FDs and both to be non-rotary. Maybe someone needs to step up and join the B&HMC and redress the balance? |
| |
|
|
luckyseven
Posted a lot
Owning sneering dismissive pedantry since 1970
Posts: 3,839
Club RR Member Number: 45
|
|
Sept 15, 2012 23:07:24 GMT
|
Here's another rare old thing  "Yeah," you think. "It's a big, obsolete MG they never actually made any of. And?" This is actually far more exotic than that. Its platform came fromt he DeTomaso Bigua, then made into the Mangusta Qvale and finally any that were left were turned into this 'ere MG Sports Veloce (SV). Even that part is more exotic than you'd think, being essentially manufactured in Modena. Yes, that Modena, in Italy. Where Fezzas come from, yep. Then boated gently across to Blighty to be finished off in Darkest Longbridge, God rest her soul  Now maybe you understand why it looks so mad. It was designed by the legendary Peter Stevens and financed by the Riley family (yeah, like the Riley earlier on in this thread, pay attention at the back) after the XPower funding went tits up. It's got as a minumum a 320bhp Ford v8. It's got an epic offset/diameter fail on the wheels, but just look at it! It's a mad, mad thing and I loves it. My precioussss  and because it's a car built at Longbridge on Italian underpinnings, it really needs that emergency switch on the dash. Yeah, most modern motors have a switch with a warning triangle on it for the hazards. This actually has a switch with "Emergency" written on it and a picture of a lowloader, that's how confident they are that it will break down. But I still want! Here's another car that's at the Speed Trials most years, and I never tire of taking pics of. A true Italian thoroughbred  Maserati Monza. Even the name is evocative of motorsport heritage and heroic leather-helmeted racing heroes in the days when legends were still within grasp  bloody hell, it's a bit gorgeous too, innit?   While we're on Italian stuff, here's one slightly less thoroughbred, perhaps. But maybe not much more common  most of these have long since returned to the soil  in fact, if you listen carefully to this pic you can actually hear this GTV rusting and the strange scraping noise of its wiring turning back into free-foating copper ions bereft of earthly bonds  lol, I love Alfas.  |
| |
|
|
|
|
luckyseven
Posted a lot
Owning sneering dismissive pedantry since 1970
Posts: 3,839
Club RR Member Number: 45
|
|
Sept 15, 2012 23:08:05 GMT
|
I guess many people have passing acquiantance with the name of Nadine Geary, who's Viper was a regular contender at events like the Speed Trials and Ten Of The Best for years. It would appear the fastest nurse in the West has moved up the game a notch or few  because she now seems to be driving a Peter Brock-designed Shelby Cobra Coupe  and that's a beautiful, beautiful thing in anyone's language  lol, nice calming cockpit there, then  Typically Brock styling; curve-curve-curve-deadstop rear end!  Opposite side of the Pond, equally legendary motorsport icon. Sierra errrr... Cosworth?  Holy cow! Most of us would be satisfied with "just" a YB!  Yet another legendary Ford, the one that launched a thousand furry dice. You racin' Essex rules now, blud  I have a lot of love for this, smells like me spirit. Only young  Pristine prep, top-notch engineering on everything right down to the cage. Excellent period Nurburgring decal too  and that engine. Oh, my my  What, can there be any more cool Fords? Well, now you mention it...  Hahaha, I must have taken that pic (or versions thereof) a few times now over the years. Yeah, a replica (ain't they all, see "Cobra" above) but very, very nice. And two inches shorter than a Lotus Europa  And still on the subject of cool Fords, here. Have a Focus RS. Nice. Mad, but nice  ...and, there was just one other  I think this is the exact same Fairlane as I snapped at W&W but it probably bears repeating   What? A race-car that doesn't even have a tacho? What were they thinking?  Here's the brash, rude American blue-collar bloke showering the aesthetic, elegant Italian with burnout rubber  ... which leads us neatly back to Italian exotica. Lancia have to be at any proper street motorsport event, and this beauty doesn't disappoint  One of these days I have to make time to check out the white Fulvia in the scrappy under the arches at Elephant and Castle. When they look this fantastic, who wouldn't want one?  This Balilla Fiat was another car where the owner looked like he was of a similar (considerable!) age to his car   |
| |
|
|
luckyseven
Posted a lot
Owning sneering dismissive pedantry since 1970
Posts: 3,839
Club RR Member Number: 45
|
|
Sept 15, 2012 23:10:03 GMT
|
Hmm. Well, there was just one other bit of Italiana that stood out a tiny bit as being... well, just a bit cool Wanna play the guessing game?  Yeah, easy one innit?  OMG, it's only the Frari, the one that all who came before were finding their feet and all that came after were tinsel for idiots with more money than taste  In my world anyway. And it's my thread, so I must be right. Anyway, in my humble opinion, this is the ultimate expression of sportscar purity  They built it to do a job, and do it as well as was possible and what it looked like came a distant second. Of course, being Italian, it just happened to come out looking bleeding amazing  Remember Clarkson frothing himself into a lather about it? About how the paint was sooooooo thin to save weight you could see the carbon fibre weave through it?  There you go, then. Wow, Clarkson accurate about something shock. Who'd have thought? lol. It's certainly got shock and awe from every angle   The cockpit is devoid of the glitz and glamour modern Ferrari buyers seem to demand, it's motorsport-understated, black alacantara and flock to deaden glare, very driver-focussed binnacle.. and nothing else. The carbon fibre of the tub is enough to arrest my attention, but you can't see that when you're sitting in it. The owner said he got it from one of the Frosts, who'd bought it for his son. Said son was too chubby to comfortably fit the cabin, so it was sold on at a great price. Y'know, if I was too tubby to fit an F40 that was bought for me, I'd ****ing well diet!  This is the informality of the Speed Trials; owner can afford an F40 but pushes it to the line himself with the help of his wife! Lol at the fat hillbilly dude in the hi-viz and fag hanging from his gob pretending to help push!  The world's most elegant sledgehammer  |
| |
|
|
luckyseven
Posted a lot
Owning sneering dismissive pedantry since 1970
Posts: 3,839
Club RR Member Number: 45
|
|
Sept 15, 2012 23:11:04 GMT
|
Hmmm, might be a tiny bit tough to follow that one... It'll have to be a quick whistlestop of the oddments left in my Photobucket then to tidy things up. How about a rather nice Jaaaaaaaaaag?  Proving Viper Stripes do work on almost anything lol. Y'know, we've careered all over the world in automotive style during this thread, but like so many of my reports there's a lack of anything from Ze Germans. I can;t help it, it's my fault as much as anything, but they just don't make cars that move me (I had a MkI Golf once, and that rarely worked well enough to move me either). But I think I might have finally found a BMW that speaks to me in a voice of angels  I'll content myself with thinking of it as a Frazer-Nash, who manufactured their own cars long before they became BMW importer and even longer before they became Porsche importer.  Nahhh, only kidding, it's downright gorgeous!  I suppose the squashed beetle enthusiasts will be clamouring now, so just for you, here's the chubby bum of one of Hitler's favourite sportscars  A little respect now, if you will. You might never heard of them, but Alta used to be a British great white hope pre-war in the days of small-volume entrepeneurs developing their own grand prix cars  So now you know, it can wear its patina of age with pride lol  Speaking of respect, you have to respect anyone who takes their Bentley Arnage out to waft along the drag strip in airconditioned turbocharged woodpanelled seven litre glory  I guess this is a bit like bringing a ballerina to a line-dance, but however far from its metier this Alpine is, it still looks wonderful  and this is a bit like bringing a bare-knuckle boxer to a ballet;  This 7.5 litre Allard J2 has been timed at a genuine 197 mph. The owner lists his occupation as "pensioner". Fantastic. Ugly as sin, GSOH, stupidly fast. Only in Britain  One of the defining images of the day;  And speaking of Great British eccentricities, here's another, the predeliction for taking hugely inappropriate engines and wedging them into tiny cars  This is apparently a Cirrus Special. I presume the Cirrus refers to the engine, which would appear to be derived from a Cirrus aeroplane engine!  I've absolutely no idea what the poor little car it's wedged almost into was, but you'd have to say the engine is barely "in", hanging out all over the place  carbs on the outside, too  and even quite a large amount of it seems to intrude into the cockpit as well! Bellhousing footrest, anyone? Gotta love any car with a steering wheel wider than the bodywork!  And on this final piece of glorious madness, we're done. It might not have the massive presence of the Napier Bentley, or the sheer organ-rearranging speed of the Railton, or the beautiful fit and finish of the Handlye Rolls, but someone cared enough about their vision to wedge this aircraft engine into their car, and that marvellous dancing on the cusp between insanity and glory is what made this nation of eccentric genius heroes as wonderful and diverse as it is, and for that alone I'd say this is a properly fitting end to my humble tale  So, I wend my way up the hill to the station and another day's work in the horrific drudgery of driving trains, forcing a way in the heat through the hordes of fat, orange sunscreen-scented proles who were blundering around bucolically looking for the latest styles in chic Brighton boutiques (or Primark). Never knowing the motoring nirvana taking place just a few hundred yards from their swealtering carcasses, I left them to ravenously pursue their tedious lives sinking into the mire of utter averageness. But my day was good, my day was different. For that brief sundrenched morning I'd seen behind that thin curtain into something better, something with heritage and passion and fire in its belly, and it would keep me and help me through the night to come. And now you know, too... That's it, I'm spent. Thanks for looking in as always. Now go away |
| |
Last Edit: Sept 15, 2012 23:15:20 GMT by luckyseven
|
|
OVY871
Part of things
Owner of Austin A35 Saloon
Posts: 322
Club RR Member Number: 66
|
|
Sept 15, 2012 23:32:42 GMT
|
Brilliant read and pictures, thank you for sharing that I really enjoyed looking at them all  |
| |
|
|
EmDee
Club Retro Rides Member
Committer of Autrocities.
Posts: 5,934
Club RR Member Number: 108
|
|
Sept 16, 2012 0:03:48 GMT
|
A great day out (amazing weather), I won't post any of my pics because you have done such a great job and I think most of mine are pretty similar  |
| |
Last Edit: Sept 16, 2012 0:06:14 GMT by EmDee
|
|
Seth
South East
MorrisOxford TriumphMirald HillmanMinx BorgwardIsabellaCombi
Posts: 15,542
|
|
Sept 16, 2012 0:34:53 GMT
|
Really excellent report and photos. Next best thing to being there. |
| |
Follow your dreams or you might as well be a vegetable. |
|
|
|
|
Sept 16, 2012 7:14:38 GMT
|
|
Cheers mega post
|
| |
MK5 Transit MK1 capri
|
|
Graham
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,282
|
|
Sept 16, 2012 7:15:34 GMT
|
|
excellent report
|
| |
Maximum signature image height: 80 pixels
|
|
|
|
|
Sept 16, 2012 8:18:18 GMT
|
|
Superb, great writeup, captures the atmosphere brilliantly. Makes my pics seem rubbish!
|
| |
1968 Volvo 142S
1969 Volvo 164
1987 Volvo 240 Estate (Sold)
1971 Triumph 2500 Estate
|
|
jamesv
Part of things
Posts: 207
|
|
Sept 16, 2012 8:59:33 GMT
|
|
brilliant work, felt like I'd been there myself, i managed to miss it again, despite only live 10 minutes away...
|
| |
James,
Mk1 Golf 16v ITB'd, RS's, TT interior - in bits
Affalterbach tweaked CLK - commuter mobile
And a couple of GSXR's
|
|
|
|
