Valve Bounce

Triumph TR6 - A real old barge

Also on the streets on Notting Hill was this Triumph TR6 with an interesting and quite unique accessory.

Is it hiding some aquatic capability??

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Mercedes-Benz 220SE Cabriolet - hanging on in there

The back streets of Notting Hill have featured this 220SE Cabriolet for a long time. It's parked in the street and always looks just slightly dilapidated. There's a rich honest patina but it looks basically sound and complete.

It seems quite at home in its boho surroundings. It must have seen some sights over the years...

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3D Copiers and Printers - They Will Save Your Old Car Forever

I'm not kidding... 3D coping and printing has got to be the most significant bit of technology produced in the classic car world in the last 50 years.

The possibilities are endless, only limited by your imagination. As Jay Leno says...

If you had a one-off Ferrari engine, you could scan each part and then re-create the entire motor. Right now, we’re scanning a Duesenberg body. It’s a classic example of high tech melding with old tech. There are cars sitting in garages around the country, and they haven’t moved in years for lack of some unobtainable part. Now they can hit the road once more, thanks to this technology.

My 1907 White engine would never have run again because its slide valve (or D-valve) was shot. We built that part, and now the car is back on the street.

Astonishing.

Merry Christmas

TR4 Pedal Pumping

During a recent visit to the Ikon gallery in Birmingham I came across an art film featuring a Triumph TR4 and a very peculiar niche interest, Pedal Pumping. The artist Matias Faldbakken has an exhibition running until the 28 January. As they say...

'Untitled (Pedal Pumping) (2009, with Lars Brekke), one of a number of video pieces in the exhibition, shows a girl’s flip-flop-clad foot repeatedly depressing the accelerator pedal of a car. Having uploaded it to YouTube, the video was quickly viewed thousands of times, appealing particularly to the car-pedal-fetishist underground. Faldbakken’s interest lies in transforming defnitions of what is normative and what is marginal, subcultural or rebellious, reducing the distance between them.'

I never knew there was a 'car-pedal-fetishist underground' it takes all sorts...I hope you enjoy it.

Bella Italian Morris Minor Traveller

Daily drivers Rome edition number 2. This Morris Traveller is probably the height of sophistication in Rome high society, forget your fancy Lancias and Maseratis. BMC is where the smart money is.

Spotted on a Rome backstreet with some very exotic badges on the rear, it's obviously well travelled and seen some action over the years.

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Fiat 500s in Rome

It's daily drivers Rome edition. Guess what there are lots of Fiat 500s in Rome.

I was particularly impressed by their battered state and some of the rust patterns which approached works of art, quite heart warming.

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Old Mercedes-Benz, do they really go on forever?

I spotted this postcard earlier in the week. An illustration of the Woody Allen quote "Eternity is a long time, especially towards the end". What else could you possibly use to illustrate that quote?

Available in the UK from Cath Tate Cards.

Steve McQueen's Ferrari 250 GT Berlinetta Lusso

It it must have been the most expensive car at the NEC Classic Car show last week, Chris Evans only brought his Ferrari 250 GT LWB California Spyder not the £5m SWB version, and it certainly was one of the most evocative.  Steve McQueen's 250 Lusso was a mere $2.3m a few years ago and is now apparently living in the UK.

What strikes you first of all is the audacity and confidence that must have inspired the colour scheme, the paint is a medium-brown metallic hue called Marrone. This is decidedly unconventional in a world where most 250s are red, some are a conservative navy or possibly, if courageous, canary yellow. However, it works beautifully, especially with the beige leather interior; in the flesh it looks elegant and tastefully understated.

The book McQueen's Machines does a good job of describing the story behind the car. Apparently it was purchased by his wife for his 34th birthday and cost $14k. It features the same v-12 configuration as the 250 GT/SWB and GTO with three 36-DCS Webers giving around 250bhp. McQueen owned it for three years and sold it after his attempts to stop it burning oil failed. The valve guides would wear quickly and even after a rebuild the problem persisted. Oh the joys of Ferrari ownership.

Photo (c) Watson Family Archives

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Another Bugatti - a Veyron this time - lifted from the depths of a lake

In perfect symmetry with a story from earlier this year when a 1920s Bugatti was lifted from the depths of an Italian lake.  It's happened again, only this time in Galveston USA, and it was pulled it out a little sooner this time.

From the Galveston Daily News:

The two-seater, with 16 cylinders and four turbo chargers, can reach speeds of more than 250 mph. New models sell for about $2 million.

The man, who refused to give his name, was looking at real estate in Galveston.

About 3 p.m. a low-flying pelican distracted him as he travelled north on Interstate 45 just south of the hurricane levee near Omega Bay.

The man jerked the wheel, dropped his cell phone, and the car's front tire left the frontage road and entered a muddy patch, which foiled his attempt to manoeuvre away from the lagoon.

The Veyron's powerful engine gurgled like an outboard motor for about 15 minutes before it died.

Just how stupid would that make you feel...

NEWS FLASH....amazingly someone just happened to be filming it when it crashed, see if you can spot the pelican (and I'm not quite sure why they thought it was a' Lambo'!).