Valve Bounce

Rover P4 on the streets

Lovey old Rover P4 spotted in the City of London recently...

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Fixing Things Feels Good

How will all these old cars and bike survive in the future? Are there enough people interested to keep them going? This lovely short film from Andrew David Watson poses a few questions about who is going to carry on the legacy.

Adam Cramer runs a shop looking after old motorbikes and he has some forthright views on the nature of work and how this will develop in years to come. It ties in nicely with the book 'The Case for Working with your Hands' by Matthew Crawford which questions just what a good job is and what makes it worthwhile and satisfying.

Give that Adam Cramer a series...

Bethnal Green Spitfire

What happened to the all the Triumph Spitfires? They used to be everywhere and now you never see them. Except today we did a nice Mk 1. in rather dilapidated state and definitely not a daily driver but it was nice to see...  Nice original body and interior, although those twin exhausts usually mean there's been a 6 cylinder inserted.

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Moggy and the Morris Minor Millennium Company

A nice mini-documentry about the Morris Minor Millennium Company, based in South Manchester.

via Ralf Becker

Farringdon Mercedes Fintale

Spotted in Farringdon this weekend a fetching Mercedes-Benz 230S in matt grey. Fintales do seem to be getting popular with the Islington set. This one has a French licence plate the body is in reasonable condition and the paint has an incredible matt finish which must have taken years of open air neglect. I thoroughly approve. Also spotted in Bethnal Green a slammed W123 coupe but it got away...

 

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The trusty A30 engine

  From The Motor 1952.

Tara Browne's AC Cobra Art Car and Swinging London

Tara Browne gained immortality by being the inspiration behind The Beatles' "A Day In The Life".  His father was a member of the House of Lords and his mother a Guinness heiress. In London in the swinging sixties he was one of the best connected socialites. But unfortunately in 1966 he met a grizzly end at the wheel of his Lotus Elan when he lost control at over 100mph whilst driving through South Kensington.  At his side was the model Suki Poitier, amazingly she was not hurt.

 John Lennon saw the story in the Daily Mail and penned these lines for the first verse of the song.

He blew his mind out in a car,
He didn't notice that the lights had changed,
A crowd of people stood and stared,
They'd seen his face before,
Nobody was really sure
If he was from the House of Lords.

Tara most definitely had love of fast sports cars and one that he owned really caught my eye. This was his AC Cobra that he commissioned the Pop Art collective Binder, Edwards & Vaughan (BEV) to paint for him. 

BEV were very well know around town in the sixties and worked with many of the major pop stars of the time including Paul and Ringo of the Beatles. They produced all sorts of work; they painted murals in and on houses, they designed furniture, and they customized cars.

“A car by Binder Edwards & Vaughan an assisted ready-made is a neo-Dada contribution to polychrome sculpture.”
Robert Melville in the ‘New Statesman’

 I think I know what you mean...

I've only found pictures of two cars that got the BEV treatment; Tara's Cobra, and also a 1960 Convertible Buick Electra which was used in many publicity shots and also featured on this Kinks album cover.

The Cobra, the Buick  plus a ubiquitous 'must have' Mini are also featured in this Pathe new reel. It shows the Cobra being rather precariously driven out of Robert Fraser's art gallery in Mayfair with Tara at the wheel. What a sight that must have been (when I watch this I do expect to see Austin Powers drive around the corner in his union jack painted E-Type).

 

 The cars where hand painted panel by panel as this quote from Dudley Edwards explains;

The preparation for all our work was the same. We began with a few coats of gesso which we then sanded down to a glass like finish. We would mix household gloss paint with Flamboyant Enamel (the paint used by fairground painters). This gave us a wide range of strong vibrant colours. The quality of finish was really evident on our next venture – customised cars. We didn’t expect anyone to take the risk of having their cars painted without first seeing an example, so, to set the ball rolling we decided to paint our own; this was a Convertible 60 Buick Electra . Nowadays, designers of contemporary customised cars, treat every side of the car two dimensionally, by dismantling the panels before working on them independently; like flat airbrushed artwork on a drawing board. In contrast we worked by hand directly onto the vehicle, paying respect to the lines and curves, so that the work would be seen as an integral part of the whole.

There have been some great 'art cars' in recent years especially notable is the BMW art car project which has commisioned big names like Hockney,Warhol and Koons. I saw the rather vulgar Hornsleth Lamborgini at the 2010 Silverstone Classic and a 1975 BMW 3.3Li painted by Dexter Brown was at the Chelsea Auto Legends show and is currently for sale. I'd not heard of the BEV cars before and I do hope something of them survived, it would be great to see them again, and they really do sum up a great time in London.

TR perfection in the early morning sun

That's Ferrari 250 TR naturally...a early morning shot from last years Chelsea Auto Legends event.

1963 TR4 in the Alpine Rally

The 1963 Alpine rally may have been a bit disastrous for the TR team; Vic Elford crashed out from third place, Jean-jacques Thuner retired, and Mike Sutcliffe had an off. But just look at the scenery!

Mercedes-Benz 280SL complete with mannequins

We spotted this 280SL at the weekend under cover in the new Spitalfields Market shopping area. It looked like quite a decent car that had been imported from the states, it was adorned with a few colourful stickers to promote the clothes shop where it was parked. 

I wonder if this is a brilliant ruse by the owner to get free indoor parking in the centre of London. I do hope it gets driven home every night.

 

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