BS: Some moments are just so right:-)

Subject: BS: Some moments are just so right:-)
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 10 May 07 - 08:44 AM

You know how life can deal you a bad hand every now and again. Well, she can also give you some belters! Sometimes it is the right song at the right time. Sometimes it is that picture postcard sunset. Occasionaly it comes out of nowhere and rocks you on your heels.

Last Sunday we visited the lovely village of Askrigg in Wensleydale. As Mrs P and I wandered round in search of food I experienced a time travel moment! Now, remember that Askrigg is the village used in the Heriott vet TV series. Parked up in the corner of the square was a perfect looking blue and white Austin Healey 3000 with the top down. Out of one the house emerged 2 chaps dressed in tweed flat caps and Barbour jackets. They got into the Healey and turned the engine over. The sound was unbelieveable. As they pulled away the driver gave us a cheery wave and a smile and I stopped until the roar of the exhaust became nothing but a muffled rumble.

Now, bear in mind I am no big fan of the infernal combustion engine and neither is Mrs P. We had parked up our Europasteurised mobile and would not have even noticed any of the new breed of supercar. But that moment left us both with a big grin and an ambition to drive round the English countryside in an old gas guzzler at least once in our lifetimes.

Anyone for high tea?

Cheers

Dave

Subject: RE: BS: Some moments are just so right:-)
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 10 May 07 - 09:02 AM

Just love going to Classic car shows for that reason...Healey 3000's and 100/6's....Please can you start and rev the engine for me?.....and you get that unmistakable roar....just like at the Waddington Airshow we get the unmistakable sound of the merlin engine when the spitfires fly over....bliss!.....I guess my favourite car sound ever comes from an original AC Cobra....would love to have one but will never have that kind of money.
Best wishes, Mike.

Subject: RE: BS: Some moments are just so right:-)
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 10 May 07 - 09:19 AM

I know what you mean about the aircraft as well, GS. Again, I am no aficionado but I was walking though Liverpool one weekend when what I am told were a Spitfire, a Hurricane and a Lancaster bomber ever so slowly flew past. They were only a couple of hundred feet up I guess and seemed to be moving at about 30mph! They were indeed magnificent and the noise was like nothing I had ever heard before. It

D.

Subject: RE: BS: Some moments are just so right:-)
From: Rapparee
Date: 10 May 07 - 09:29 AM

Friend of mine took his father to see a Spits flyover at the aerodrome outside Cambridge (lovely place, but at the moment I can't remember its name). Anyway, as SIX Spits flew over his father started to cry, remembering his friends who had also flown flown away but who never returned.

It was a moment when my friend really knew his father for the first time.

Subject: RE: BS: Some moments are just so right:-)
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 10 May 07 - 09:33 AM

One of those moments indeed, Rap. And a far deeper example:-)

Subject: RE: BS: Some moments are just so right:-)
From: Micca
Date: 10 May 07 - 10:05 AM

Rap, it was probably Duxford, which is now a "branch" of the Imperial War Mmseum. but was a Battle of Britain airfield

Subject: RE: BS: Some moments are just so right:-)
From: Little Hawk
Date: 10 May 07 - 12:13 PM

It's an amazing thing to hear and see those vintage airplanes in flight, no doubt about it. And the old time cars have a kind of magic about them too. The same goes for tall ships. They are all wonderful to see.

Subject: RE: BS: Some moments are just so right:-)
From: Mrrzy
Date: 10 May 07 - 12:14 PM

I am a personal fan of running boards.

Subject: RE: BS: Some moments are just so right:-)
From: Little Hawk
Date: 10 May 07 - 12:51 PM

Yeah, the cars of the late 30's were probably the coolest looking cars that ever existed, with their running boards, close-fitting hoods, and big flared fenders. Nothing beats a Deusenberg.

Subject: RE: BS: Some moments are just so right:-)
From: Ebbie
Date: 10 May 07 - 01:05 PM

Except perhaps a Duesenberg. :)

Subject: RE: BS: Some moments are just so right:-)
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 10 May 07 - 02:12 PM

SS100
Daimler Double-Six
4 1/2 litre Low Chassis Invicta
Any of the big vintage Bentleys (pre Rolls-Royce)
Hispano Suiza
Bugatti Royal

But the music of the 100/4 Healey was sweeter than the 100/6, and the Healey Alvis and the Healey Riley were lovely too.

I also love the sound of the TR2 to 4 series, and the Morgans using the same engine.

The MGB sounds great, but the MGA Twin Cam was really a nicer car (if a bit fragile)

For the 6-sylinder freaks, how about the MG Magna variations, and the XK series Jags?

Subject: RE: BS: Some moments are just so right:-)
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 10 May 07 - 03:23 PM

I forgot about the MGB..thanks for the reminder...drove a friends MGBGTV8 in the 70's...wow what a car and the sound of that was sort of.....delicious too. It also gave a huge feeling of the car having extreme power.

Subject: RE: BS: Some moments are just so right:-)
From: Little Hawk
Date: 10 May 07 - 04:02 PM

Right you are, Ebbie. (grin)

Man, there were so many neat car companies back then.

WWI planes have a lot of charm too. You could land or take off with them in any open field or flat area, no problem.

Subject: RE: BS: Some moments are just so right:-)
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 10 May 07 - 08:28 PM

I had a Healey 100/4 (it was originally a truck motor, you know!) for a while, but while it was in pieces waiting a new motor, my mum drove me to distraction so much that I just had to get rid of it. Saw one the other day - AUD$55,000.....

Subject: RE: BS: Some moments are just so right:-)
From: Gurney
Date: 11 May 07 - 01:19 AM

My first car was a 1938 AC open tourer, 2litre straight six with 3 SUs, cable brakes, auto chassis oiling, wire wheels, long bonnet and BIG headlamps, and 3 years older than I was.
Loved the car, all style and flair, dark blue, adjustable pneumatic seats (you blew them up to suit your bum) and the girls loved to cruise through town with the top down.

It broke my heart trying to run it as an only car, but now I wish I still had it. Taught me a LOT about cars, that one.

Subject: RE: BS: Some moments are just so right:-)
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 11 May 07 - 01:42 AM

To see six Spits flying simultaneously must have been incredible, and a sight never to be repeated... there are only half a dozen capable of independent flight left in the world, and one of them crashed a few years ago. The owner is working on getting it back airbourne, but it's a long job - you can't get the parts these days.

I get those petrol head feelings when I hear the roar of a Triumph Bonneville.... but these days it's more likely to be the thub thub thub of a Harley coming up behind me on the road.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Some moments are just so right:-)
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 11 May 07 - 04:04 AM

That, presumably, is the old parallel twin Bonnie.
The AJS and BSA (Goldie preferred) sounded good too, and just for sound the old sloper Panther was gorgeous (useless as a solo bike, good to pull a chair) but surely the king of the bike sounds was the Thruxton Venom, with the sharp bark of the exhaust melding with the insistent whine of the gearbox. Or maybe a Manx Norton.

Subject: RE: BS: Some moments are just so right:-)
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 11 May 07 - 04:49 AM

Same weekend we saw a Norton cruising down the main road in Wensleydale - Can't remember the model, single pot 500 cafe racer - Was that the Manx? A true prince amongst the plastic rockets intent on embeding themselves into drystone walls! The 'thrum' was so low that you could feel it rather than hear it!

Cheers

Dave

Subject: RE: BS: Some moments are just so right:-)
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 11 May 07 - 05:57 AM

I must say though that it wasn't just the noise that inspired the first post - It was the whole moment. Like looking into a living window of the past. Decidedly magical.

D.

Subject: RE: BS: Some moments are just so right:-)
From: HuwG
Date: 11 May 07 - 08:53 AM

My little brother once acquired and renovated a BSA C11 motorcycle(650cc, one cylinder, side valve, fired once every alternate lamppost). The original owner, an old boy whose riding days were far past him, threw in the riding gear for free; a Belstaff jacket, so stiff with lube oil and grease it felt like armour, lace-up gaitered boots, gauntlets. My brother drew the line at the po helmet (which was so ineffective as to be illegal anyway), but otherwise the ensemble and the "chug, chug, chug" exhaust note, caused many heads to turn when he took it to motorcycle events at Oliver's Mount near Scarborough and elsewhere.

He was forced to sell it when insurance rates rocketed. (This was around 1980, when large numbers of youthful riders were let loose on some very powerful 125cc machines, and were wrapping themselves around trees with increasing frequency. The insurance companies drove the young riders off the roads in advance of legislation, by making it almost impossible to obtain cover. Although my brother's machine would just about reach 65mph downhill with a following wind and the pillion passenger jumping off and pushing, the insurance people only saw the magic figure of 650cc and charged appropriately.)

When the first prospective buyer called in response to the newspaper advertisement, my brother was out and I was in the house (I was back from University on holiday.) The punter asked me to turn the engine over. I was confronted with a lever on the handlebars which manually advanced or retarded the ignition. Making a guess as to which way it went, I pushed it fully over and kick-started the bike. Seconds later I was on the floor, moaning. When the kick starter on a 650cc pot kicks back, you know all about it.

My father told me about a certain notorious British two-stroke vintage machine, the Matchless, which he once rode. When the ignition lever was pushed the wrong way, it was just possible for the engine to back-fire, and being a two stroke, continue running backwards. Unsuspecting riders would then put it in gear, let the clutch out; and hurtle backwards.

Subject: RE: BS: Some moments are just so right:-)
From: Schantieman
Date: 11 May 07 - 11:24 AM

Now THAT is funny!

Steve

Subject: RE: BS: Some moments are just so right:-)
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 11 May 07 - 11:34 AM

Ah, the Matchless..... memories of an uncle (well, really a distant cousin) shooting gravel at my granfers' barn doors by levering the wrong way.... and the day that he got the tin bath square on with a volley like the 1812 Overture.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Some moments are just so right:-)
From: frogprince
Date: 11 May 07 - 01:04 PM

Even with Duesenbergs, there are Duesenbergs and there are Duesenbergs. I wasn't aware of this one until a few months ago.
                Dean

Subject: RE: BS: Some moments are just so right:-)
From: Little Hawk
Date: 11 May 07 - 01:16 PM

Wow! That's a beauty.

Subject: RE: BS: Some moments are just so right:-)
From: Gurney
Date: 12 May 07 - 04:44 AM

Dave Polshaw, it would be unlikely that the bike you saw was a Manxman. Not impossible, though.   The Manx was produced in 350cc and 500cc models, and was an out-and-out race machine, with an oversized tank and straight-through pipes, produced mostly for the Isle of Man TT races. They had remarkably good roadholding, of course, which was always a Norton strong point.
In the early days they had to be lubricated with castor oil (which I should think is where Castrol derived its name) and that is the most nostalgic smell in the world for superannuatant petrol-heads.
Even better than steam-coal-and-steam-and hot grease smell of a locomotive.

Subject: RE: BS: Some moments are just so right:-)
From: GUEST,cmt49
Date: 12 May 07 - 12:54 PM

Gurney, I remember the smell as much as the sound! Castrol 'R' racing oil. The real machines like the AJS 7R and Manx Norton needed the stuff, but wannabees put a spoonful in the tank just to get the smell!

Subject: RE: BS: Some moments are just so right:-)
From: folk1e
Date: 13 May 07 - 04:14 AM

Going off on a tangent (as I usualy do)......
I was called out to a "no supply" at Mitchel Shackleton in Eccles, but on arrival could not find anyone (the factory had shut down years ago), so wandered round trying to find the substation. I found myself in a long bay (1/4 mile long?) with all the machienery removed but all the old notices up on the wall. I noticed the floor was made from small blocks of wood 3x2" set into the floor end grain upward and realized that the whole bay had this "woodwork" whose sole purpose seemed to be to provide a non slip surface for all the clog wearing workforce.
Being the only person I am aware of who wears clogs to work it realy hit me that the chances of seeing another pair of clogs on this floor again were zero!
The effect is replicated in Boltons indoor market (albeit in concrete).... progress eh!