RUMCars Forum
General Category => Microcar Events => Topic started by: Big Al on November 17, 2011, 08:52:18 AM
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The bush network tells me that next years National Microcar Rally is to be held in the environs of Great Yarmouth. To the north of there is the Broads and an area the BUMS have done several times. There is a museum which has a few Steam Launches operate from it, another ex Auther Ransom boat can take you into the reed beds to look at the wildlife etc etc. We did a run across the Reedham Ferry, I think, and to a car museum/stately home castle thingy which has a Trienkel on display but we were not greatly impressed preferring the Tram Museum which had moving things and interested bods to talk to. As we had odd cars we were parked inside the grounds and got free tea. Loads of other things to check out. So while a long drive for many I can recommend the area once your there - great for a weeks hols.
Since Stephen Boyd is pretty nearby to this venue and we failed to create a get together this summer after Martin's aborted attempt perhaps this next National Rally in the series should be made the Scootacar special. Stephen would be tickle pink I hope and it should serve to improve the quality of the Scootacars left to us.
In mentioning Martin I can report that the first year of the MacKeever shipping line has been a great success. Liberty Bell has operated well carrying up to 12 passengers out of Ely all summer with two skippers sharing duties. Martin doing most weekends as owner. He has a Scootacar which parks next to his sandwich board as advertising on the quayside. This lives with a lady who used to have Messerschmitts a short distance away when not in service. She enjoys having the car there for old times sake and Martin enjoys the odd cuppa! The down side is Martin has done very little Microwise this year as he has two jobs and his father is getting frail. Now we know that Liberty Bell is a proper business stuff can be worked round it. Nice to hear a success story in these gloomy times. I am hoping he buys a steam boat to go with Liberty Bell. Indeed I might be a sleeping partner in that, a thing I have always fancied.
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We don't all need a bush network Alan, the info about next year's NMCR is on their brilliant website; http://www.national-microcar-rally.co.uk/
Did you miss the special Scootacar National we had at Huntingdon 4 years ago when about 11 Scootacars turned up.
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The link to Rose Farm Touring Park on the NMCR website doesn't work.
Is this the place? http://rosefarmtouringpark.com/
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It won't be a quiet rural village once the Microcar Mob hit town next year, with the straight through exhaust pipes, Chassis straightening and general cursing when gearboxes break. Do they know what they are letting themselves in for?
Still it is a nice part of the country. I think it is great that it moving from west to east, and then presumably north to south (we have done the middle) Great idea.
Chris Thomas
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an awful long way from the north west ( 6 hours ) , or anywhere really :), it is a lovely area and flat so good for runs . unfortunately its moved again so clashes with Beaulieu . i will be helping goggo out again . a real shame after about 3 years of not clashing
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I cant go again either. As the National is usually the first weekend in September I craftily booked the Sept holiday to start on the second weekend and what do they do? Move the national to the second weekend!!! ??? ??? ??? ??? ??? Maybe the National committee just dont want me to go! I guess I could go on the Thursday and Friday but its hardly the same as being there for the weekend.
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ah well if you cant make it .......... :D
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We don't all need a bush network Alan, the info about next year's NMCR is on their brilliant website; http://www.national-microcar-rally.co.uk/
Did you miss the special Scootacar National we had at Huntingdon 4 years ago when about 11 Scootacars turned up.
I did as I have not been cruising the web on searches into micros being busy with other topics and had seen no official announcement. So I was not aware of the date which I can now enter on our date listing. Positive active advertising is always more effective than passive advertising where the client has to find the information. I have done them a small favour as I bet not all were aware even on this forum. Still early days yet.
My observation is clashing with Beaulieu has historically hurt numbers at the National, especially if folk were thinking of coming over from abroad. Shame as it will immediately provide a choice to South Western/Central owners on a long trip or to go to the Autojumble instead. Half will not make up their minds and go to neither probably. Hey ho.
I saw the Scootacars at Huntingdon and it was great. I did not have any then and this is now. Steven lives only yards away from this venue. Just a thought anyway. Folks organise as they see fit and support comes in proportion to knowledge and convenience of the target clientèle, I do not make the rules up.
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Looking at the site details it would suggest the clash with Beaulieu might be due to off peak camping rates starting on the 6th September. Makes sense.
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Al, do you know which Arthur Ransome boat it is? His last, Peter Duck was designed by my Grandad for him. Peter Duck was the first of quite a successful range, but it was a tough job or Grandad. AR was old and suffering from bad arthritis. Grandad designed a great sail and rig plan for him, but he was very stubborn and insisted on a traditional one despite planning to use it in narrow confines. My Mum recalls how angry he was , saying "He will not like it and it will not suit him."
Enter Blue Leopard in Google and see pics of one of his finest. He aslo developed Marine Ply forming techniques and during Vera Lynne War he lent his skills to de Havilland, designing th wood structures of Mosquito, Hornet (like a smaller, faster Mossie) and the fuselage of the jet Vampire.
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It is not a sailing boat. Its link I have forgotten but it is now a seats up to 12 passenger launch. I will have to read up on my original scribble done at the time and get back.
However Dave Hambledon is also an Arther Ransome bod and is looking for the Trojan element of 'Rattletrap' to buy. He inches closer to an identifiable vehicle. He is a member of the Ransome club. He also has interest in the Broads cruisers as there are a few with Trojan engines fitted. He certainly knows about the Peter Duck and I recall the class of boat from my sailing days. Might be worth an email to him.
My dad loved the Mossy but he was on the ali skinned planes as an engineer as part of the cutting edge Hersley Park team. So despite the technology being around him I do not think he was directly involved. That said they all knew and had reference to wood stress information to the extent that one of them wrote a full stress analysis of his house extension made in an aircraft sort of construction on the council turning his planning application down to prove it was actually over strong design. They could not really argue with a world expert so had to let him do it! So it is a unique building in Nailsea now. These guys were very clever people. All done on slide rules, heads and hand skills. No computers in sight.
We were only discussing the other day that Fairey and Supermarine used laminated ply on their fast motor boats. Not quite the same as forming but very much the same area. Have you seen Friend Wood's wood 2CV based Trike. Suit you sir! Oh!
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I met DH about 3 years ago and he was very interested to hear about my Grandad's contact with him! Grandad also designed hulls for a number of WW2 fast coastal patrol boats, downed-pilot rescue dinghies dropped from planes, and such like. His slide rule was about 5 ft long with a pop-up magnifier on the sliding index (forgot its proper name). Boss of a local theatrical chandler (very useful and good prices for nuts, bolts, paint, tools etc) has one of my Grandad's Virtue Class. All teak, very pretty in and out, and he goes on amazing adventure and discovery journeys, like up into the Arctic, around Bear Island and the Maelstrøm, the world's bleakest places, then does great slide-show lectures with lashings of Badger Beers for guests. A character not unlike Sir Ranulph Twisleton Wyckhenham Fiennes.
Hid did not design any Micros, not even Scootercars, and never went to a National Rally, neatly steering the thread back towards its topic!
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like chris evans' top tenuous - if your a radio 2 man
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"on the sliding index (forgot its proper name). " Isnt it just called the slide? Or was you refering to the cursor? {thats a car isnt it?}
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http://home.clara.net/peterfrost/tryaneii.html
friend wood's citroen as mentioned by al. it was at NMCR at least 1 year wasn't it
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Beautiful!
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Your grandfather was Laurent Giles? A hero.
His slide rule was about 5 ft long with a pop-up magnifier on the sliding index (forgot its proper name).
This sounds an ideal toy for an enthusiastic amateur.... When I first started in a shipyard, they still had one 'drum calculator' - this was a cylindrical slide rule that, by using spiral rather than straight slides, could work happily at four significant places and was the equivalent of a straight slide rule about 30ft long. It lived in a velvet-lined box, looked a bit like a scroll Torah and apprentices like me had to be treat it with even more reverence. Ah, I've found a picture of one:
(http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k115/angibb/drum-calc.jpg)
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Ah! Thats a Fullers pattern slide rule, they come in a box that has a brass rod which drops into a bracket on the end of the box and the hole in the end of the handle drops over the rod thus holding it up at an angle for use. As many of you know I deal in scientific instruments for a living, scores of these have passed through my hands over the years. Find a good unscuffed one with a wooden carcus [some are bakalite] with box and support rod and you are looking at three to five hundred pounds. Most of them were produced by Stanley's.
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I think he did two. He came to a Burford when it was nigh on newly done. I think he also attended Tony Marshall's special which saw those who respected the 'Governer' make the effort to be there for the event. A happy occasion near Wolverton. No doubt someone will have pics of the car which is a thing of beauty.
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Dear Bob
When I was a boy I lived just up the road from the Stanleys factory and one summer I worked there for a month. Very interesting and very old fashined instrument makers. My first full time job was working for a firm of consulting engineers in Victoria Street London and used a lot of the equipment that stanleys made. But I was never allowed to use one of the cylindrical slide rules. I think I still have my plastic slide rule and my abacus.
Chris Thomas
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friend woods car appeared at an NMCR post Burford. i missed Burford Rallys by a year or two i think . i have a feeling it might have been a weston park rally .dont think i have ever heard reference to Tony's " specials "
fascinating where some threads end up . i would be very proud to have ancestors who are respected by others so much. i don't THINK i do , in this way anyway
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http://www.national-microcar-rally.co.uk/can_i_come,_too.htm
Be this the car? If so an early RCN had this as the featured car. :)
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Chris, all those old firms are gone now, theodalites gave way to laser, sextants replaced by sat nav. Engineering? Isnt that something they do in other countries? :'(
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http://www.national-microcar-rally.co.uk/can_i_come,_too.htm
Be this the car? If so an early RCN had this as the featured car. :)
Memory one, old age nil. There it is at Tony's event.
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Stanley may have closed down UK, gone to France, closed down France and then moved to China but others have not.
If you buy a tape measure, buy a Fisco tape measure. Still Made in England in Rayleigh Essex.
http://www.fisco.co.uk/default.php
Now owned by our great friends in Sweden but manufacturing in England.
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Automated measurement and calculation maybe great but it does not get round the problem of it being used by people who do not understand the problem they are attempting to resolve. To use a sextant or sliderule you needed to know what you were asking and therefore had also already calculated the approximate answer. How often do you hear someone use modern technology to get the wrong answer? There is no substitute for intelligence and time served skills. A bit of paper after short cuts does not mean you can compete with one of these 'traditional engineers' who were time served. A huge mistake made by accountants who run (ran) our businesses. It is the same as being a botanist without learning latin.
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Your grandfather was Laurent Giles? A hero.
His slide rule was about 5 ft long with a pop-up magnifier on the sliding index (forgot its proper name).
This sounds an ideal toy for an enthusiastic amateur.... When I first started in a shipyard, they still had one 'drum calculator' - this was a cylindrical slide rule that, by using spiral rather than straight slides, could work happily at four significant places and was the equivalent of a straight slide rule about 30ft long. It lived in a velvet-lined box, looked a bit like a scroll Torah and apprentices like me had to be treat it with even more reverence. Ah, I've found a picture of one:
(http://i86.photobucket.com/albums/k115/angibb/drum-calc.jpg)
Yup, that's the one! Although he died over 40 years ago he is still respected in nautical circles which is nice to know.
He had all sorts of drawing equipment but cannot recall ever seeing a Fuller's Pattern slide rule, but I reckon he probably had one but kept it safe from us young 'uns.
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friend woods car appeared at an NMCR post Burford. i missed Burford Rallys by a year or two i think . i have a feeling it might have been a weston park rally .dont think i have ever heard reference to Tony's " specials "
fascinating where some threads end up . i would be very proud to have ancestors who are respected by others so much. i don't THINK i do , in this way anyway
It's nice, but one of his, and thus mine, Elizabeth Fry was on the back of the old £5 note, before they banished engineers, reformers, writers and other USEFUL people from banknotes and replaced them with bankers and bean counters!
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Is that the same Fry's as S.F. Fry and Stephen Fry?
I am related to the first person to use the gormless expression as a Homo Sapien. I claim my prize of a working polystyrene steam compound engine.
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Cor! All the Rumcar people with the same ancesters. Oh, we are, came from monkeys didn't we? ;D
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Dear Rob
You may be related to a Monkey but I think I am related to a Whale.
Chris Thomas
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Not you Rob, judging by your avatar photo you are descended from dinosaurs!
I don't think I am related to Stephen Fry
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I am related to a Whale.
Which beach were you found on? ;D
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Dear Rob
Fagus Sylvatica
derived from the Greek phagein to eat
Chris Thomas
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Chris,
Oh, so you're not related to a whale on a beach but Fagus sylvatica, the European Beech or Common Beech that can be very large.
So therefor my ancestors could have been swinging in yours then?
Rob.
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As Devo said ' God made man, but he used the Monkey to do it' - 'Are we not men? No. We are Devo!'. Life's a Beech!
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How did you guys get so far off topic?
What started out as a proposal for a Scootacar rally has been allowed to morph into a 21st century perverted version of the Monkey trials.
For the sake of humanity will somebody please kill this thread?
Or at least change its moniker to more properly reflect its insolence to Darwinian evolution.
Its one thing to have heroically ascended from a common tree dwelling progenitor.
Yet another to embellish a mentality that would disgrace a properly socialized Australopithicine.
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Oh, I dont know Steven. Darwinian evolution deserves all the insolence it gets plus as he was an Englishman we reserve the right to take the Mick. :D
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I think the answer to the original question was an emphatic - NO. That being the case it was time to do something more interesting on the forum.
Back to the event then.
Had a chat with the BUMS. Our local spy says that there is a campsite further north on the coast which offers more possibility of adventure, like a beach barbecue in the evening, and has a cracking pub just along the road. Not sure if it is not the one we have used before. He was up for Scootacaring too but on the basis it sounds like no one wants to play he wants to centre us down the road. They will do a deal for Microcars with tents in our own area which will probably pay for our weekends fuel in savings as we are not using campervans or their size pitch. We can use the Reedham Ferry to trot across to the main event, which will be fun. Enquiries are being made about chartering a steam boat on the Broads Sunday afternoon as most of the event will be off home about 3.00 pm as usual. That we we get a full long weekend out of the effort. We can then drive via the lanes back to our Cambridgeshire park ferme to disperse on our various routes home. This allows us to leave trailers etc behind in reach but and some driving in. Early days yet but sounds good to me.
Meanwhile there is talk of a 'camp' site being selected for those who are likely to congregate down at Beaulieu since some folk will do several days there and the evening remains free for a get together somewhere. There might be an organised meal advertised which may even pull out those MIcronauts with stands. No idea what this all means. Could be waffle but could end up with a small number of cars touring while also taking in the two Autojumbles on in the area over the 3 days.
I expect this will be received with the same open arms as getting a few Scoots along to the National but it is on topic. Alternatively I can not publicize these subversive activities as I was not and continue to attempt to offer you some entertaining banter instead. The third option is to go away, swinging through the Beech trees, free and unfettered to evolve into any kind of car enthusiast that can survive the a hyke in quality car prices in a recession. A prehensile tail would be darned useful in the workshop!
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LOL!!! Seriously, the Campsite /jumbling/driving weekend sounds a good idea!
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How did you guys get so far off topic?
What started out as a proposal for a Scootacar rally has been allowed to morph into a 21st century perverted version of the Monkey trials
Or at least change its moniker to more properly reflect its insolence to Darwinian evolution.
Its one thing to have heroically ascended from a common tree dwelling progenitor.
Yet another to embellish a mentality that would disgrace a properly socialized Australopithicine.
Personally I favour the views of T.C. Lethbridge in his 1969 book 'The Monkey's Tail' which rather leaves Darwin somewhat in the gutter. Whatever one's views of life, the universe & everything, I would recommend anyone to read 'The essentual T.C. Lethbridge' (1980) at least once in their life.
Ok, something back on topic.... ermmm, er. Ah, I know; RYTECRAFT!!!! ;D
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Ah!!! Dont mention Lethbridge, it will start Chris yacking on about Dowsing again!
Still if he recons he can dowse out those Peels buried in the new Forest I think we should let him!
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Dear Bob
I almost got stranded in Lethbridge about 25 years ago It was the end of May and a snow storm blew in. The Cessna was grounded so we hired a car and made it into Calgary (Canada that is) before the snow cought up with us. I have never been to Darwin, but would like to go there some day.
All I said was that it should be possible to dowse out if a car has been buried in the location Bob knows and I would be willing to teach him the technique. Where Darwin comes into the discussion on dowsing I know not!!!
Dowsing Thomas
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Dear Bob
I almost got stranded in Lethbridge about 25 years ago It was the end of May and a snow storm blew in. The Cessna was grounded so we hired a car and made it into Calgary (Canada that is) before the snow cought up with us. I have never been to Darwin, but would like to go there some day.
All I said was that it should be possible to dowse out if a car has been buried in the location Bob knows and I would be willing to teach him the technique. Where Darwin comes into the discussion on dowsing I know not!!!
Dowsing Thomas
He doesnt but T C Lethbridge does.
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Friend Wood (how can that be his real name?) does beautiful work, though the last picture of the Tryane I saw showed that he may not have believed as much in a UV-blocking varnish to protect the epoxy as he should have, as many of the planking seams have discoloured.
On the nautical theme, the plug on which the Tryane was cold-moulded is a thing of beauty in its own right.
And FW has built smaller - see the lovely plywood velomobile.
Big Al, your aversion to automatic equipment and its ability to encourage people to make fools of themselves is misplaced - mistakes have become so much more epic. Forty years ago at college they had a prototype CNC mill on loan from Cincinnati and had kept the 'little programming whoopsie' - a 6" thick block of aluminium which instead of being drilled, had advanced too far and created a perfect negative image of an entire drill chuck.
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created a perfect negative image of an entire drill chuck.
I had to chuckle.
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I wonder what my Grandad would make of the Tryane, because it seems to have been made in the exact same way he pioneered! Until the huge re-fit a few years back there was a whole display panel about my Grandad at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich. The display panels about yachts have now gone, but they still have a lot of his drawings in their archives which can be seen on application, and I plan to visit sometime with my Mum.
A negative drill chuck sounds great!. At the South London Innovation Centre (sadly closed now) where I developed my prototypes we had a great Milling machine with the model name Beaver. It was made by a company called Balding. Of course, we studiously avoided making any jokes. Sure we did.
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Dear Marcus
Presumably the machine was rather old and knawed its way through the material rather than having a fine shaving action.
The Americans do have an honest approach to names.
Chris Thomas
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Well at least I got the banter back to being more interestingly microcar related.
I guess I should have known that the never say die amoungst you would use my comments as a an inspiration to promote the thread into eternity.
I vote for genetic engineering to restore the prehensile tail. Whose idea was it to throw that out of our evolutionary tool box any way?
I suppose that what ever power that did that, never had to remove the gland nut that fixes the exhaust pipe to the Messerschmitt motor in a Nobel 200.
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Look what voting has done in our countries, they're in a right old mess! Tails are for swingers. Oh, I'd better not go down that route. ;D
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Monkey gland nut?
Voting is anti Darwinian. So is bailing out Bankers and to a point quantitative easing. We risk reversing our status to become nearer the Monkeys. My favourite was Peter Tork.
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glad to see bob now thinks it ok to " take the mick " again ;)
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Well, he's been dead since 1882 so he is hardly going to take offence now it he! ;) Its not the same as mocking your contemporaries physical charracteristics, you should have grown out of that before you left school!
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ah now thats why i am on this forum :) never grew up , i dont think RUM is generally very grown up - thank goodness ;)
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Growing old is compulsory.
Growing up is not!
Should we all "grow up" and start prattling on about the latest Mercederarighinijag, or continue being child-like in our enthusiasm for tiny old fashioned cars which were briefly successful before becoming a Cul-de-Sac in motoring history? I certainly know which holds my interest!
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Hey dere man. Can you tell me how to Cul de Sachs? It am well hot.