"Daddy why is that man pushing that gold motorbike?" I'm taking the kids swimming in the car, 500 yards away, obliquely to my left, on the top edge of the park there is a man sweating it out in the daffodils. "Huh?!" It does look 'interesting' so I do a quick detour to cut him off before he escapes the undergrowth.
It's a 1956 US import Thunderbird forced through a funk mangle. Alvin has just assembled it and was pushing to the local garage to get an MOT so he can get it registered with a UK plate (then it won't need another MOT - or road tax, as its of such a venerable age. And no it doesn't legally need lights either). BP

HURST RACING TIRES Directed by Ray Gordon www.raygordon.com from ray gordon on Vimeo.

Great video for a small company in Oregon. It was filmed by Ray Gordon, who supplied the shots for the Thor Drake story in Sideburn 11.

You all remember Thor is coming all the way from Portland to race at Dirt Quake II, right? G

Davida went with a small contingent to Burning Man this year. This was Fid's personal favorite, a Honda CX500 powered avgas tank car; with (the nerd in me says) Mini 1275 Rostyle wheels (but then they look bigger than 10"?).
This is their Evel Knievel Speedster. BP

This Model Ford T-bucket - touring body with a 3.5Ltr V8, was my 'delivery van' a few years ago. Delivering crates of Mickey's Big Mouth beer around London. The year before I had driven a silver glitter covered Citroën Visa van, with light-up ice box windows, for Absolut Vodka. All the brainchild of Dave from Marblehead who kindly lubricated our SB#12 launch party with Kraken rum. Good times.
(above) Me and John Dirty Whitewalls, were visiting (the now long-gone) Hamrax on Ladbroke Grove for some new brake pads as the front wheels were from a Honda.
The magnificent Jaguar IRS; the resplendent spinning cherry of every jacked-up British built hot rod in the 1980s.
521 FBC Where are you now? Still turning heads in supermarket carparks and causing havoc I hope, BP

From the makers of Hot Rod Hay Ride, a new 3 day bonanza in Bedfordshire. This weekend! BP

This weekend in Spalding. Details here.

It's hard to imagine now the impact that Chuck Berry's first single must have had when it came out in the summer of 1955. All I know is, it rattled my cage when I first heard it, aged about 13 in the late '70s, and 57 years after its release it still does it for me today. Great guitar sound and Berry's brilliant poetical lyrics, as typed out below (my version, many people hear them differently). MP

Maybellene, why can’t you be true?
Oh Maybellene, why can’t you be true?
You just started doin’ the things you used to do

As I was motorvatin’ over the hill
I saw Maybellene in a Coupe de Ville
Cadillac a-rollin’ on the open road
Nothin’ outrun my V8 Ford
The Cadillac doin’ about ninety-five
We was bumper to bumper, rollin’ side to side

Maybellene...

The Cadillac pulled up to hundred and four
My Ford got a-hot and wouldn’t do no more
It done got cloudy and started to rain
I tooted my horn for the passin’ lane
Rainwater blowin’ all under my hood
I knew that was doin’ my motor good

Maybellene...

The motor cooled down, the heat went down
That’s when I heard that highway sound
Cadillac sittin’ like a ton of lead
A hundred and ten, a half a mile ahead
Cadillac lookin’ like it’s sittin’ still
And I caught Maybellene at the top of the hill

Maybellene...