... about this.

When I was playing about trying to get the Meadows in the Bayliss Thomas to have a bit more get-up-and-go, I hooked up a coil and distributor to the engine with a couple of blocks of wood and a few tie-wraps. It made not the slightest bit of difference but it did spark an idea (I was probably the zillionth person to think of it - but one of only a handful that actually produced a drawing).

I called it 'The Magnetor' and like my solid state indicator system (the 'Wrightway') it was going to make my fortune. A miniature 6v coil, the innards of a modern distributor and a couple of gears were to be housed in a case closely replicating a vintage magneto and I knew exactly the right people (who had the CNC kit to make the case from solid aluminium) to do the job. That was at least 4 years ago and I happened to notice my box of bits and the drawings on the shelf the other day when I dropped off some Norfolk sausages at Chumley's. I'm not bothered; these things happen and anyway, I've several other things on the go that I'm absolutely confident really will make my fortune.

This is the Le Mans Jupiter test engine. It's in extremely good condition but some clever-clogs has, on dismantling it at some point in its life, marked the conrods 1 - 4 (as you should) but by filing grooves in the webs..

.... perfectly placed to develop a fracture 100 yards from the finishing line and, to tell you the truth, pushing anything bigger than an Austin 7 is just not funny anymore. Every now and again I move the Hillman around the corner to the workshop to make some adjustment or other and I think to myself that it's silly to start the engine just for the sake of 30 yards or so (there's a slight incline and then a ridge into the workshop that you have to take a run up at). Actually, even thinking about it's exhausting!

There's a little bit of detail work to do on the quarter lights of the Jowett Jumble Sale - the little brackets that I replaced on the windscreen are replicated on the side screens and subject also to the tin-worm.

Staying with the doors, the next job is a bit trickier but more fun to think out. These trims I'll have to make in aluminium and a simple press tool carved out of beech should do the trick. Alternatively, very thin brass and then nickel plate - there's a thought.

And another little job is to make up by copying the bits in the picture, the handbrake and gearlever for a 1906 Rover. This is another poser. It would be nice to have a forge and whack them out on the anvil but I think I'll get various bits laser cut, weld them all together and then machine and file to finish.

And by the time that lot's finished I'll have forgotten whatever it was I first started with.