I’d forgotten TJ118.

Despite the huge effort over many years going into TA122, I’ve always regarded it as a half. Possibly time to revise my system.

Clarkson was expounding a similar thought on QI a few months ago.
He said if you acquire cats in pairs, and name them accordingly, one of each pair will inevitably “buy the farm” and you end up with Whisky and Pepper or some equally unlikely combination.

I’m sure “Bruce and Co.” have got enough storage problems with 3.5 real mosquitos.

Isn’t it 2.1/2? 🙂

I agree it does look a little odd around the canopy but I’m not going to complain, not least as it’s an impressive achievement by any standards and far better than I would dare to attempt.

MAM or Newark both spring to mind but as the guy’s based at Kemble, presumably that would at least greatly slow down the project or at worst stop it altogether due to distance.

Hurts,doesn’t it!

I came fairly unglued and saw off a bottle of Smirnoff Blue label in 2 days. I don’t drink a lot of spirits so would normally expect that to last me a year or so!

As already suggested, Boris is good.

This was my Boris, sadly killed on the road 9 years ago.

I’m not sure Al ever explained what he’d done to that arm, but this was in an email from him in April last year. Sounds related.

“they are looking at trying to reconnect all the ligature and tendons in the back of my hand which are attached to my left thumb and repair all of the nerve damage too.”

I last heard from Al in August. One email had a picture of a scar on his head, which he never did say how he’d come by, and this is a quote from his last missive:

“I think I’m seriously jinxed here, both my kids have quads and motorbikes, I have a KX250 which we use on a bit of land near the house, Saturday I was trying to show off to the kids, came a cropper and managed to get my right foot stuck between the wheel and fork leg – result – 2 broken toes and a badly burnt heel, I’ve been a motorcyclist since I was 9 and have lost toes in the past and I’m about to lose 2 more. Bummer.”

A great guy, one of a kind, and a serious menace to himself.

I never met Al but my personal contacts with him would be a flurry of emails and PMs for a week or two and then nothing for a few months.

I’ll miss him, a true character.

I’m not sure how relevant this is, but the ultimate production Merlin in the Hornet developed 2,070hp.

As already stated, racing is a different matter entirely. A few years ago there was a bloke using a 2.1/2 litre Daimler V8 for drag racing and getting around 1,000 bhp from it, reliably! I suspect it may not have been very successful at Le Mans. 🙂