Back when I was a kid I loved the hobby show. In the one back hall of the International Centre was the Toronto Society of Model Engineers. These people built scale motors that ran on gas or steam. There were blocks of aluminum, brass, steel and iron carefully machined into components and assembled into machines that were simply beautiful.

They would have the models run on compressed air to display their workings. Steam pistons would drive a flywheel, hardly making a sound. Tappets would tick away as a gas motor was turning over or a governor kicked in to spark a hit and miss engine.

This is the best of the show. It goes through showing how this little engine was built. Practical Classics posted it to their facebook page a couple of days ago.

Hi there, I was reading things on the British Car Club website and you asked for any pictures, maybe you’d like to take a look at our baby.

We have a 1966 Minor 1000 in mint condition, thanks to hours of labour on my and the previous owner’s parts. We live in Saanichton BC and are the talk of the town when we go shopping on sunny days in "Little Mo". It’s a magnet to folks who remember the Morris. It has 56000 miles on the clock and runs like a sewing machine.

I found little "Mo" in North Vancouver with a gent named Doug Herbert, he had owned Mo for 27 years. He advertised on Kijiji where I saw his ad the day he put it on. We went over that weekend and after a checkover, we gave him the cash and the following weekend went over and brought Mo home on Totem. That was August 2009. I did quite a bit of work to Mo to bring it to my satisfaction, as you can see by the attached file, now she’s perfect for me. I pop along to the meetings of the BCC on the Pat Bay, but have not joined the club, mainly because I am now retired and free of all the many meetings I had to attend before, so I am reluctant to get hooked up again. I really enjoy the meetings at times and take little Mo to the British Car Show in Beacon Hill Park, where I get swamped with friendly enquirers.

I love that.

We are ex-South Africans and I was an auto/diesel mechanic and worked extensively on these Morrises in the 50’s and 60’s. Everyone had one. Just thought you’d get a kick out of having a look at the little car.

Yours in British cars,
Jack Foster.

What can I tell you, its been a great year!

Between Tony's pictures from the Stag Party Weekend, revamping the Business Card section, moving all of the 2011 posts to an archive, and have it work (somewhat), along with my own work I am bushed. I am hitting someone up for lunch at the AGM! :o)

I have always been dissatisfied with the business cards, so I enlarged them. Now they are readable. Some are a bit tatty after being photocopied (from the old days), scanned and re-scanned. I would appreciate it if owners of these cards would check them out, For linking them, I had to type the links and e-mail addresses by hand. The links, themselves are alright, but there may still be typos for the e-mail addresses. There are many cards that could do with replacing, and some have dead links.

Why now? Well, Ian Cox sent me a better copy of his British Car Shop card. Then, Andy Henderson contacted me wanting to promote his business . So, after absolutely no arm twisting of any kind, I ended up with a new member and two new cards. The decision was made, time to revamp.

In addition to that I got Andy to send in a picture or two of his rides. He is a bike guy with a Triumph, a Norton, a BSA, and an Ariel in his stable. Add to that, he lives in a great riding area in Western Alberta.

(I had better be getting my stuff in too, sheesh)