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This is my friend Carey. He is an old-school steampunk from before the nerfgunification of steampunk happened. He has a warehouse where one floor is miniature locomotives (meaning only 18 feet long or smaller), one floor is pipe organs, one floor is pennyfarthings, and one floor is Victorian motion picture equipment.

He collected HO scale trains as a kid, and when that scene peaked, he sold his collection. From there, he just sort of traded up, buying a Victorian house and filling it with jukeboxes, and so on until he needed a warehouse to store all his stuff.

When all the grand old theaters and drive-ins started getting torn down, he went around asking if he could take the projection and sound systems out, and he usually got them for free. Now he is a significant collector of vintage motion picture equipment, although he will say, “The Smithsonian has a finer collection.” When Magnolia was being filmed, Paul Thomas Anderson insisted on using a particular vintage camera for the black and white opening scene. Carey was the only person who had a working one. Get this: He had a CINERAMA. There are three in the world: Paul Allen’s in Seattle, the one in Dayton, Ohio, and his, now in the UK somewhere.

He is active in the Wheelmen as an Ordinary rider, crossed Canada on a railbike, drives his tiny trains for local parks, and is married to the one-time Turkish women’s pennyfarthing champion. He opened a Museum Of Victorian Motion Picture Technology in Chicago, and people came from all over the world to see it- but not that many of them, so it closed.

We met on Critical Mass as penny riders. The Wheelmen’s budget comes from appearing in suburban 4th of July parades as the guys on the pennyfarthings, and he has let me ride original pieces in those parades, an act of considerable trust given the value of the bikes. I was fully prepared to break myself to save the bike but the need, thankfully, did not arise.

What do an elderly topiary gardener, a retired lion tamer, a man fascinated by mole rats, and a cutting-edge robotics designer have in common? Both nothing and everything in this unconventional documentary directed by Erroll Morris. Fast, Cheap & Out of Control (Referring to the robot specialist's strange philosophy of robot design structure, not Erroll Morris's documentary techniques!) interplays, overlaps, and interrelates these four separate and highly specialized documentary subjects in order to in truth study all of humanity, raising questions about the future of mankind. Written by Matthew F. Griffin

Blaidd Drwg wrote:From Tumblr

This is my friend Carey. He is an old-school steampunk from before the nerfgunification of steampunk happened. He has a warehouse where one floor is miniature locomotives (meaning only 18 feet long or smaller), one floor is pipe organs, one floor is pennyfarthings, and one floor is Victorian motion picture equipment.

He collected HO scale trains as a kid, and when that scene peaked, he sold his collection. From there, he just sort of traded up, buying a Victorian house and filling it with jukeboxes, and so on until he needed a warehouse to store all his stuff.

When all the grand old theaters and drive-ins started getting torn down, he went around asking if he could take the projection and sound systems out, and he usually got them for free. Now he is a significant collector of vintage motion picture equipment, although he will say, “The Smithsonian has a finer collection.” When Magnolia was being filmed, Paul Thomas Anderson insisted on using a particular vintage camera for the black and white opening scene. Carey was the only person who had a working one. Get this: He had a CINERAMA. There are three in the world: Paul Allen’s in Seattle, the one in Dayton, Ohio, and his, now in the UK somewhere.

He is active in the Wheelmen as an Ordinary rider, crossed Canada on a railbike, drives his tiny trains for local parks, and is married to the one-time Turkish women’s pennyfarthing champion. He opened a Museum Of Victorian Motion Picture Technology in Chicago, and people came from all over the world to see it- but not that many of them, so it closed.

We met on Critical Mass as penny riders. The Wheelmen’s budget comes from appearing in suburban 4th of July parades as the guys on the pennyfarthings, and he has let me ride original pieces in those parades, an act of considerable trust given the value of the bikes. I was fully prepared to break myself to save the bike but the need, thankfully, did not arise.

Jay’s collection features some of the most recognizable and unique cars ever used in the entertainment industry. These vehicles, both created and/or collected by Jay, have been seen in more than 100 movies, TV shows and videos. At the top of his achievements, Jay was responsible for designing and building the vehicles featured in the blockbuster film Batman Returns. His many other creations include such well-known cars as “Knight Rider,” the Back to the Future cars, RoboCop cars,“Taco Bell” TV commercial cars, and most recently the Flintstones’ cars. In addition, Jay has designed and built over 500 experimental vehicles with and incredible range of features. The "Pink Panther Limo", the “Piano Show Car”, “Bathtub Car”, and “The American Dream”, a Cadillac limousine measuring 100 feet from bumper to bumper, listed as “The Longest Car in the World” in the Guiness Book of World Records.

Back in 1998, I read an article about British engine fabricator Allen Millyard’s wild Kawasaki multis, including a 250cc three-cylinder S1 made into a 444cc five and a three-cylinder KH400 made into a 666cc five. Allen works as a mechanical engineer in atomic weapons research, so building motorcycles is like child’s play to him. At age 11 he put an Austin Mini car engine into a BSA Bantam frame to run around the waste land near his house. Not an ideal match, but it was all he had.

I was captivated, so I phoned Allen and asked about making one based on a 500cc or 750cc machine. Allen had made Kawasaki two-stroke triples into four, five and six-cylinder machines; he recommended a four as the best rider and a five as the best show bike....

Adding more cylinders to motorcycle engines is no mean feat, but one man does it again and again. Rod Ker reports.

Allen Millyard is keen on motorcycles in the same way you might say the Pope is keen on religion. In Allen's lounge, where you might expect to find a coffee table, he keeps a big Suzuki and a 1,000cc Kawasaki. They have to go there, because a brand new motocrosser has just arrived in the dining room. And if you think that's strange, wait until you see the Gilera, Malaguti and Hondas upstairs...

Sharing house space with motorcycles is quite common among enthusiasts, but the bikes in his house are special. That coffee table Kawasaki is a four-cylinder two-stroke, while the first-floor Honda is powered by a 100cc V-twin. Neither was ever available from the manufacturer.

Curiouser and curiouser; in the garage you'll find a 1,600cc V8 and a magnificent, 2,300cc V12. Both wear Kawasaki badges, but again the original manufacturer never offered anything so adventurous. One started life as a 1,000cc in-line four, the other as a 1,300cc six. All have been created by Allen, the V12 being the latest in a career that began as a teenager when he bundled a Mini engine into a BSA frame.

An early fascination with Kawasaki two-strokes resulted in the conception of in-line four-, five- and six-cylinder engines based on factory-made triples. Without wishing to make the task seem any less than formidable, adding extra cylinders to an air-cooled two-stroke was simple compared with later projects.

Allen then turned his attention to four-strokes, transforming an unsuspecting 50cc Honda single into the V-twin now parked in his bedroom. And he did it in a weekend, in front of an audience at a bike show. Then came the amazing V8. As usual, no drawings were made, all design work takes place inside his head followed by hundreds of hours of graft.

To keep overall length to a minimum, the cylinder banks were spaced at 70 degrees, rather than the usual right-angle. The crankshaft is fairly standard, using two thinned-down con-rods on each throw. Having the cylinder banks out of line wasn't aesthetically acceptable to Allen, so he made up new cylinder liners with offset bores of smaller size. Thus, the engine displaces slightly less than twice its four-cylinder capacity, but is symmetrically beautiful outside.

Glossing over things like reversing the rear cylinder head, designing the camshaft drive to suit, making carburettor manifolds and exhausts and lengthening the Kawasaki frame by five inches so that the engine could be accommodated without the forward cylinders fouling the front wheel, among others, that was about that.

The V8 clocked up many thousands of trouble-free miles. It has been toured throughout Europe, thrashed round racetracks and even secured a win at a sprint in the Isle of Man on a visit to the TT. Estimated power is about 130bhp at 8,000rpm and the bike weighs about 88lb more than its Z1 progenitor.

This motorcycle is powered by a 500-plus-hp V10 from a Dodge Viper. It is not a Dodge Tomahawk. Some crazy British guy built this sucker, and the loony bastard actually rides it. Awesome.

The motorcycle you see here made a surprise appearance at Cassington Bike Night near Witney, England. It was built by Allen Millyard, the man who appeares to be sitting on it in the image below, and the same guy who once built a V-12-powered '70s Kawasaki. The bike isn't news — it made the bike-blog/magazine rounds in summer of last year — but it's still pretty awesome.

Blaidd Drwg wrote:now two..


Car builder freak Jay Ohrberg...

Jay’s collection features some of the most recognizable and unique cars ever used in the entertainment industry. These vehicles, both created and/or collected by Jay, have been seen in more than 100 movies, TV shows and videos. At the top of his achievements, Jay was responsible for designing and building the vehicles featured in the blockbuster film Batman Returns. His many other creations include such well-known cars as “Knight Rider,” the Back to the Future cars, RoboCop cars,“Taco Bell” TV commercial cars, and most recently the Flintstones’ cars. In addition, Jay has designed and built over 500 experimental vehicles with and incredible range of features. The "Pink Panther Limo", the “Piano Show Car”, “Bathtub Car”, and “The American Dream”, a Cadillac limousine measuring 100 feet from bumper to bumper, listed as “The Longest Car in the World” in the Guiness Book of World Records.

JamesonBushmill wrote:

Blaidd Drwg wrote:now two..


Car builder freak Jay Ohrberg...

Jay’s collection features some of the most recognizable and unique cars ever used in the entertainment industry. These vehicles, both created and/or collected by Jay, have been seen in more than 100 movies, TV shows and videos. At the top of his achievements, Jay was responsible for designing and building the vehicles featured in the blockbuster film Batman Returns. His many other creations include such well-known cars as “Knight Rider,” the Back to the Future cars, RoboCop cars,“Taco Bell” TV commercial cars, and most recently the Flintstones’ cars. In addition, Jay has designed and built over 500 experimental vehicles with and incredible range of features. The "Pink Panther Limo", the “Piano Show Car”, “Bathtub Car”, and “The American Dream”, a Cadillac limousine measuring 100 feet from bumper to bumper, listed as “The Longest Car in the World” in the Guiness Book of World Records.

Is this the guy that built Cooch's fucking useless cunt of a car?