You all know that feeling. You go to a car show, race meet, autojumble, cake sale :S, ann summers, etc, etc, and you come away with a buzz in your tummy and your head full of sweetie mice. No notepad to hand, so there are 4 million minute details you want to remember floating around in your head and your creative juices are flowing.
You saw a shiney car, a really really shiney car and now (this is for the Mg Owners Club members reading) you want to go and polish the life out of your car until you are able to check for bogeys in the reflection. You perhaps saw a full Group4 spec Mk2 Escort, and you think that the gorgeous loom, axle linkages, dashboard toys and extravegant tube work is absolutely necessary in your 1969 Mg Midget complete with original holes and rust because it is at the perfect point of restoration that you can do that.
Well the latter is kind of where this story is heading. Having known for years there was a guy who built really quick Midgets in the middle of nowhere in Co. Down, I called up for yet another chat about random stupid ideas in my head and whether they were worth persuing in the search for the "epic midget".
** Photo is ©Ken Grey @ motorpix.co.uk
Mike Johnston has been building some of the best Class A race cars ever seen. Which is amazing considering it is just him and his small workshop. I am yet to find someone else who is as inspirational when it comes to the "cut it, weld it, drive it, crash it, repeat" attitude. Build your car for you, if it doesn't work in its entirity, then start looking into what you need to do to make it do what you need it to. Anyway, I got permission to take some snapshots and you can see them throughout this blog post. Normally, people who do work of this nature are very protective over what is and isn't seen outside of the workplace, but I think Mike knows his work is outstanding even when it is barely even a few tacks on some sheet and a tube.
No comments:
Post a Comment