LAST EDITED ON Jul-31-25 AT 04:34 PM (EDT)
 
Episode 41!

playlist, complete through episode 39

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

It’s our yearly bounty!

I should've thought about this channel when I went and updated the old thread in the General conference.
Ah, well, memo to self for next time.

...!
Stoke Mandeville, Esq & The
Victorian Ballsmiths
"Nobody Want Verdigris-
Covered Balls!"

Retropowercars podcast interview with Richard Brunning:
"Will Project Binky Ever Be Finished!?"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gBN1qMAPPc

-VR
Contains secret lore of the corporate name origin!
"They copied all they could follow, but they couldn't copy my mind,
And I left 'em sweating and stealing a year and a half behind."

While it isn't Binky....and it isn't a full episode....there IS an update to the Escargot!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkoyPUqG1Vw

...!
Stoke Mandeville, Esq & The
Victorian Ballsmiths
"Nobody Want Verdigris-
Covered Balls!"

LAST EDITED ON Nov-28-25 AT 05:17 PM (EST)
 
Episode 42 just dropped. Driving, he is. Finished, he is NOT.
Richard has LASERS....but no spare shark.
Oh, and also, Piano Police Squad. And a lovely new funk-getter.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhCvB_C6Y6Y

...!
Stoke Mandeville, Esq & The
Victorian Ballsmiths
"Nobody Want Verdigris-
Covered Balls!"

I completely forgot to mention this, what with holidays and illness and other things, but, there's a new episode of The Escargo out. Enjoy more(less?) book bus truck thing!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sNP16bNtTgo

...!
Stoke Mandeville, Esq & The
Victorian Ballsmiths
"Nobody Want Verdigris-
Covered Balls!"

>I completely forgot to mention this, what with holidays and illness
>and other things, but, there's a new episode of The Escargo out. Enjoy
>more(less?) book bus truck thing!

They've got a real Motor Vehicle of Theseus thing going on with this one. Even more so than with Binky!

--G.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

Yep! I actually commented just that. The original idea was to get something that could be driven on a standard license. Where does the MoT draw the line of "this isn't the same vehicle any longer"...

...!
Stoke Mandeville, Esq & The
Victorian Ballsmiths
"Nobody Want Verdigris-
Covered Balls!"

>Yep! I actually commented just that. The original idea was to get
>something that could be driven on a standard license. Where does the
>MoT draw the line of "this isn't the same vehicle any longer"...

I don't know how it works in the UK, but here in the US, most states go by the Vehicle Identification Number. In much the same way that the part of a firearm with the serial number on it is the part that is Legally The Gun, if your vehicle has the structural member with the VIN on it, it is legally that vehicle, regardless of whatever else you've done to it.

History corner:

The two most complete examples of this legal mechanism at work that I can think of off the top of my head were both used in schemes to facilitate new production of classic vehicles that no longer pass modern safety standards. One was a company in I think Texas that built new 1957 Chevrolets back in... I want to say the '80s.* The customer had to provide the firewall (that's the bulkhead between the engine compartment and the cab, for those of you who may not speak car parts) from a genuine 1957 Chevrolet, and the company would then build a brand new '57 Chevy around it. On its face this seems silly--why would you rip the firewall out of a real car that valuable to build a fake one?--but it was priced such that it was worth it for people to buy a rusted-out, wrecked, or otherwise unrestorable one and then have the replica version built on its serial number.

The other such scheme I know about was run by the Volkswagen factory in Mexico that kept making classic Beetles into the early 2000s. They were long past compliance with US safety standards for new cars by then, of course, and so completely illegal to import into the US, but if you sent the factory the central tunnel** out of the floorpan of a legal US-import Beetle (which was the bit of a Type 1 Beetle that was Legally The Car), they would cut the tunnel out of a new-production car and weld in your old one for you. At which point you would get yourself and the license plates from the donor car to the factory in Puebla one way or another, then drive your suspiciously pristine "1970" (or whenever) Beetle through the border and back home.

I'm sure the Customs people at whatever border post was on the most direct route to Puebla City knew all about this little dodge, but it was Technically Legal (which is, of course, the best kind of legal), so as far as I know, nobody ever got into trouble for it.

--G.
* 1957 was before the invention of the modern VIN, but the serial numbers applied by the manufacturer work the same way legally.
** No, I don't know why a rear-engined rear-wheel-drive car like the VW Type 1 has a central tunnel in the floorpan either, but it does.
-><-
Benjamin D. Hutchins, Co-Founder, Editor-in-Chief, & Forum Mod
Eyrie Productions, Unlimited http://www.eyrie-productions.com/
zgryphon at that email service Google has
Ceterum censeo Carthaginem esse delendam.

> if your vehicle has the structural member with the VIN on it,
> it is legally that vehicle, regardless of whatever else you've done to it.

This feels exploitable in ridiculous ways. What do you mean this is a cabover semi truck and I need a heavy vehicle license? Check the VIN, it's a '95 Chrysler LeBaron!

I don't know why anyone would bother trying to do this sort of thing, but it's funny to imagine somebody doing it.

Yeah, that's exactly the point, really. The Escargo was chosen because it could be driven without the need for a HGV license. But if you literally change everything, it would seem to me that that would require a re-evaluation, to say the least.

...!
Stoke Mandeville, Esq & The
Victorian Ballsmiths
"Nobody Want Verdigris-
Covered Balls!"

>I'm sure the Customs people at whatever border post was on the most
>direct route to Puebla City knew all about this little dodge, but it
>was Technically Legal (which is, of course, the best kind of legal),
>so as far as I know, nobody ever got into trouble for it.

"Where did you pick this little beauty up?"

"Bought it from a guy named Theseus."