I didn't think I needed one!

[wilf leek]

Dear Mr Turk - you could well be right about the looks I get, but there again we have a great and long-standing tradition of "The Great British Eccentric", seemingly I fit right in there, it could be admiration after all for one who is upholding such a tradition.

I don't think you should antagonise that nice Mr Jamo - after all, where else you gonna go for that sheepskin thong thingy??

BTW - I went and measured my litle itty bitty tiny small block cylinders - they appear to be quite large after all, in fact, just a quarter inch smaller than a 427 SO??? You gonna make a big deal about 1/4", or has it made a difference for you before??

With respect for your great looking car

Wilf

[Turk]

Wilf
Well said in the tradition of "size does NOT matter".

Only those short an inch or two would advance such a theory. In your case you are down quibbling over a meesly 1/4''. If that is all your are lacking, you are well within the acceptance of the BIG boys.

Thanks for the respects for my car. Now only if, I could command as much. Maybe if I put a big white stripe right down the middle of my.. oh never mind.

BTW. If you were able to walk up and measure your cylinders, that means the heads and the manifold are off of the car AGAIN. That is the problem with them small blocks. Bore and weld, bore and weld.

Good day!

Jamo
Do you owe Claunch money or something?



TURK

[cobrajeff]

WUS! - what'sa matter? run out of Raki?

My tenent while building my car - if it won't make it go FASTER, or isn't required BY LAW - it AIN'T GOT ONE!

regards from the frozen Midwest,

cobrajeff

[wilf leek]

Dear Mr Turk - than you for your kind words, I had not previously realised the tolerance limits separating small from big boys. I now luxuriate in the knowledge that I too, am preparing to launch myself into the world of the larger chap. Gosh I hope they are going to be kind to a newbie.

BTW- didn't have to actually go out and measure them there bores - it was, as we say here in the good old U of K, a "figure of speech". Do you have those yet in your parts??? Or should I even mention "parts" seeing as how I assume that yours may be only thinly insulated from the real world by the aforementioned thong apparatus?

Wilf

[Jamo]

Turk ("if that's your real name") [God, I love that quote!]

The situation with my ol buddy Claunch stems from the ancient Fresno v. Bakersfield competition (Which is the best rest stop on Hwy 99?) The difference in crime rates that he points to are the direct result of folks from Bakersfield coming up here and stealing our stuff cause there ain't nothing in Bakersfield.

I'm not sure, but I believe our British brother just gave you a friendly dig in a most sophisticated manner. Well done.

[Turk]

Jamo
Yeah! The guy calls you Mr. Jamo, and questions if Turk is my real name. Did you put him up to it?
The -Famous Rivalry between Fresno and Bakersfield-? yiieeks!!
I must have missed than one.I bet it was sumpt'n!!

Is it available on DVD yet?

wilf leek!!!
I can say that name thousands of times, and still sounds like there is something misssing in there somewhere.

Welcome my son..to the world of Bigger is Better. The American Way!
Your application has been accepted. Please send documentation to Jamo!.
"Figure of speech" and other components of the language is what we occasionally murder here on the forum. Leave it to an Englishman to hold classes for proper usage of the language. We need that from time to time.
Today, I should be in long johns, not thongs. It is wet and cold, just like Evesham in 1964. You know where Evesham is don't you?

TURK
A secret admirer.

[Gordon Claunch]

Turk, My friend Jamo is incorrect, the safest city survey just came out ,look below for the link below that is the crime rate I speak of
Fresno is far below Bakersfield as usual,alas Vacaville is ahead of us in safety as long as you don't bend over!!!


http://www.morganquitno.com/safecity.htm

[wilf leek]

Thank you again for your kind words Mr Turk, you could be right about something being missing from my name, many people preface it with "Mr".

I look forward to many further encounters in the world of the big boys, doubtless I shall need your forebearance whilst I learn the ways of this strange and exciting new arena . Whenever you feel the need for help to avoid strangling the native tongue of the cradle of democracy do please feel free to call for my advice. I do of course bow to your own greater experiences with languages in general, personally I can only order a beer in 3 or 4, Spanish being next on my list.

Evesham is now habitable again after many years of quarantine - when was it you were there again?? I think they may even have something called a "McDonalds" there now, although I have never seen one myself.


In friendship

Wilf

[Specialk]

Turk,

I think Mr. Leek has just executed a very fine "burn". I am sorry about my having fun at your expense. I understand it is cold. My wife won’t ride in a Cobra without a heater either.

Kris

[Turk]

SpecialK
This is not Wimbleton. Mr. Leek and I don't need no spectators, certainly no wagering.

He is an Englishman, and just about the time you think he has the winning hand, he'll call it a draw and go home. So..be nice to our International visitors.

Mr. Wilf
If they put up a Mc.Donalds in Evesham,please tell me FLADBURRY is still in tact. I spent three months there when I was in my teens. Had no contagious diseases at the time, and quarantine would not have been on account of me, it might have been some of the fine cuisine gone bad.
BTW how can you tell, when that IS?

I remember my first taste of Kidney Pie, in a Pub, right out of the Glass jar.!! WoW!!
Any meat that does not need refrigeration, should not be eaten.

Help me with the spelling.

Tuh Tuh?
taa Taa?
Neither.


YOUR friend.

TURK

[Jamo]

Claunch

That's because Vacaville only has a "population" when a C-5A lands, except of course for our good buddy.

BTW--how's the fog? Big white wall up here.

[wilf leek]

Dear Turk (if I might use the familiar form of address, Oh, and do please just use plain old "Wilf" yourself in reply).

You are so very right about the quintessentially English way of going about things - we don't actually like to win, believing that that might potentially generate some ill feeling sometime in the future. We prefer to secretly occupy the moral high ground.

Thus - as you suggest, I should be very glad to call our interchange an honorable draw, unless of course that is not an acceptable way to complete matters in your culture, whereupon I could declare you the winner if you so wished??

I am not too well acquainted with Evesham, having only driven through it a couple of times, so I can't tell if "Fladburry" is still there. If you like I could ask around.

Steak and kidney pie though - that's another matter, and we English still insist on inflicting it on our digestive systems at regular intervals. Despite having some of the most stringent food hygiene regulations in the world, we have outbreaks of FPHS (Food Poisoning Hysteria Syndrome) on a regular basis. It just goes to show how resistant our basic foodstuffs are to any outside interference. The Newspapers love it, and our Government responded by appointing a Minister for Food. Which has, of course, made little difference.

On a more serious note, when I first become afflicted with CAS (Cobra Addictive Syndrome) I little realised that it was a world wide pandemic. Because of this I have made friends from all corners of the world who suffer from the same affliction. I hope it would not be too forward of me to include your good self in that number now that we have exchanged gentle insults???

It is interesting to note, since I deal with US work colleagues on a regular basis (based in NY) that the gentle (and mutual) insult form of interchange forms the main basis of communications between our two nations in my experience. Long may it last - it is the truest form of friendship, with no true hurt given or taken.

Oh - I think it could equally well be "Tah Tah" or "Dah Dah". Ask Mr Gates - his piece de resistance does it to me every time I have to reboot.

In friendship

Wilf

PS - With the temperature resolutely well below freezing today, I am still going out in the beast. I have to get in all the rides I can right now, since I am stripping it for its paint job next week, and will have severe withdrawal symptoms. Mad?? Quite possibly so.

[Gordon Claunch]

Jamo, surprisingly enough we have not had any fog yet,my son who is a high school freshman is disapointed he has not had any fog delays, Merry Christmas to you and your family and happy new year!!

[Jamo]

Gordon
Same to you good buddy. Stay safe. BTW, tell your son that Clovis never has foggy day schedules.

Wilf
Any way I can get about five tons of those warm nuts they cook on the Westminster Bridge? That was one of the good things about Marriott Towne Hall--I sent the staff out to get some every evening. It's nice to know you are inflicted with the same fine madness as those of us on this side of the Pond.

[Turk]

Wilf

Draw it is. I have met my match. Someone with your mastery of the language can mop the floor with me, while I am trying to exchange barbs with you.
While I am trying to be witty, I don't want others reading, to credit me with only, half as much. So I better stop while I think I am ahead, otherwise I too will be perceived as being like Evan. A "nag"!

Please send Jamo some "nuts". He obviously feels like we have don't already have enough in California.

Forgive him, he does things like this in public often. That is why he is confined to Fresno. To limit his exposure to the rest of the civilized society that resides mostly 50 to 60 miles north of the border where the odor ends.
Besides...did I tell you he drives an Audi? Really..I am not making this up. He DOES!
What is next? A Dodge Caravan Oval racing?

Good day!

Please don't tell him I told you all this. He thinks I like him, I don't want to hurt his feelings.

TURK
ps. Remember to take your umbrella.

[wilf leek]

Aah, dear Turk and Jamo. I am simply desolated to inform you that the warm nuts from Ye Olde Westminstere Bridge have fallen foul of our wonderful Government's onslaught against food poisoning. I believe that one can no longer even buy bird food in Trafalgar Square since the pigeons there have been declared some form of hazard.
I am still marvelling at your warm-hearted insistence on welcoming still more nuts into your beloved country. Does your munificence know no end?

Turk - I do believe that the Cobra is not the only vehicle residing in your care - any news on the work to the other?

Jamo - I have heard of your mastery of the greener lanes in an Audi. I bow to your prowess. For myself - I also have a Mini - not the new one, but the old. At 6 ft 3inches ( self, and not far off the length of the car either!) it is a squeeze for me, but a blast down our narrow country lanes (aka motorways). I don't compete in it, it's too precious (and my wife holds a lien over both it and some of my more personal parts).

An honourable draw it is, and I look forward to joining you both in the future in the wider sphere of "big boys talking bollocks about Cobra's" (does that translate OK?).


Until the next time, in friendship

Wilf

BTW this "Evan" you mention - a worthy adversary???

[Jamo]

Wilf
My wife and kids are going to cry when I tell them about the demise of the warm nuts--on a brisk nite with the breeze coming off the river, watching the dinner barges and the Wheel with their lights...oh well. Last little bag I had was while watching a loud debate between disinfranchised Gypsies and some of the local townfolk on one side of the bridge, while the Chinese resturant owners had a sizeable little march on the other side after being blamed for the hoof and mouth outbreak.

A Mini? (on my knees, bowed over with arms to the front, chanting "I'm not worthy"). Sounds like a tight fit--tighter if I tried. I see them occassionally at local autocrosses--wonderful devices. Our beloved administrator runs a nice little Abarth--he showed a picture once, but won't share the details.

With regards to Evan, he might be a worthy adersary if you don't mind him shooting rivets back in exchange for your barbs.

[Jamo]

Turk

U don't wuv me?

[Dave Samson]

Hey Wilf,
This business of Englishmen going out in the midday sun is one thing, but taking the Beast out below freezing is beyond comprehension. Now I understand why you guys drink warm beer.

[wilf leek]

Jamo - sorry about the lack of warm nuts. A notably accurate metaphor, seeing as how I did actually take the car out this afternoon. As far as I can see, any day when I can get enough traction to floor it (and there are not many) cannot be wasted.
Alas, the roads were too damp today after all, and I had to settle for the admiring (adoring???) glances of other road users. Now the car begins to be stripped for paint, I shall miss it greatly for the nex few weeks. I wonder If I will ever be able to get it showcased on this forum, in a like manner to Turk's, which is so incredibly and effectively shiny that my PC locks up in admiration every time I visit the home page of this august forum?

The Mini forces me to remember that it and the Cobra demand totally different driving techniques to make them each go around corners. One day I will grab the handbrake (sorry, parking brake) in the Cobra by mistake whilst setting up for a serious bend at some silly velocity. That should be interesting.

Dave - I thank you for your concern. Warm beer is, I suppose, one of those things which will never be understood by anyone other than those weaned on it. I hasten to add that I never, ever, mix driving the beast with enjoyment of the ale. My reflexes are taxed enough sober.

Gentlemen all - a very Happy Christmas to you and yours.

Wilf