MILL STREET MUSCLE CAR

More pics from yesteryear. My dad always had fast cars and seemed to change them every 6 months but back in 1973 he owned this Mustang Mach 1. An awesome car to be driven around the Wigan borough in. Left hand drive, V8 lump, 8-track music player and candy red leather interior. We once took a three week long family caravanning trip to Italy and Yugoslavia and averaged between 7-9 miles per gallon! I fondly remember my sister and me lying down in the 'folded-down -seat' boot area, looking up through the tinted panoramic rear window at the crystal clear Mediterranean sky whilst listening to Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra. Unsure of all the contributing facts but I think the car was sold on pretty quickly after this trip....probably because it was such a gas guzzler!
I'm not really into cars but if I ever had a few grand spare...I would hunt down one of these iconic bruisers.

Viva Montesa!

Whilst trawling through old family photos at my parent's house, I found this gem.

That's my sister and me on my Dad's Montesa back in about 1973. Not a clue why we are both wearing RAF dress hats.

"You shall go to the Prom"

It was my Nephew, Jake Roberts 16th Birthday yesterday. As I posted a couple of weeks back, he's recovering from surgery to a splintered collar-bone after a heavy BMX crash whilst training in Denmark.

One positive outcome from all this is Jake can now take his girlfriend, Aimee-Kate to his school Prom Night! The date clashes with a round of the National race championship and he's under contract to attend 'em all...However, he is recuperating...so he's excused.

Jake came round yesterday to raid my attic and try out some suitable threads for the Prom. this is the outfit he picked out.

I know for a fact that his mum has different ideas about this.......thing is.... he's Sixteen now!

BIG BALLS...BIG HEART

My nephew Jacob Roberts got hurt this afternoon.

 He flew out to Copenhagen, Denmark with 12 other top English BMX racers.

They have privately rented the UCI SUPERCROSS track for the weekend. The track is ultra-gnarly......it's BMX on steroids.....super-hero stuff.....the stuff you see in an X-BOX game.

Unfortunately, Jake went down hard on his first attempt to take the fearsome first jump... a 40-footer. According to his Step-Dad, Roy... he did a massive, terminal endo..... landing on his head and breaking his collarbone.
the phone footage is shaky and doesn't show the impact....but it still sickens me to watch.

Over the last 8 years, we have watched Jake grow from a little kid "having a ride round" to becoming one of the most promising racers in the country. He will turn 16 in April, he's the 4 times defending British and National number 1 and is one of only a handful of racers on the BRITISH CYCLING TALENT TEAM.....grooming him to represent his country at the 2016 Olympics (he's just a few months too young  for 2012 London)

I'm watching his progress "live" on Facebook....it's a bad break and he's been moved to another hospital to see a surgeon.

Jake is my hero...his first time on one of these "X-Games super tracks", only been there less than one hour, he has the balls to take a jump like that, fully commited, not knowing whether he will make it or not.
Unfortunately, today, it didn't go quite as planned, but knowing Jake like I do, if he had not broken his bones ..I'm 100% certain he would have dusted himself down and tried it again and again ..until he made it.
These modern, made-for-TV tracks make the tracks I raced on back in 1980-81 seem like pre-school.....I wouldn't even ride down that start ramp!!

I'm so proud of his achievements and if he wasn't so damn good at BMX I would have had him on SKOOTER FARM in the junior class in a heartbeat....I know he is in good hands but I am thinking about him....

BTW, Jakes bike sponsor is REDLINE ENGINEERING for those that know their flat track motorcycle history..a company formed by Linn Kastan....originally producing thoroughbred cro-moly race frames before sidestepping into BMX racing in the late 70's!

UPDATE

Jacob is now recovering from his surgery which involved a steel plate and pins. It's a complicated break, he splintered the collar bone into 4 pieces and has been told he can't even begin to do any physio for another 6 weeks. This means he will miss the first few rounds of the British BMX championship...which he's gutted about.

DON POST CALENDAR MASKS

FRANKENSTEIN MONSTER

THE CREATURE

GORILLA

THE HUNCHBACK

THE MAD DOCTOR

THE MOLEMAN

THE MUMMY

METALLUNA MUTANT

THE PHANTOM

THE WOLFMAN

MR. HYDE

DRACULA

Here at Full Frokkul Fiasco it's Halloween every day of the year! and to labour the point here is a fantastic collection of latex masks from DON POST STUDIOS.

These particular masks are commonly known as "The Calendar Masks". They were released in 1966 and as a marketing ploy, each of the 12 masks were showcased in a full colour calendar available through FAMOUS MONSTERS magazine. Unfortunately, latex doesn't age very well and not many have survived. Original examples, in good condition are highly sought after and sell for big bucks...

The Calendar masks were re-issued in the mid-nineties and can be picked up for a reasonable price but as with most things, the revamped version pales into insignificance compared to the 44 year old originals.

Another negative with the re-issues is, because they have been cast off the originals(the factory molds are long gone) the new masks are somewhat smaller and therefore can't be worn and are classed as display only.

However, it is possible to force the mask over a small childs head for a quick photograph....like we did one time a few years back.....sorry Jake!!

A family business

The Tracy brothers..........A definition of a strong family unit even though the boys mother died young and Jeff the father brought them up on his own.

From the top: Scott, Virgil, John, Gordon,and Alan.

Jacob Roberts BMX national #1

Coppul 2008

This is my Nephew, BMX racer, Jacob Roberts. He started racing when he was 8 years old, he's gonna be 15 this year and has been the UK national #1 for the last 3 consecutive years. He rode for SE RACING for the last couple of seasons but this year he is back on REDLINE. The shots on the motorcycle are from when he was 9 years old. The video clips are Jacob winning the British Championships in 2008 and Coppul national 2008(He's in blue SE RACING riding gear)