New YouTube Channel Launched - Power and Performance with Alex Sharphouse
Morris Lubricants is proud to announce the launch of Power and Performance, a new YouTube channel that showcases the very best of British engineering. This new channel will host exclusive content, including behind-the-scenes build videos with Morris Lubricants’ brand ambassador and expert engineer Alex Sharphouse as he tackles his ambitious and innovative engineering projects. And Alex has plenty of projects on the go at once! Throughout the series, special guests will make appearances, including Morris Lubricants brand ambassadors Guy Martin and Dave Jenkins, as well as automotive journalist Charlotte Vowden and various specialists. All will be on hand to ask Alex some difficult questions, but importantly, to give some expert advice.
Famed for the construction of Talisman, a Fowler B6 Big Lion Road Locomotive, Alex sat down with Charlotte Vowden, who will present the series, to tell us more…
What’s your specialisation?
I’m an engineer whose lifelong passion became a profession. I specialise in steam engines – from road to rail – but I also restore vintage vehicles of any shape and size as well as modern race vehicles. Working on someone’s pride and joy is a privilege as well as a massive responsibility. To maintain a machine’s integrity, you must get the job done right. No shortcuts, no excuses.
Can you remember the first time you were spanners on?
I was about five or six years old, and I took a lawnmower to bits. I wasn’t supposed to, but I did put it back together again – and it did work! My first major rebuild was a Lister D stationary engine that I bought as a bucket of rusty parts. I was a teenager then, and I’ve still got it.
What build are you most proud of?
It has to be building Talisman. I built it from scratch, using the original blueprints and a mixture of traditional and contemporary engineering techniques and skills. When I started the project I genuinely didn’t think I could do it. Looking back, it was a momentous undertaking, and there were so many things I didn’t know how to do. But as time went on with the build, and to be able to overcome each hurdle involved was amazing. The absolute proudest moment was when I took it to the Shrewsbury Steam Rally. I nearly cried watching Morris Lubricants’ Executive Chairman, Andrew Goddard, and his son drive it round the arena. I thought Wow, I built that machine, it’s great.
What can we expect from Power and Performance?
The unexpected. There are many different projects I’ll be working on at my workshop in the Lake District, and some involve a lot of unknown territory for me. I’m going to learn a lot. When I was a kid, there was no YouTube, so I had to pester the grown-ups around me to find out how to do things. I hope the Power and Performance YouTube channel becomes a place where people can today see what I do and pick up their own new skills and also learn about the Morris Lubricants’ product range. They do so much more than engine oils. From maintaining my tools and equipment to running and protecting the machines I build, I use Morris Lubricants’ products across the board.
Can you tell us any more about the projects?
As I say, there are many different projects planned and the two I have started are epic and really exciting!
As a boy, I fell in love with a toy Bentley Blower. As an adult, I still love Bentley Blowers, but I can’t afford to buy one, so I’m going to build one instead. It’s going to be a tool room copy of the Bentley Blower Birkin 8, the most famous race car that never won a race. It’s totally out of my comfort zone, I’m used to building big heavy steam engines and using a 100-tonne press to make bits fit; I’ve never done anything so intricate. It is a mixture of emotions, excitement and also intrigue.
The second project is mega. I am going to build a car powered by an aero engine. It will be built using a Rolls-Royce V12 Mk58 Griffon engine, which I manage to obtain. When I got the Griffon engine it was as a seized-up block of rust. It was a right mess! The Griffon engine was, and still is, an absolutely incredible British engineering feat. It was developed towards the end of World War II and it helped to win the war - it didn’t let us down. The aero engine powered car, as I envisage it, is as I say mega, it is going to be wild. The plan is to put the Griffon aero engine into a 1930s Rolls-Royce car chassis and build a race car. So it is putting a very powerful Rolls-Royce aero engine into a 1930s Rolls-Royce car and building a race car that is built for speed.
The challenge does not stop there as I want to try and build it and keep it in period as much as I can. So there will be no fancy upgrades such as air conditioning, heated seats, electronic engine management systems or anti-lock braking systems. In fact, I'm actually not worried about stopping, it’s all about getting it going and going fast – that is the big challenge!
How do you tackle builds as ambitious as these?
I break them down into chunks to make them more manageable. I’ll use a mixture of modern and old techniques, tools and skills, such as 3D printing, CNC laser cutting – a computer-controlled fabrication process that uses high-density light beams to cut parts out of sheet metal – and hammers and saws that I inherited from my grandfather and father. Purists and traditionalists don’t seem to mind this combination of new and old technology. Generally, I think people are just in awe that these old machines can live on, whatever the method employed to allow them to do so. Back in the day, a whole team of people would concentrate on one aspect of a build, but in a way, I’m a jack of all trades, I have to master everything to achieve the end goal.
How will Morris Lubricants help?
I feel very fortunate to have Morris Lubricants on board. Interesting engineering projects like the ones I’m working on provide a great opportunity to showcase their range of products and their different applications. In terms of lubrication and coolants, there’s going to be an awful lot of things to talk about. I’m going to need technical advice and we might even need to manufacture new oils and lubricants to meet the specific requirements of these ambitious builds. It’s already become apparent that the dry sump Griffon engine is going to be a challenge. As you can imagine, you could not have a big sump of oil in a fighter plane as it flies up around and upside down in a dog fight.. So how we feed and cool the oil in the Griffon engine powered race car that is on the ground and at a lower atmospheric pressure than in the sky, is going to take some working out!
Why is the preservation of heritage skills and British engineering so important?
It’s easy to forget where we’ve come from, so it’s important to showcase what we’ve done, and can do, as a country. When you eventually leave this earth, if you've left something behind to inspire the next generation, then hopefully, you’re helping to build a better future. In the process of reviving and preserving these historic machines, we also need to be aware that our environment needs looking after too. I live in the Lake District, it’s a beautiful place, and the last thing I want is to be seen to be damaging it, so I’m looking to pioneer new ways in which that can be done.
What will that involve?
Stay tuned to find out!
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