Get your motors running

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Café racers

Legend has it that there was a challenge where you had to complete a round trip to a nearby junction and back before the record on the jukebox finished playing. Not sure what the forfeit was, nor the speed limit, but that tells you something about the crowd that used to gather at this venue.

The Ton Up Boys were the stuff of biking legend. As was the venue.

The Ace Cafe, London.

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Among the two wheel fraternity in the 1950s and 60s, the Ace Cafe on the North Circular was the go to place if you were serious about biking. And ‘birds’. After that the only other destination was Brighton. But people tended to go there with a different agenda. A good old ‘punch up’. Happy days….

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Opening of the UK’s first motorway heralded the closing the the Ace. In 1969 they switched off the expresso machine and shut up shop. The end of an era. But you can’t keep a good venue down. Almost thirty years later in 1997 the Ace re-opened. Was it popular? Do bears…?

Was it popular? Do bears…?

No longer the exclusive province of bikers, the Ace has opened its arms to four wheelers too (sacrilege some would say)! Now throughout the year, both day and night there’s one bunch or another of aficionados (you can see where were heading with this) gathering to chat, show off their wheels, exchanges stories.

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…set your sat nav to NW10 7UD and swing by the Ace Cafe

The days of racing are definitely over but the records still play and the bikers turn up in force too. So, if in the words of NGK Torque you consider yourself ‘a petrolhead or gearnut’, set your sat nav to NW10 7UD and swing by the Ace Cafe, or visit their website first to see what’s likely to be parked up on the forecourt.

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Maybe the spirit of the Ace Cafe is best summed up in the word’s of the immortal words of Gene Vincent. If he never waited at the the counter for a cappuccino, he must surely have heard about it on the grapevine…

RACE WITH THE DEVIL

Well I’ve led an evil life, so they say
But I’ll out run the devil on judgement day, I said
Move, hot-rod, move man!
Move, hot-rod, move man!
Move hot-rod, move me on down the the line, oh yeah!

Well me and the devil, at a stop light
He started rollin’, I was out of sight, I said
Move, hot-rod, move man!
Move, hot-rod, move man!
Move hot-rod, move me on down the the line, oh yeah!

Well, goin’ pretty fast, looked behind
A-hear come the the devil doin’ ninety-nine, I said
Move, hot-rod, move man!
Move, hot-rod, move man!
Move hot-rod, move me on down the the line, oh yeah! (Let’s drag now)

Well thought I was smart, the race was won
A-hear come the devil doin’ a-hundred and one
Move, hot-rod, move man!
Move, hot-rod, move man!
Move hot-rod, move me on down the the line (Let’s drag again)

Well, goin’ pretty fast, looked behind
A-hear come the the devil doin’ ninety-nine, I said
Move, hot-rod, move man!
Move, hot-rod, move man!
Move hot-rod, move me on down the the line, oh yeah!

Well I’ve led an evil life, so they say
But I’ll hide from the devil on judgement day, I said
Move, hot-rod, move man!
Move, hot-rod, move man!
Move hot-rod, move me on down the the line.

Tags: , , , Published on 9th June 2015

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