You have stumbled on a delightful box of tricks, Classic Trials & other perverse stuff from Michael Leete. MCC ACTC and other trials. VW Beetles, Dellows, Marlins, or even Suzuki X90's
My Mechanics Trial from the passenger seat by Peter Mountain
It was Jim Mountains turn to drive on Stroud&DMC’s Mechanics Trial. With Peter relegated to the passengers seat of his immaculate Class 8 Dellow he had the chance to turn reporter.
Peter in the passengers seat as Jim makes smoke on the Greenway lane restart. (picture by Dave Cook)
Jim’s not done the Mechanics Trial before so we decided it was his turn for a drive. A 5.30am start got us to the venue well in time to unload and have an excellent breakfast roll from the mobile caterers. I noticed that the Wall family had stirred up their normal line up as well with nobody in their usual driving seats and Eric marshalling.
We had a fairly uneventful trial, except that the engine cut out and then recovered in two critical places, so I have to have a close look at the fuel system next weekend. There were quite a few delays and we ended up running about 2 hours late. However, it was a glorious sunny day and the delays gave us time to get the refreshments eaten.
The restarts were real tests and congratulation to Simon Woodall in getting off nearly all of them to take the honours in class 8.
Falcon’s Simon Groves passengered Emma Robiliard in her excellent 1st in class 4 and 2nd overall.
Stuart Roach had a grand event to win overall in his HRG, which was the only class 5 car in the event.
The Stroud & DMC do a very good job organizing two classic trials so close together and nearly all on different hills. On the Mechanics you don’t get the classics like Nailsworth Ladder and Crooked Mustard but the club gave us a good variety of decent hills with some stoppers to test the cars and drivers.
I hope that the crews of the Jago Jeeps and Sierra enjoyed themselves; it is hard to think of any more unsuitable vehicles to go classic trialling with. A couple of the old lanes had us leaning at crazy angles, it must be far more difficult in a wide softly suspended saloon car.
With only 1 class 5 car and no class 6 cars entered I wonder where all the class 5 and 6 cars have gone.
Classes 3, 7 & 8 are the numerically dominant classes and most of the cars in these classes are based on running gear that has been obsolete for a long time now.
I’m looking forward to the Kyrle in 2 weeks; a trial that I’ve not done before.
Best Overall
Stuart Roach (HRG)
2
Class Winners
1
David Haizelden (VW Golf GTi)
8
2
Emma Wall (Austin Seven)
12
3
Stuart Deacon (Ford Escort)
12
4
Emma Robilliard (VW Beetle)
6
7
Pete Hart (Marlin)
9
8
Simon Woodall (VW Buggy)
8
We have been publishing stuff about Classic Trials on the Web since 1995 and always appreciate feedback. Comments, Corrections, Criticism & Concerns are all welcome. You can leave a comment to have your say here on this web site or our Social Media
Please help spread the word and share this on your Social Media:
Peter took part in both the Mechanic’s and Allen Trial’s. Here is his report:-
MECHANICS TRIAL
Mike Young passengered for me in the Stroud and District MC’s Mechanics Trial. Two big chaps is quite cosy in a Dellow.
I only realised on Thursday that this was a Saturday trial and not a Sunday event, so I very nearly arrived 24 hours late.
No grip in wet mud was a problem so we finished in the bottom half of the field in what was a most enjoyable trial organized very slickly. Shame that the entry was not larger but that helped to reduce delays to the minimum. They must have plenty of suitable bye-roads around Stroud; I was impressed that we only used one or two hills that were used in the Cotswold Clouds.
As Ted Holloway has reported we all stopped at 11am for 2 minutes silence for Armistice Day.
Mike Young puts a huge effort into bouncing Peter’s Dellow up Greenway lane in this picture by Dave Cook.
ALLEN TRIAL
Two weeks later Jim and I entered the Bristol MC’s Allen Trial. Same story, too little grip in the mud despite a pair of new tyres, but I did get off a tricky restart at Guys Hill that Dudley Sterry did not manage, which made up a bit for my mediocre result.
At the start of the Uplands sections there were large deep puddles where many cars had to bale water out from inside when they stopped and there were a few misfiring engines as well.
Ubley Woods was a bit of a fiasco from my point of view, no grip, no steering, lots of points. Pete Hart had to do a bit of sorting out and the two hills in the muddy steeply sloping field were divided amongst the classes, keeping the delays down to the minimum.
Dave Wall did very well in his “brand new” blue Dellow Mk 1 on 18” rear wheels; he was 4th in class 8, beating experts like Dudley Sterry and Ian Davis in the process.
I need to do some modifications before the Exeter to try to improve the grip in the mud.
Falcon members participating were Simon Groves (Escort) 4th in class 3, Keith Oakes (Dutton) 7th in class 7, and in class 8 Ian Davis 7th, Geoff Hodge (RDT) 11th, Peter Mountain (Dellow) 14th, John Parsons (Buggy) 15th and Mike Pearson (Dellow Rep) 16th.
Peter and Jim Mountain ease the Dellow up Bug Uplands in this picture by Dave Cook.
We have been publishing stuff about Classic Trials on the Web since 1995 and always appreciate feedback. Comments, Corrections, Criticism & Concerns are all welcome. You can leave a comment to have your say here on this web site or our Social Media
Please help spread the word and share this on your Social Media:
Adrian Marfell won this years Mechanics Trial, but in a Beetle this time rather than his usual special. There were quite a few clean sheets so Adrian’s win was decided on special test times and he was fastest by a long way
Adrian Marfell with his Mechanics Trial winning Beetle
Unusually for my reports this one will be written in the first person as running at the front of the field I didn’t see much of what went on and didn’t stand waiting in many queues to chat to competitors and marshals!
This was the second year Stroud had run The Mechanics as a road trial. It was born out of the clubs one off Anniversary Trial, organised by Andrew Brown and Rich Welch, but never ran because of Foot and Mouth. The event was taken over by the Hayward clan and run by taking The Mechanics Trial out on the road. With the Cotswold Clouds running in the area there must have been a great temptation to use some of the well-known hills. However, this was resisted and there was no duplication with “The Clouds” apart from the start and finish venues.
Mike Hayward, (who is not related to the organising family) and I had entered “The Mechanics” last year but never even got to the start as my Beetles Brakes seized only a few miles from home. We managed a bit better this year, which was really good as we were especially looking forward to The Mechanics, which promised us new hills and a route in the area of Falcon’s old Guy Fawkes Trial.
We were running only a few cars from the front so it was an early start, leaving Bedfordshire at 4.30am and arriving at The Little Chef just off the M5 at Stonehouse dead on 7 for our slap up breakfast. This was not to be, as along with Clive Booth and John Allsop we waited in vain for some sign of life, giving up at 7.30 in favour of a bacon bap at The Ryford! We were first in line at scruitineering and started to worry as there were was no scruitineer, no organisers and no other competitors. There were signs of life just before 8 and the formalities were soon completed and we were on our way with a few nice words from Ken Hobbs, thanking us for journeying out to the Cotswolds for the event.
Clive Booth and John Allsop in good form on the start line at Tin Pan Alley
It was right out of Gordon’s garage, as would be usual for the Clouds, but instead of turning left we went straight on, past the Little Chef that was now open, and crossing and re-crossing the M5 to the first hill. This first section was not the problem hill of last year where so many people got stuck, but Tin Pan Alley which May’s Wheelspin tells me was first used before the war on the Bristol’s Clubs Fedden Trial when it was called Tramps Paradise.
A very un-tramp like John and June Blakeley greeted competitors on this gentle warm-up hill. Like most of the hills it was a long and leafy lane and as an early number there were so many fallen leaves it was difficult to see the surface underneath.
A passengers eye view of Alf’s delight as Mike Hobbs waits on the start line.
Eric Wall greeted us a few miles up the road at “Alfs Delight” another long leafy section which finished by going over a carpet to get the mud off the wheels before emerging onto a very clean and tidy estate road that led us to the new Age Traveller encampment at the Crooked Mustard/Axe cross roads so familiar on The Cotswold Clouds.
Things got a bit tougher at Boxwell where we approached through Scrubbets Farm. Looking at an old Guy Fawkes program from 1960 I see that the last two hills were “Axe” and “Scrubbets” and Mike and I reckoned that this was the same hill. It was approached with quite a steep downhill so the Guy Fawkes section could have been the Mechanics approach road. Anyway today’s section was easy enough, apart from the restart at the end which was on a big bump leading to a very sharp left at tee.
Robert Gregg hustles his Troll towards the tricky re-start on Boxwell
Waiting at the start we heard Mike Hobbs fail the restart in his Beetle and then David Bowlas do the same in his Midget and when we arrived we made it three in a row! Looking through the results afterwards we saw that around one third failed and two thirds got away clean, including both Dave and John Sargeant in their Beetles who were running just behind us.
Dave Sargeant approaching the summit of Wood Lane watched by some of the many spectators from nearby Nailsworth.
The route then led into the centre of Nailsworth and Wood Lane, a tree lined track with a grassy surface, that would have been tricky had it been wet, but didn’t trouble the scorer in the dry. The route then wound its way round the houses and cottages up and down some very, very steep single-track tarmac roads to Ferris Court where Simon Harris was in charge at the start of another hill used on the 1960 Guy Fawkes. Simon warned us that the exit track was extremely over-grown. The section was nice and long with two quite sharp hairpins, the first left, the second right and what I thought at the time was an easy re-start but from the results I see it stopped a few competitors, notably one Andrew Brown!
We were soon back in Cotswold Clouds territory, passing Merves Swerve and down Catswood (used on the 1960 Guy Fawkes) where we stopped to observe the two minutes remembrance silence. At the bottom we went straight across to King Charles Lane, which again was very, very long with the track developing a deep vee gully towards the summit so it was important to keep up the momentum if you wanted to avoid toppling over!
Jim Scott marks Carl Talbot’s card as he heads towards the fallen tree on Greenway Lane
The route now headed north towards Cheltenham up the A46 to Greenway Lane where Jim Scott was on the start line and Stuart Cairney on the restart. The surface was smooth at the start but it became rougher and rockier then deviated off to the right around a fallen tree where there were two different restarts for the higher classes. It looked pretty fearsome as there was a steep step on the inside but by keeping right it was possible to avoid it and most of the experienced drivers went clean.
Mike Hobbs on Laverton
The distance between the sections started to markedly increase now and we went into the suburbs of Cheltenham coming out again on heading South east on the A40 towards Oxford turning off on the B4632 through Winchcombe to Laverton, a hill I’m sure I remember reading about but can’t find any reference to! It looked innocuous enough at the bottom but the ruts soon got deeper just before we reached a huge rocky step, which had experienced an extremely local downpour. The yellows and reds had a restart but we were able to go straight through so we just eased the Beetle over the bump for a clean. There was a very long exit track and as we were getting hungry and it was one o’clock we stopped for the best part of twenty minutes to eat our sandwiches. We didn’t see any competitors while we waited so there must have been some delays somewhere.
The route wound through Winchcombe again and back north towards Cheltenham, interrupted only by a special test at Postlip managed by Bill Foreshew and his wife. This was another familiar name from the Guy Fawkes, featuring in the 1970 event, my first Classic trial as a competitor, bouncing for Pete Smith in his Anglia.
Bryan Phipps leaving it very late to turn into the hairpin at the top of Noverton Lane. To late as having lost his ballast on the restart Bryan compounded his problems by under-steering into trees immediately after this picture was taken!
The trial was coming to an end now but there was a sting in the tail at Noverton Lane with Tim Lakin at the start. It started easy enough with a gentle track through a wood but soon the gradient and the rocks started. There were separate restarts for whites to yellows/reds. Just as I slowed for our restart I heard a loud hissing and on the restart stuck my head out of the window to see a rear tyre going down. We tried to pull away but not to hard as we could see a horrendous rock step ahead and we didn’t fancy our chances getting over with a wheel down to the rim. Mark Linforth had a rescue crew here with a tractor and a Landrover and they dragged us up to a lay-by where we changed the wheel and took a few pictures. We saw that competitor’s troubles didn’t end at the step as there was a very sharp hairpin left just before the finish and this caught out a lot of drivers who under-steered into the trees.
We weren’t the only Beetle to get a puncture here as both John and Dave Sargeant were changing wheels at the summit. All that remained was a special test at Burcombe Lane and an observed section called Viaduct before the finish on Minchinghampton Common. It wasn’t that easy though as we got well and truly lost, as did a few other competitors, and we were pretty certain that all was not well with the road book here.
Mike and I signed off just before 4pm and headed straight for home, as I had to get up at 4 the next morning. We arrived back in Bedfordshire at 7pm having driven though a bit of rain!
We enjoyed our Mechanics Trial. Lots of nice long sections, all on real tracks. OK Noverton Lane was a bit rough but as Andrew Brown says there was plenty of grip so you could pick your speed and line. Like a lot of the hills it could have been a very different storey in the mud! All round we really enjoyed our Mechanics Trial and we will be back next year.
We have been publishing stuff about Classic Trials on the Web since 1995 and always appreciate feedback. Comments, Corrections, Criticism & Concerns are all welcome. You can leave a comment to have your say here on this web site or our Social Media
Please help spread the word and share this on your Social Media:
Fred Gregory and Pete Stafford enjoyed The Mechanics Trial
Having competed in quite a few Cotswold Clouds, Pete Stafford and I knew that their Mechanic’s Trial was going to be a rough, tough event. We were not disappointed, and getting the chance to explore sections and tracks that we had never seen before, and had not been trialled for many years, heightened the experience.
The day dawned wet and misty. We were running quite early in the field; at number seven, so we hadn’t expected to see clubmates Michael Leete and Mike Hayward, who were among the tail end Charlie’s. It was a good job we didn’t hang around for them, because they didn’t make the start, when the Beetles front brakes locked on only a few miles from home.
Our adventure started even before the first hill. We were travelling in convoy on a long off road run-in to the first section when my Rickman Ranger got stuck. We were actually going down hill at the time and the car was well and truly stuck on its diff casing. We were stranded with our driven wheels practically off the ground. Clearly we weren’t going to drive off under our own power, so the ever resourceful Pete Stafford dived into the undergrowth to produce a strong tree branch that we used to lever the car off. Away we went towards the first section, not very far though, because just a few yards further on the track had been washed out. There was a triangular shaped gully up the middle with the sides at an angle of about 30 degrees. I tried my hardest to straddle it but the Rickman soon dropped in, to heel over at an enormous angle. Pete fell across on top of me but there was no choice but to keep my foot down. We scraped along with the side of the car wearing away as it rubbed along the side of the trench! We were not alone; one of the Moss Brothers in an Imp did the same, only he got stuck! I wonder how many other competitors followed suite?
The section was a no-no, too tight a turn at the bottom for us. On to section two, not so fast though as there was more off roading. Our convoy found a Cannon ahead trying to reach the tarmac road un-aided. Teamwork got him out, plus our entire group of six or so cars. Carl Talbot got all the way to the four in his class eight Trialsmaster and Ian Moss wasn’t far behind him in his Imp. Most of the entry was like me though, grinding to a halt at the eleven!
Some of the sections were sub divided, funnily enough we found these ones easier! The off-roading was great, the sections were often narrow, rough and challenging, absolutely marvellous stuff, never mind that two were abandoned.
By the time we reached the last section, called “Viaduct” we were running first on the road. The start was on a flat, deep leaf-moulded surface then a muddy bit, through a gate onto a soggy field, climbing, then harder ground followed by steep mud with ruts and it was sub-divided. We gave it full power. Pete on full bounce mode even using 2nd gear it was touch and go at times, a brilliant section. We stopped in sight of the section ends board for a one. No way out, it was back down to the start, nearly half a mile away.
While we waited for a way back to the road there was a medical emergency, a suspected heart attack. Nearly everybody had to leave to make room for an ambulance. We hoped the patient was OK but after the event we learned that he died.
The section was cancelled and the entry wound their sad way to the finish. A tragic end but thanks Stroud boys and girls we really enjoyed our Mechanics Trial.
We have been publishing stuff about Classic Trials on the Web since 1995 and always appreciate feedback. Comments, Corrections, Criticism & Concerns are all welcome. You can leave a comment to have your say here on this web site or our Social Media
Please help spread the word and share this on your Social Media:
I was really looking forward to my Mechanic’s Trial, and so was Mike Hayward. It promised to be really interesting, the first “new” event for us since we did The Exe Valley a few years ago. It was particularly poignant for us as Falcon enthusiasts, as it promised to use some of the sections from The Guy Fawkes, back when it was a road trial in The Cotswolds.
by Michael Leete
The event was first planned as “The Anniversary Trial” to celebrate Stroud’s 50th. Andrew Brown and Rich Welch organised it as a day/night event, with relatively easy sections, with the emphasis on the team award. They had sought out a mixture of old and new sections in the Cotswolds, using the area to the North of “The Cloud’s” stamping ground. Andrew had done a tremendous amount of research, including seeking out some of the sections used on the old Falcon Guy Fawkes. The event was first called off because of floods and then Foot and Mouth got in the way. By this time both Andrew and Rich ran into time problems and the event was put on the back burner.
It was a waste to throw away all the hard work, so Stroud’s Hayward clan took up the mantle and the club decided to make their Mechanic’s Trial a road event. It was to use some of the defunct “Anniversary’s” route, but with some new ones to make it a rather tougher event, in the normal Stroud style. Mike and I had originally planned to do The Anniversary in Mike’s Escort but we entered The Mechanic’s in my Beetle.
The car had been resting in the garage over the summer and I hadn’t really done anything to it since The Lands End. It had gone well on The Edinburgh, despite the little problem when the brakes disappeared. The first time this happened was in the queue for Putwell. I went to move the car forward and the footbrake went to the floor! A pump of the pedal and there was a little bit of brake, another pump and it was back to normal. I leapt out of the car and dived underneath. No evidence of leaks. Up with the hood to check the reservoir, all looked well and the pedal was back.
We continued with caution and all seemed well. An hour or so later we were coming down a hill in convoy with Mike Pearson and Simon Robson and the pedal went to the floor again. Turning into a lay by we checked. Again there was no fluid loss and the pedal came back after a pump or two. I went back and talked to Mike and Arnold and they reckoned the master cylinder was on the way out. I decided to continue albeit at quite a slow pace! We finished the trial and drove home the next day with no problems. Back at base, I could find nothing wrong, although I noticed the front brakes were dragging a bit.
The next weekend I fitted a new master cylinder, which was bit of an effort, as the other one hadn’t been fitted properly. The pushrod passed through the double-skinned front bulkhead on the floor pan. It is only supposed to bolt to the outer skin, using a couple of spacers to extend the length of the bolts. The manual gives dire warnings about not dropping these down into the void. I didn’t, because they weren’t there! Someone had lost them when changing the master cylinder on a previous occasion! I used a magnet to fish about down the hole to no avail, presumably they had fallen out when I had a section of the frame head replaced in the early days of owning the car.
The previous owner had secured the master cylinder by putting large washers under the bolts and securing the master cylinder through both skins, which without the spacers had collapsed the inner one in a bit. I didn’t want to repeat the error so I made a couple of new ones up out of a couple of bits of pipe, skimming them flat with the little model makers lathe I bought earlier in the year. I put everything back together and everything worked, except the front brakes seemed to be dragging a bit. I took the car for a spin and everything seemed to function so I put it away until the Mechanics Trial.
Mike and I set out early, chatting away, without a care in the world. We got to Ampthill, about ten miles away from home and I braked for a roundabout. Pulling away I smelt burning and soon realised it as coming from the brakes. We stopped and I saw how hot the front hubs were. Hoping whatever was wrong would right itself we carried, on but the car wouldn’t pull the skin off a rice pudding. Stopping we jacked the front up. The brakes were locked on pretty solid.
It was raining but we had good look but couldn’t come up with any better ideas other than the new master cylinder was faulty. I hammered away at the pads until they were free of the disks and we limped home on the handbrake. We talked of going down and spectating on The Mechanics but decided this was not a good idea as we didn’t know where any of the hills were so we went to the VW Swap Meet at Slough instead.
In order for the fluid to go back up to the reservoir when the pedal is released so the pads can go back channel A must be open which means there must be clearance b between the pushrod and cylinder.
Looking at the car the first idea was that I hadn’t adjusted the master cylinder pushrod correctly, preventing the fluid going back up to the reservoir when the brakes are released. I slackened this right off and it made no difference. Then I undid the bleed nipples, releasing any pressure, still no difference. Then I took the brake pipes off, still no difference! So that only left the callipers, which were only a couple of years old but there was nothing else. Putting the pipes back, I persuaded Lesley to get in the car and put the brakes on. I then got a drift and knocked one of the pads back. I got her to put her foot on the pedal again. The piston didn’t move. Harder and harder, she pushed and slowly it moved forward with many creaks and groans. I took the pad out and got my big crowbar and levered the piston back. We repeated the process for about ten minutes until the piston moved freely. I put the pad back and went on top the next one.
I was pretty annoyed with myself for not trying this in the lay-by but there we are. The brakes worked but I decided not to take any chances and got a new pair of callipers. Now all I have to do is stop the fluid leaks having undone all those brake pipes! So, why had the brakes failed on The Edinburgh? Murray’s theory is that they were rubbing then and that the heat had boiled the brake fluid. Any better idea’s?
We have been publishing stuff about Classic Trials on the Web since 1995 and always appreciate feedback. Comments, Corrections, Criticism & Concerns are all welcome. You can leave a comment to have your say here on this web site or our Social Media
Please help spread the word and share this on your Social Media:
Classical Gas 