Classical Gas

78th Lands End Trial

Easter saw another excellent Lands End Trial, the MCC’s 78th. Conditions were pretty near ideal. A little sun, a little rain, some dry sections, some wet ones and a sting in the tail at Bluehills.

**Mike Pearson and Arnold Lane waving to the crowd on Crackington**

As usual there was plenty of Falcon support, with some interesting crew variations. Hazel was driving the MacDonald Beetle again, but with Veronica otherwise engaged; she had to be on her best behaviour as Murray was alongside in the passenger seat. Mike Hayward was driving his hybrid Escort in its second classic, and first MCC event, with Michael Leete entwining himself around the roll bar in the back. In class one our RAC PCT champion, Matt Clarke, was enjoying his first MCC outing, passengering Ken Payne in his Golf. Ken is the owner of the Golf Nick Pollitt campaigns although I am not sure if this is the same car.

There should have been another debutante, but Verdun Webley non-started when he couldn’t get his Marlin ready in time, discovering the motor had two head gaskets. Closer examination revealed the head was warped quite badly and Verdun wisely decided to delay things until the car was right. Stuart and Andrew Cairney had a nice restful Good Friday, fitting new pistons and rings to their Imp. Firing it up just in time to drive to the start!

Is it imagination or does the Lands End start earlier every year? Anyway, it was still light when most of the Popham starters got away, ideal for the film crew from Merdian Television who were interviewing Geoff and Reg! The revellers were out at Sugg Lane, cheering and waving at the competitors, who were just praying that they wouldn’t throw the beer bottles they were holding. The route instructions for the exit route were very specific. There was to be no stopping until the main road. No fear of that as the track was lined with a new age traveller encampment. You got the feeling they would have the dogs on you for disturbing their beauty sleep.

The holes on Felons Oak are getting deeper and caused quite a bit of trouble on the re-start for a few people, including Neil Bray who had his first puncture and Tony Branson who had come all the way down from Hexham in his 1300 Marlin. Stuart failed as well, after a struggle to stay awake on the long preceding road section. Minehead Rugby Club gave a twenty-minute rest for some but it was all go for Neil Bray as he adjusted Mikes timing. The Escort had lost all its low down power after its pre-event tune-up and Mike was having a real struggle to get it away on the re-starts.

Stoney Street came and went without drama and Beggars Roost wasn’t too much of a problem as the re-start was on a straight bit. Mike Hayward cleaned the section OK, at the cost of a puncture, but will probably be penalised for rolling back as the handbrake was slipping very badly. As always there are some amusing MCC organisational sub-issues. The road book stated that you had to deflate your tyres on the main road and threatened exclusion if you stopped on the entry track to let them down. The problem was that the main road was lined with parked cars and you had to pull off a long way before to find a space to stop. This meant a long drive on flat tyres and we all know this is a road traffic offence!

The mist came down for the fifty-mile drive over Exmoor to Simonsbath and on to the Hartland peninsula. Sutcombe and Darracott were both up to form. Classic hills in beautiful surroundings but not ones to cost anyone a triple. That was to change on the third Hartland hill, Cutliffe Lane. This is not too difficult in the dry but it’s a different story in the wet, and for this 78th Lands End wet it was. The section starts on a gentle slope, and then it’s a sharp right hander through a gate. The gradient gets steeper and the hill rises sharply up a gully cut into the side of a wooded slope A combination of things make it difficult. Rocks, mud, gradient, they all contribute. This was a hill for the brave and the super-hero’s. Dudley climbed it of course but things were not so easy for mere mortals. You needed plenty of momentum when you got to the straight bit, which meant maximum speed through the gate. This caused problems for some. Dave Turner got his BMW off the line in fine style only to loose traction. He snicked it into second, the tyres bit and the Beemer under-steered straight into one of the gate posts, uprooting it and leaving the BMW in need of a helping hand from the recovery tractor to pull the body-work of the front wheels. The same gatepost was the downfall of Lee and Dani Dove who gave it a mighty blow with their Troll, leaving them with the task of getting the wreckage all the way back to Perth.

The trial returned to Bude for the first special test. A wiggle woggle around the cones of a deserted car park after a fight to get through the centre of town crowded with Saturday shoppers. David Heale was voted one of the most spectacular, lifting the front wheel of his Escort a foot of the ground before slowing when the passengers clip-board got stuck under the pedals. The lady concerned was Mark Hobb’s wife who complained hadn’t let her finish making a phone call! Near neighbours Stuart and Andrew were in trouble again, wrong slotting and going the wrong way around the final bollard.

The MCC had threatened to cancel Crackington if the locals doctored it too much. They responded by dumping one tractor load of slurry on the upper surface instead of the usual two. It seemed to do the trick and the hill was competitive without being impossible. It was reckoned to be rougher though and took its toll on the Falcon contingent. Geoff Jackson had a half shaft go and although Mike Pearson had a spare it was the wrong sort. He managed to find one out the back of a local garage and get down to Newquay nice and early for dinner. He was joined by Tom Goggin who retired when his clutch wouldn’t disengage. Punctures were pretty prevalent. Matt Clarke experienced the joys of being winched up a section when Ken Payne’s Golf lost a tyre and Neil Bray had a similar fate. Mike Hayward got out of the top OK, a great achievement, as he had to do a re-start in what is far from the most suitable car. Pumping the tyres up, whilst the other Michael ran back to do some videoing, Mike found a puncture on one of the rears. Unfortunately the remaining spare was flat, leaving Michael to demonstrate his skills as a tyre mechanic before they could continue.

After Treworld competitors were promised an improvement in facilities at the rest halt. Only to find the cold, barren, windy St Kitts had been replaced by a cold, barren, windy, dirty and smelly cattle market, where you would be excluded if you were caught answering a call of nature behind the shed! The usual frenetic activity was taking place in the car park to repair some of the damage wrought by the event so far. Many competitors were repairing tyres and a local entrepreneur was trying to sell instant repair gel. Mike Hayward had found the problem with his flat spare. Mr Colway had moulded a nail in his “new” remould.

Soon the call of the West beckoned and it was onto the A30 down to Hoskin, deep in Cardinham Woods. This is another doctored section, with a mud bath halfway up, complete with yellow and red re-start. Simon Robson made a successful ascent in his Skoda but Neil Bray wasn’t so lucky. A CV joint had been growling away since Minehead and now it let go in a big way. Coasting down to the bottom Neil got Fred Gregory to tow him out of the woods so he could fit the spare. Unfortunately the special tool needed to loosen the screws was at home so Fred kindly nipped into Bude to buy him a new one. By the time he came back David Thompson had stopped and lent Neil his, so he and Marc had one each! Suitably equipped they managed to fix the Skoda and they were soon on their way back on the A30 towards Bluehills.

The mist had gone by now and the sun was shinning on the spectators that thronged the cliffs at Bluehills. “One” seems to be getting trickier and was catching out quite a few people, including Stuart Cairney and Peter Manning who had to be saved from toppling over as he tried to wall of death his way around the corner at the top. The failures were pulled out by a bunch of marshals tugging on a rope, they included none other than MSA head honcho John Quenby, marshalling at grass roots level. The second Bluehills section had been “improved” by creating an artificial corner just after the start. This certainly spiced things up, especially for the yellow and red re-starters, as the new bit was both rough and steep. It’s sure to attract plenty of comment in Triple! Things looked a bit grim at the beginning as none of the first dozen cars got up. Then along came Mrs MacDonald to show how it should be done. The first person to climb the new hill. Mike Hayward punctured a front tyre on the track linking the two sections and then the long-suffering clutch cried enough. It was just about drivable on the road and Verdun Webley shepherded the two Michael’s to their hotel in Newquay, giving them a friendly tow up the last hill.

The survivors only had a few sections remaining. Trungle Mill was pretty easy but Flambards was quite competitive and provided a sting in the tail for many. There just remained the final special test and signing off at Penzance where there was a major disaster at the finishing hotel. They ran out of beer!

**Nick Iken from Milton Keynes waiting for his turn at Crackington**

1999_lands_end_results Download

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My Torbay Trial

by Neil Bray

**Neil Bray and Marc Lawrence of to a flying start on Lower Dean (picture by Derek Hibbert)**

This was to be my first Torbay Trial. The main reason for participating was two goes at the famous Simms Hill, which we use on the MCC Exeter Trial. To my horror the event was held on 28th February, which happens to coincide with a family birthday, my youngest daughter would reach the ripe old age of three.

Permission to go was obtained from Allison, the entry form was filled in and Marc and I started to prepare the car. This included fitting an in-line device that would allow the Skoda to run on un-leaded petrol. I will revert to this
later. Not having “Supermacs” stamina we chickened out and travelled down the afternoon before, stopping off down the A303 to visit Marc’s brother in Aldershot and in Exeter to see Jade, my eldest daughter and have a nice cup of tea. Then it was on to the B&B at Bovey Tracey for a nice meal and a good nights sleep.

The next morning we had a leisurely breakfast and then it was a gentle drive two miles down the road for scruitineering and signing on. Hill One was the first run at Simms. We had a different approach to the old hill to the one we use on the Exeter. We didn’t go through the village, but came at the summit from the exit road and then descended to the bottom via the escape road. We let the tyres down and off we went. We had decided to go to the left and got to the tree on the sub-divided hill. So it was the well-practised reverse down and ascent of the escape road.

Lower Dean was next on the agenda. It looked pretty rough and it certainly was. Rocks, ruts, it had the lot. We punctured the left rear just after the start and although I tried to keep going we failed to traverse the smooth grassy bit at the top and stopped within touching distance of the section ends board. We tried to change the tyre only to find our jack wouldn’t work and caused a bit of a delay while we borrowed another one.

Baddaford Lane was hill three. Remember this one? It was the hill Falcon marshalled for the MCC three years ago, when it was only used for class seven and eight. This is a super section, it goes up a rough, muddy gully and is nice and long. We cleaned it and gave ourselves three cheers at the top before moving up the track to the special test which we thankfully performed OK, ST’s being a bit of a bogey of mine recently. The next section was called Richards Rise. It was a very steep short slope in a field, marked out PCT style. I fired up the motor, put the maximum revs on the clock. The Skoda jumped up the hill but spun to a stop just before the summit for a one. I started to reverse down when the front wheels slipped sideways and the Skoda slid down sideways, hopping from bump to bump. There was nothing Marc and I could do, we just sat there waiting for it to dig in and roll over. Unbelievably it didn’t but we had to sit there for a few minutes to compose ourselves, as did Mark Hobbs who was marshalling at the bottom.

Fortunately Grants Lane wasn’t so hairy. It was another long lane, smooth at the start but getting rougher at the top where there was a re-start. We blasted off this OK, but at the expense of another puncture. I kept my foot down and manage to clear the summit even on the flat. Fortunately the jack worked OK this time and we were away within five minutes. There was quite a long delay at the start of the next section as a Land Rover was stuck and it was eventually cancelled. Marc and I used the time to put a new tube on one of the flats. We had a couple of good long hills which we cleaned OK before arriving at the foot of Slippery Sam, another familiar Exeter Hill, complete with tricky re-start which, unlike the Exeter, we performed OK.

By now we were heading back towards Simms but we had a couple of challenges first. Tipley was hill 10. Remember how rocky it was the last time it was used on the Exeter? It hasn’t got any smoother. We had another puncture on the approach road and the jack played up again. In consequence we were very conservative with the time pressures, which was fortunate as if we had gone low we would have destroyed the rims on the rocks. We failed and it took us a long time to get out of the section, as there was no tow wagon. After Tipley there was another special test and relatively easy observed section before a return to Simms.

We went to the right this time, the “Simon Robson route”. We hugged the bank hard, so hard we were up against the trees and the spectators had to jump for their lives. Sadly it was to no avail and it was another trip up the escape road for YEG. I was disappointed but the results showed the other Skoda’s didn’t get up either so I don’t feel to bad! Murray and Giles Greenslade got a clean in their Beetles and so did the Imps of Jim Scott and David Heale. Then it was back to the finish for signing off and the long drive home.

Marc and I reflected on our day on the long drive home. Yes it’s a long way to go west of Exeter for a one-day trial but it was worth it. There were some super hills with around seventy road miles and Marc and I plan to do the Torbay again next year. Earlier I mentioned I had fitted one of those in-line devises to allow older cars to run on un-leaded. I ran the Skoda on the garages rolling road before the event. Then I fitted the unit and tested again after doing the event and about 600 road miles on leaded petrol. There was no power loss and I have now started running the Skoda on un-leaded without altering the timing or carb settings. I will check it on the rolling road again after giving it a good try and let you know how it performs.

Overall Nigel Moss Cannon 0
Class 1 David Hazleden Golf 10
2 Peter Trelving Austin 7 19
3 Paul Bartleman Ford Escort 0
4 David Heale Imp 4
5 A. Wordsman MRG Midget 31
6 A. Andrew VW Beetle 9
7 Arthur Vowden Marlin 0
8 Dudley Sterry MG J2 0

1999_torbay_results_route Download

Arthur Vowden won The Cotswold Clouds

This was a tough ‘Clouds, the mud from the Clee Hills seemed to have travelled down to the Cotswolds to make this a very competitive trial. Organised with the usual laid back efficiency by the Stroud Club. Arthur Vowden was best overall in his class seven Marlin. The class eights being defeated by their tough re-starts on Merves Swerve and Highwood 1. Bad luck to Adrian Marfell who would have won if he had not failed both Bulls Bank re-starts.

**Clive Booth and John Allsop coming of the re-start on Nailsworth Ladder. You can read all about this famous old hill elsewhere on the site. (picture by Mike Furse)**

This was a tough ‘Clouds. The mud from the Clee Hills had made the journey from Shropshire to the Cotswolds to make this a very competitive trial. Organised with the usual laid back efficiency by the Stroud club. Arthur Vowden was best overall in his class seven Marlin. The class eight’s being defeated by their tough re-starts on Merves Swerve and Highwood 1. Bad luck to Adrian Marfell who would have won if he had not failed both Bulls Bank re-starts.

Murray MacDonald achieved the best Falcon result, winning class four by a large margin. However, all the Falcons enjoyed the event immensely, save perhaps for Simon and Matt Robson who broke their diff on one of the Bulls Bank re-starts. The results show them competing for second in class at this point having cleaned Axe and Ham Mill, both of which they actually failed! Like-wise Jim Scott is shown as cleaning Sandfords, but I’m sure he told me he failed it. However, he would still have come second in class.

Interesting that there were seventeen retirements, including six of the ten starters in class three and the entire class five entry either non-started or retired!

James Lindsay made his classic début in his ex Owen Briggs type four engined Fugative, getting the long chassis out of the gully on Mackhouse 2 and achieving one of the best scores on the very muddy Station Lane.

Overall – Arthur Vowden (Marlin) 29 marks lost

Class 1 – Terry Coventry (Citeron AX) 46

Class 2 – S. G. White (Riley) 53

Class 3 – Edwin Hayward (Escort) 71

Class 4 – Murray MacDonald (VW 1302) 37

Class 5 – No finishers

Class 6 – Mark Smith (VW Beetle) 42

Class 7 – Adrian Marfell (VW-Alfa) 33

Class 8 – Mick Workman (GVS) 31

1999_cotswold_clouds_results_route Download

24 January 1999 – Adrian Dommett wins Muddy Clee

Adrian Dommett won a very muddy Clee Hills Trial on 21st February, his climb of Bradburys Bank putting him into a commanding lead that he was not to loose all day. David Alderson and Adrian Marfell headed the chasing group although Adrian was aided by the class eight’s having to do more hills! The organisation was very professional. Superb documentation, plenty of marshals and recovery. In fact everything we have come to expect from Jonathan and Pat Toulmin. It was needed because the conditions were pretty dire. The heavy mud caused some appreciable delays and the field was well spread out at the end.

**Dudley Sterry supervising the team trying to extract him from the muddy hole at the bottom of Boynes Bouncer. Dudley retired with a broken gearbox after Longville**

There was another strong Falcon contingent on the Midland Automobile Clubs Clee Hills Trial. Neil Bray had Allison reading the route card as Marc Lawrence was hosting an Escort owners club meeting back on the ranch. Murray MacDonald was our other class four competitor, delighted that Hazel let him have a drive in her Beetle. PCT specialists, but not (yet) Falcon members, Mike and Duncan Stephens in a 1300 Beetle followed them.

David Thompson was driving in his first one day ACTC classic in his VW Buggy, running with Mike Pearson and Arnold Lane in Mikes Dellow Replica. Falcon’s trio of class eight’s was completed by ACTC Chairman David Alderson with Emma in the passengers seat. This was David’s first run in his Troll since last years Kyrle.

Mike Hayward was our only class seven competitor, driving in his first Classic trial in his highly modified Mk3 Escort. Finally there was another rather distinguished local driver, although he is not yet a Falcon member. John Quenby, the chief executive of the MSA, was giving his MG TC a run in the green sticker MAC closed to club event. I may be wrong but I believe, that as MSA head honcho, John is not allowed to hold a competition licence himself, so can only compete in closed to club events, like the MCC classics and this rare Clee MAC only class.

Competitors assembled for the start at The Boyne Arms, on the fringe of the Boyne Estate. With their usual professionalism Jonathan and Pat Toulmin had arranged for Lady Rosemary Boyne, mother of the present Lord Boyne, to present the awards at the finish. They did have some last minute problems. BT had dug large hole at bottom of Boynes Bouncer. It had been filled in but was to cause problems later as very heavy rain over last week had made this, and many of the other sections, very claggy.

FARLOW was the first section. Classes 2 to 8 went up the muddy track that cuts across a hairpin bend. The other classes had a re-start on the tarmac. The track became softer and more rutted the higher you went. The hill was covered in mud when the early numbers arrived and this played a significant role in the results in class four, which was running at the front of the field. Neil Bray was first to arrive and stopped at the ten. Each competitor got a little further as his predecessor ploughed a little more mud from the surface. Murray MacDonald was running half way through the class and dropped seven but the wily Giles Greenslade had his go last and got as far as the four.

In class eight both David’s Alderson and Thomson came out of the top for a clean but Mike Pearson stopped at the four. Farlow was Mike Haywards first ever classic trials hill and like most debutantes he didn’t give it enough welly off the line. The Kent motor coughed and spluttered in protest and by the time it had recovered the Escort had lost that all-important momentum and stopped at the seven.

The route returned to the Boyne estate for a group of sections. BRADBURYS BANK was more or less going to decide the trial. It’s a soft muddy track through the woods. After a gentle start there’s a sharp right hand bend up a very steep bank. All but one of the entry either under-steered straight on at the corner or floundered on the bank. Adrian Dommett was the hero who made it to the summit. The next best score was a seven, giving Adrian a substantial lead that he hung onto all day.

A note in the route card said BOYNES BOUNCER has never been climbed and it wasn’t going to be today either. It’s a steep muddy path and BT work had turned the bottom into a quagmire. Too far to the right down into a ditch. Too far left into a bottomless pit of goo. After the first couple of class two’s got well and truly stuck in the mud it was called of for everyone except class eight. Adrian Dommmett, David Alderson and Adrian Linecor were the three super-men who at least saw the top of the hill, even if they didn’t actually get there. Getting through the goo at the bottom was enough achievement for most people.

HILLSIDE was another section that got easier as the day went on. It’s a long, straight muddy affair, traversing across the slope of a wooded hill. There were some big bumps half way up just before Red & Yellow restart and David Alderson was the only Falcon to get through this difficult part of the section although Neil gave it a real good go.

BEAMFORD was approached via a track with a “we object” sign outside the only house along its length. Apparently the householder maintained the byway himself and thought the competitors would mess up the surface. Some post event work by Jonathan Toulmin managed to turn him into a possible supporter rather than an objector! The section started on the bank of a small river and went along its course for ten yards or so before coming out along a very muddy track. David Thompson dropped three here and both Murray and Neil had problems when they both hit the same boulder on the exit road the impact bending Neil’s suspension a bit.

There was more drama a mile up the road at HUNGERFORD. This is a great section. It starts on the road and turns right up the track. The section begins twenty yards up hill but you are allowed to start on the run. Murray and Hazel remembered this as a rough section and didn’t drop the pressures much. The wheel’s started spinning as soon as they hit the rough and they passed “section begins” at a crawl. They managed to continue until the big hump at the top, but by now they were going so slowly they couldn’t coax JAZ over. Mike Hayward experienced a similar problem. He was going much faster but his Escort is much lower and he grounded out. Mike Pearson and Arnold Lane didn’t get that far. They rocketed up the track but the side-wall blew out of a tyre with a tremendous bang just after section begins and they had to reverse back down.

HARTON WOOD was a nice blast up a tree lined rack and came with protesting local at the top for some. Sections nine and ten were the LONGVILLE Special Test and Section. Not too difficult unless you were yellow or red when you had one of those horrible restarts on polished stones to get back on the main road.

IPKINS ROCK looked nice and easy from the bottom, but there was a very sharp hairpin right near the top where the reds had to do a restart. In a way this was a blessing in disguise as it forced them to slow. A few of the non restarting lower classes had too much speed on and went over the side, including Greenslade’s senior and junior, costing Giles a class win.

THE JENNY WIND is a long straight blast up an old cable tramway, without very much grip. This was worse for the later numbers as it had started to rain, but at least this compensated for their easy run up Farlow. HARLEY BANK was a few yards up the track. It started with easy gradient but got a bit rutted near the summit where Mike Hayward ran out of ground clearance and stopped

MEADOWLEY was only for yellows and reds. It was particularly slimy and evil with deep ruts and tree routs to complete the challenge. Nobody came out of the top and it was the on-form Adrian Dommett who got the furthest to re-enforce his overall win, aided considerably by those huge wheels. The LOUGHTON SPECIAL TEST finished off the day. This was a dive down a muddy track, hairpin round a cone and back. All in the dark for the later numbers

Back at the Boyne Arms it was Adrian Dommett who was declared the winner, dropping only ten marks. This was despite having to do two more hills than most of the other classes. David Alderson was the best Falcon, winning class eight. Competitors were pretty spread out at the end. Running towards the front of the field Murray finished by three and was back home in Welwyn Garden City by six, while Mike Hayward had only just got to the finish.

The end of the event wasn’t the end of the excitement for Neil and Allison. They had a good run back to Bedfordshire but just a few miles from home the transmission gave up the ghost when Neil was changing down for a roundabout. Looking at the car afterwards Neil also found more water and dirt in the fuel system, lets hope he can get it fixed in time for the Cotswold Clouds.

Best Overall – Adrian Dommett – Ford Special – 10 marks
Class 0 for MAC members – Jeremy Nightingale (Dellow) 28
Class 1 – Adrian Tucker-Peake (Peugeot 205 GTi) 28
Class 2 – Barry Clarke (Grotty Chummy) 38
Class 3 and 5 combined Paul Bartleman (Ford Escort) 18
Class 4 Dave Sargeant (VW Beetle) 34
Class 6 – Mark Smith (VW Beetle) 17
Class 7 Adrian Marfell (VW-Alfa) 16
Class 8 David Alderson (Troll T6E) 22

1999_clee_hills_results Download

The 71st Exeter Trial

Conditions couldn’t have been better for the 71st Exeter Trial. It was nice and muddy underfoot on a nice bright sunny day. Things were not so hot results wise. Simon Robson may get a gold provided the marshals on Waterloo turn a blind eye to his stop on Waterloo when his Skoda jumped out of gear. Likewise Ian Davis needs a bit of luck. He failed the class eight only hill in Bovey Woods, just like most of his class. Rumour has it that one class eight got up. If that’s not right and nobody did then Ian could be on for gold.

Hazel MacDonald on Fingle where Murray was marshalling

We had another excellent Falcon entry, seventeen cars coming to the line. The four Popham crews had it easy. They could find the start! It wasn’t so easy for those electing to sign on at Cirencester. The MCC directions were very comprehensive, “Haynes & Strange, Cirencester” and that was that. There were many different strategies to cope with this, varying from ringing the Clerk of the Course the week before to just turning up at Cirencester and hoping to stumble across the venue. As it turns out the new start was only a hundred yards away from the old one and everyone found it OK.

As usual there were drama’s before the off. It was a nice one for Dave Nash as the club finally accepted the Skeetle in class seven. So it was off with the red sticker and on with the yellow. Life had been pretty tough for Brian Alexander since the Edinburgh. His white Fiat failed the MOT because the under-body damage was so bad after seven years hard trialing, much of it on those rough, tough West Country events. There wasn’t time to fix it so Brian decided to transfer the white cars engine and gearbox to the red PCT car that he and Kevin drove at Brickhill last year. This is bored out and tuned a bit more than the red cars normal lump. These things never go to plan and when it was finally installed it ran hot and blew the heater valve in protest. Brian and Kevin couldn’t repair it in time so they had to blank it off and rely on the winter woollies and thermal underwear. The drama wasn’t over yet because the motor didn’t want to re-start from hot, all was well once the dirt was cleaned out of the idle jet and Brian and Kevin made it to the start. At least all was well with Alan Bellamy’s Brasilia, which was fit and ready to start its first MCC event.

     There were a few interesting crew changes. Hazel MacDonald was driving in her first classic trial with Veronica Caspari reading the route card. Andrew Cairney had exams on the Monday and wisely decided to stay at home revising so his sister Sarah sat alongside Dad to ensure he stayed out of trouble. Christine Manning had to put her job first this weekend so Peters sister stepped in as his passenger, a job she had once done for his father.

    The night was cold for the run to the breakfast halt at The Jolly Diner at Tintinhull. No, it I haven’t got confused with the Lands End. The Cricket St Thomas Wildlife Park is no more and is being converted to a posh Hotel, even Mr Blobby couldn’t save it, or was it all his fault! All the Falcons survived scruitineering, the greasy spoon breakfast and the first hill at Gatcombe Lane. Hazel MacDonald’s problems started at the summit after she and Veronica had pumped up JAZ’s tyres as the Beetle went into a sulk and wouldn’t start. They finally got things going but lost half an hour by the time they arrived in Bovey Woods. Normans Hump was first on the agenda, with Reg Taylor and Geoff Jackson on the start and Peter Mountain officiating higher up. It was pretty greasy on top but there was plenty of grip underneath and all the mud from the logging operations had disappeared since last year. A few words of description for those of you that don’t know the hill. It’s very long, absolutely straight and quite steep, apart from where a track crosses half way up. This is where the yellow restart is situated, the reds having a tougher one just where the gradient increases dramatically.

    All our re-starters got away OK for a clean but there were problems down in class four even though they had a straight run at the hill. Brian and Kevin were finding the little Fiat was severely down on power and it didn’t make the top. Neither did Hazel and Veronica. They started off OK and made the cross track but they weren’t going fast enough and ran out of momentum before the summit. This set an amusing series of events into motion, involving Fred Gregory and Pete Stafford, who else! Hazel reversed down to the cross track and off the hill where the engine fluffed and refused to start. Fred and Pete were given the all clear and stormed away up the lower reaches. Meanwhile a front wheel drive car dodged around Hazel’s stranded Beetle and crossed the track in Fred’s path bringing him to a halt for a balk. There were now three cars strewn around the junction and it was some time before the hill was clear. The Falcon drama wasn’t over as Neil and Marc arrived at the top with a puncture. Their first of six! Running at the end of the field Stuart Cairney was finding the deep ruts a problem, but once the Imp jumped out of them things got a lot worse and he stopped with a loss of traction.

    Normally Clinton is next on the agenda, but not for the class eight’s this year. They had to tackle a new hill called Branscombe Bank. This started on the main track, before turning ninety right up a rough, muddy path through the woods. It was pretty tough. The best Falcons got about twenty yards up the hill before coming to a stop with wheels spinning. Ian Davis and David Thompson didn’t get that far in their VW Buggy’s. With very little weight on the front end they both under-steered into the bank on the right hander.

    Clinton was next, the clubs own hill so all the Falcons wanted to do well in front of their friends. It was a new Clinton though, with an extra bit at the bottom. Hazel put her trotter down and stormed up but Brian wasn’t so fortunate as the Fiat just didn’t have enough power. He wasn’t the only one, Tom didn’t make it around the corner and neither did Peter Manning whose Midget had got a bit hot waiting at the bottom and fluffed to a stop immediately after the line and was another client for the super tractor. Dave Nash failed as well and there’s quite a storey behind this. Dave and Julie had punctured earlier and the damaged tyre was on the spare wheel carrier immediately over the type the engine. Unfortunately the flat took up more room and knocked off one of the air filters, this deranged the throttle linkage and the Skeetle didn’t have the grunt to get round the first bend.

    Then it was across the A3025 to Waterloo where Hazel MacDonald was still having trouble starting JAZ. Although she knew what was just around that sharp right hander Hazel didn’t have her trotter planted firmly enough on the gas peddle and the Beetle didn’t make it up the steep gradient that follows the corner. This is a common problem for Waterloo first timers and I can remember doing exactly the same thing myself. All you can see from the start is a sharp, blind, right hand bend, but its essential to put the power down hard as soon as you start to turn, even though you can’t see where you are going to end up! Hazel wasn’t the only one in trouble on what old hands regard as a pretty straightforward section. Simon and Matt Robson had their Skoda jump out of gear. Their gold depends on charitable marshals taking the view they didn’t come to a complete stop before getting going again. Alan Bellamy was having an exciting time with his Brasilia as the throttle kept jamming open. It wasn’t a problem on the sections but it was a bit disconcerting on the road, especially when coming up to roundabouts and traffic lights! Waterloo was to bring just the reverse problem for Alan as the brakes seized solid on the hill and the car came to a halt in mid-section with all four wheels firmly locked. After getting clear Alan released some of the pressure from a bleed nipple after which everything returned to normal. There must have been some muck in the system from the considerable time the car was laid up in Andy Clarke’s back garden.

    Stretes was simple enough and the special test at Greenslinch wasn’t as wet as normal, the hole containing slurry rather than water this year. After this section the navigators had to earn their keep, as the route to Exeter services was an MCC delight. The route card said “SO into Broadclyst and just after 30 mph sign L dp Dog Village”. Coming to Broadclyst there was the 30 sign and a left turning but no “Dog Village” sign, but there was a left turning with a Pet Centre on the corner. However turning left bought you into a little road with lock up garages either side which ended up as a dead end. There were competitors going up and down in every direction. The real turning was about half a mile up the road just after a 30-mph sign. Closer examination revealed that the first sign was a few yards before the “Broadclyst” sign and that didn’t count!

    After the break at Exeter came Tillerton Steep. Rough and rocky as ever, with a restart on the slab for classes six, seven and eight. This defeated Clive Booth, Alan Bellamy and possibly others, the notes are a little sketchy here! Mike Pearson didn’t fail the re-start, he didn’t see it and just drove straight through. That’s why some of us wear specs Mike! Hazel Mac was learning how to gun the motor in JAZ, finding that if you go fast enough you can fly over the bumps! This technique didn’t work for Stuart Cairney, he got his Imp airborne on the slab. When it came down it found mega grip and stalled. Our other class fours all made successful ascents, although it was at the expense of another puncture
for Neil Bray. Fingle was next with more Falcon involvement as Murray MacDonald was Chief Official on the hill and Mike Furse was sector marshal for the area. Colin Stevens had a puncture and as he was in considerable pain from Sciatica decided to retire. Peter Manning was another to puncture here but kept going at the expense of a destroyed wheel rim.

    Fred Gregory’s Melos was making some rather horrible noises and riding mechanic Pete Stafford diagnosed the fault as a propshaft UJ bearing breaking up. They decided to carry on and nurse the car to the finish, incurring a fail on Wooston Steep by taking the blue and white route. Wooston contained various handicaps for the higher classes. Six could go up the easy route, but had to perform a restart. This was identified by a red board which according to the route card meant class eight only, a common re-start being specified as a Black R on a Yellow board. This caused confusion for Dave Nash and Alan Bellamy, Dave stopped and Alan didn’t. We await the results to see who was right! Ian Davis was our only class eight to make a successful ascent, the others being defeated by either the re-start or the steep hill they had to climb.

    The Pepperdon section was a re-start on tarmac, an Exeter speciality that had to be treated with respect as the road was covered in mud and the gradient was quite sharp. There was a time control before Simms and the early numbers had to waste away around three quarters of an hour to avoid being early. The old hill was on form again this year and only Simon Robson and Ian Davis made successful ascents. Arnold Lane was watching and said that Simon’s climb was really something, scattering the spectators as he swerved to the right hand bank to avoid the slippery slab. This appeared to be the trick, Arnold reporting that ninety percent of the successful climbers went the same way. The slab was the problem, it was very slippery and provided almost zero grip and few competitors had the momentum to carry them over this formidable obstacle.

    Competitors now only had Slippery Sam standing between them, a cold beer and warm bath. This was to be a sting in the tail. The re-start was right at the top on the last corner. Neil Bray thought he had missed it lower down and was so busy worrying where it was he did a Mike Pearson and drove straight through. Alan Bellamy was another to have brain fade here after struggling with more carburettor problems. The idle jets kept blocking up and Alan had to keep stopping to clear them. So ended another Exeter, a competitive trial run in pleasant conditions. There seemed to be a few organisational problems, but this didn’t detract from a wonderful trial, wrapped up for many with a dinner where we had twenty Falcons seated together, a fitting end to a great event.

1999_exeter_results Download

Nipper News

Maralyn and Susan Tucker-Peake in Nipper on Bluehills

I recently had a nice letter from Maralyn Knight with news about “The Tucker Nipper Special”. For the full storey about this famous old car you need to go back to the July ‘97 Classical Gas, but there’s space here for a quick resume.

Maralyn’s father was of course the late H. W. Tucker-Peake. Tucker and Betty campaigned their “Tucker-MG” for many years. The car evolving to create space for Maralyn and Susan to ride in the back. In due course they wanted a trials car of their own so Tucker built “The Nipper”, based on the running gear and chassis from a Ford 5 cwt van. With sister Susan in the passenger seat Maralyn was very successful with her car and won two triples. Maralyn explains that until recently she hadn’t heard anything about the Nipper since selling it to a lady called Rosemary Cond from Gloucestershire back in the late 60’s. She knew that Rosemary had done a few competitions with it but that was that. Before Tucker passed away he had heard that the famous old car was in a barn somewhere. Sadly his detective work was never completed as tragically he couldn’t speak properly after suffering a stroke.

However, quite by chance, a friend of Maralyn’s spotted an ad for a “Nipper” in a magazine and low and behold it was her old car. She got in touch with the person selling it and found it was Rosemary Cond’s old passenger. But by then the Nipper had already been sold. Maralyn traced the new owner to Barton le Clay, close to where it was born! The car was in remarkably good condition, considering it’s age, and the new owner was prepared to sell. But it would have taken a fair bit of time and money to restore it and Maralyn decided to let it go. She regrets that now, but that’s life! The latest news is that Nipper is under restoration by a gentleman in Lechlade in Gloucestershire. Maralyn is in touch with him and has provided him with some pictures of the car as it was originally built. She hopes it will soon be returned to its former and original glory, in particular that the new owner will do away with the Lotus 7 style nose and front wings that it acquired in later years.

What we need now is a “Classic Specials” class so cars like the Nipper and Primrose can be seen on the MCC hills again.

20 June 1999 – I received an interesting E-Mail from Simon Woodall the other week, this corrects some of the facts in my original piece.

I am not Margaret’s son, she is my Aunt. I am Victors son. This is an error Tucker made when compiling the details for the MCC book and seems to have passed into history.

Although Margaret was the first woman to win a Triple, it is only fair to reveal the whole truth behind this. Margaret and Maralyn both achieved their goals on the same trial but as Margaret had an earlier number she finished first and therefore it was she that took the honours of being the first woman to win a Triple.

Woolford Special Mk2 with which Margaret won her Triple. A typical special – A7 frame plus Ford 10 engine, but with the engine so far back in the frame that the prop shaft was only six inches long. It was the overwhelming success of this vehicle that caused the RAC to introduce the spark plug to front axle measurement and thus was the National Trials Formula born!.

Further news is that the gentleman in Letchlade has put the “Nipper” up for sale at £3,000. There is an ad in the July Practical Classics magazine.

1998 Allen Trial

Another enjoyable Allen won by Tony Young in his Class 8 Ardley. More difficult this year as there had been enough rain in the week to make thing slippy, but not enough to wash the mud of the rocks! Murray MacDonald put in the best Falcon performance. Going round clean in his 1302, but Giles Greenslade pipped him for the class win with better special test times.

**Drama on Big Uplands. Pete Stafford waiting to attach the tow rope to Fred Gregories Dutton Melos**

It was another excellent Falcon entry on the Allen. Nine crews leaving the start just off Junction 18 of the M4. It would have been more, but the entry was over-subscribed and Simon Robson had his turned away. Neil Bray was down as a reserve and it was only on the Thursday that he got a phone call from Carlie Hart to say he would get a run.

The route followed a similar pattern to recent years, starting at Tog Hill which didn’t create any problems. These began at Bitton Lane and centred around the infamous re-start. This is situated on a left hand bend, it looks easy but it’s very deceptive. The gradient increases markedly just where the line is and the surface consists of small polished stones that offer very little grip. To make things more difficult this year they were covered in mud!

Neither Fred nor Michael got away cleanly, although Fred managed to get about ten feet before coming to a stop, wheels spinning, in a cloud of smoke. Murray found a good position, feathered the throttle, and drove away cleanly. Ian Davis was the only other Falcon to get a clear. In overall terms class four was the most successful, with over 50% clean, while in class six car only one car succeeded out of five, even Graham Brazier failing to burn his way up.

The later numbers arrived at Big Uplands to find a long queue. Conditions were quite slippery and there were quite few failures. This causes a problem as they had to reverse down the section, which is tricky because it’s quite rough. Then comes the big problem, passing the queue of cars waiting to attempt the section. All of this caused an increasing delay, up to ninety minutes for the tail-end-Charlie’s.

The first part of the section is straight and rough, with a surface of solid rock. This changes to loose rock just before a sharp left hander, where there is a re-start for the yellow and red classes. This area was very tricky. The rain the week before had washed a lot mud onto the rocks and they were very slippery. It would actually had been easier if it had been raining as the water would have washed the mud away!

Neither Neil Bray nor Stuart Cairney could get round the corner. Michael and Mike got a bit further but not much leaving Murray as out only clean class four. Fred didn’t make it off the re-start and had the misfortune to get his diff stuck on a rock reversing down. Now, the marshals on Big Uplands are notorious for not giving competitors a helping shove. Today was no exception, but eventually they summoned a recovery truck, a four wheel drive Toyota pick-up. This attempted to pull Fred up but it failed to move, all four wheels spinning fruitlessly. Meanwhile Fred had pumped his tyres up and this gave him the necessary increase in ground clearance to untangle his diff. Fred reversed down the hill but the drama was not over. First the Toyota had difficulty in getting back up the hill. Then after Michael failed he got stuck on a muddy verge trying to get past the queue for the section. Ron Bradshaw kindly towed him out, but the back bumper was wedged around a tree and got rather bent in the process! Mike Pearson and John Parsons both got away from the restart OK and went on to clear the hill, but neither Clive Booth nor Ian Davis were successful.

Guys Hill was next. Name sound familiar? This is the one that all the legal business is about concerning the road out of the top. I can remember on my first Allen we went out the end of the section. These days the gate at the top is firmly closed. It’s another one of these “polished stones” sections, made devilishly difficult for the yellows and reds as they have to re-start. It’s also one of the Allen’s two subdivided hills, the other being Burledge.

Stuart started off the line pretty well, but a plug lead jumped off about half way up. The engine fluffed and the Imp ground to a halt at the two. It was the same story for Neil and Marc in the Skoda, which really wasn’t running at all well. Our other class fours made it OK but none of the yellows and reds could get off that slippery re-start.

Fred and Murray were unaware of all Michael’s dramas on Big Uplands and were waiting for him at Guys Hill. They were able to watch a superb restart from Dudley Sterry. They reckon it took him the best part of a minute, but he got his rather special class 8 MG J2 off the line and up the hill for a clean. Julian Dommett and Tony Young were the only other re-starters to get away and clean the section. How does Julian do so well with that 1172 Dellow?

After Sandy Lane and Strode came Travers, which didn’t present any difficulty to the lower classes, but was more tricky for the yellows and reds who had to re-start. Earlier in the ear the Bristol club had made a gully near the top of the hill to reduce the damage caused by water. Fred and Pete got away well in their Dutton and so did Mike Pearson. The others weren’t so lucky and succumbed to the step and slippery rocks after the re-start.

The organisers had been carrying out more construction work on Burledge to reduce the depth of the ruts and make it less of a test of ground clearance. This certainly made a difference to Falcons class fours and only Stuart failed to drive out of the top, grounding out at the one. Fred and Pete made it OK in class seven, but class eight had things a bit more difficult as they had to re-start. This prevented a full blooded run at the rutted part and Clive wasn’t able to build up sufficient momentum, grinding to a halt at the one.

Mill Lane didn’t present any problems for most competitors but it was rough enough to break the suspension on Dennis Greenslades Reliant. Dennis seems to be breaking this car pretty regularly. I wonder how long he will persevere with it as it doesn’t appear to be very strong. Clive Booth was in trouble as well, with a broken exhaust manifold on his Dellow. It’s a casting and there was little hope of doing a satisfactory repair, so Clive and John retired. In all probability it was Burledge’s ruts that did the damage and they didn’t fancy knocking it off completely on John Walker!

Very soon competitors were going back down the rather wet lane approaching Big Uplands. Only this time it was sharp left after the bridge to tackle “Little Uplands” instead. By now Neil’s Skoda was running quite roughly and he was taking things easy to preserve the car. A little too easy as it turns out, as he didn’t have enough momentum to get over the big hump covering the drainage pipe, grinding to a halt. He needed the services of the Toyota, which was a little better than when it tried to help Fred but not much. About as much use as a chocolate teapot as they say!

Things weren’t much better for Neil on John Walker. The Skoda cut out about fifty yards after the water splash and had to be retrieved out of the section. Not an easy task in the dark as those of you that know the hill will testify. The remaining Falcon’s cleared the hill OK, so it was back to the finish for a well earned rest. Then it was off home, but not before the final challenge, turning right out of the start venue onto the busy main road. Think I’m joking? I’m not, and several competitors got so fed up waiting for a break in the traffic that they turned left and went several miles up the road to “U-turn” at the next roundabout!

So ended another Allen. Normally reckoned to be the easiest of the ACTC events, this one certainly had a few surprises in store for the complacent. It was a great event, run 100% on “real” tracks by a nice bunch of people. Long may it continue.

1 David Haizelden VW Golf 11
2 Peter Treliving Austin 7 0
3 John Bell Ford Escort 12
4 Giles Greenslade VW Beetle 0
5 Gillian Hayward MGB GT 19
6 Nigel Allen VW Beetle 6
7 Julian Dommett Dellow 0
8 Dudley Sterry MG J2 0
Overall Tony Young Ardley 0

1998_allen_results Download

Excellent Edinburgh

Once again we had a huge participation in the Edinburgh. Nineteen of the entry had at least one Falcon crew member, We ran a hill and Tom Goggin was assistant Clerk of the Course. Falcon members were pretty successful to and it looks like we will have nine golds.

**It was agreat Edinburgh. A successful one for Falcon to. We won nine of the 31 Gold medals in the car class. One of them was won by Michael Leete in his class four debut, seen here on Putwell 2.**

THE OVERNIGHT RUN

All of the Falcon crews started from Toddington, the first away, well before midnight on a nice evening. There had been quite a bit of rain earlier in the week and the marshals at the start were full of cheer, telling tales of washed out sections!

We had a couple of non-starters. Mike Furse didn’t take part because illness in the family and in the event Alan Bellamy didn’t turn up with either the Brasilia or his type 3 Fastback, otherwise we were all present and correct. Scruitineering at Toddington was quite a simple affair, seemingly consisting of checking the car was the same colour as stated on the MOT certificate! Then it was off for a couple of hours drive up the A5 to Atherstone for yet more scruitineering, this time for eligibility. There was a big Falcon audience when Neil Bray pulled into the car wash, sorry scruitineereing bay, for what we all thought was going to be another battle. But Alan Foster just shrugged his shoulders and waved the Skoda through for John West to check. This was quite painless and Neil and Marc were soon back on the A5 again.

A SECTION IN THE DARK

On and on up the A5 drove the Falcons. Through Brownhills and up to Cannock Chase. If the route had gone much further West it would have reached the Mersey! Finally it turned North up the A515 through Ashbourne to Agnes Meadow which everyone would attempt in the dark.

Fred Gregory hit trouble on the approach track when his Dutton coughed and died. Fred and Pete Staffod had been noticing the lights getting dimmer and dimmer and now it wouldn’t re-start. Fortunately help was at hand and a host of Falcons gave him a backward push to bump start. Once away Fred found that the alternator would only charge at high revs, so he kept them up for the rest of the event!

The hill itself didn’t present any problems, providing a nice gentle warm up for what was to come! Then it was back through Ashborne and South down the A511 to Hatton for breakfast. But not before an hour and a half’s kip in a lay-by for most people, as early arrival was penalised and the time schedule was pretty slack.

BREAKFAST AT THE SALT BOX

Breakfast was up to standard for those that had time to eat it. Colin Stephens had work to do on his car. The Dutton special had been running badly for some time and Colin solicited the opinion of his clubmates at the Salt Box. Popular opinion was that the coil was at fault and one was procured from the dark recesses of someone’s toolbox. It was soon cable tied into place by Dave Nash and the Dutton fired up OK. Luck wasn’t on Colin’s side though, because twenty miles up the road she conked out again. This time Colin diagnosed the carb was at fault and being one of Mr Ford’s more grotty ones decided not to attempt fixing it but to find a replacement. This was located in a nearby scrapyard. But all this took time and Colin and Kevin missed out some sections, rejoining the route at Bamford and going on to enjoy the rest of the hills.

HEARTBREAK ON LITTON SLACK

Clough Wood didn’t present any problems so it was on to Litton with the dew still on the ground. The descent down to the start was as hairy as ever. Even Mike Furse in his Four Wheel drive was nervous. All our Dellow inspired class eight’s made the top in fine style, and so did Dave Nash and Fred Gregory. Peter and Christine Manning weren’t so lucky in their Midget, they didn’t build enough road speed and as Peter said it was a case of “so near and yet so far”. The Skoda’s in class four both cleaned it OK and so did Neil Birkett in Murray MacDonald’s Beetle. Michael Leete and Mike Hayward fluffed on the line when Michael didn’t get the rev’s up enough on his new 1300 engine. The marshal let him have another go though and he stormed to the top.

Our other class four’s weren’t so lucky. Brian Alexander didn’t make the top and neither did Stuart and Andrew Cairney in their Imp when a drive shaft bolt broke and the dreaded donuts burst asunder. Being a good Imp man Stuart had a spare and they were able to carry on. Brian Alexander couldn’t get his Fiat out of the top, despite the bouncing efforts of the third generation of the Alexander family. Neither could Peter Mountain in possibly his last drive in his Skoda. Peter left the line in fine style but the wheels were spinning to much. Peter didn’t ease off and came to a halt, tyres smoking, by the trees where the gradient increases so deceptively.

THE ROUTE DIVIDES

The route divided at the next section. Classes seven and eight tackled Lymer Rake, a long rocky section that has not been used on the Edinburgh for many years. All the Falcon’s got to the top OK but not completely intact, as Reg Taylor suffered a puncture and broke the bracket holding one of the rear wings. This was certainly one tough section and everyone didn’t make it, including Simon Woodall in his two ponit something VW Bitza.

Instead of tackling LymerRake the oyther classes forked right and went up Swan Rake, not so steep but certainly rocky and giving Neil Bray his first puncture of the day. Then it was off to Corkscrew or Bareleg, depending on your class and the special test on Old Long Hill before the Marquiss.

THE MAQUIS IMPROVES

The holding control at The Marquis of Granby been a nightmare in recent years. Competitors pushing, shoving and almost coming to blows as they staked their claim to get to the head of the line. It was certainly different this year. The MCC committee were there in strength, leading from the front and organising competitors in tidy lines to ensure we left in the order we arrived. There was a certain amount of fettling going on. Mike Pearson had lost a shock absorber bolt and was searching for a replacement. He found that the ones securing Murray’s lead ballet inside his bumper were just the right size and the Beetle’s ballast was held by two fastenings instead of three for the rest of the event.

Neil and Marc made the fatal mistake of repairing their punctured tyre . As soon as other competitors saw they had a bead breaker a crew formed so they could strip their tyres from the rims as well! Fred Gregory missed the entertainment. He and Pete Stafford were too busy getting lost up on the hilltops when they missed the turning at the Anchor Inn and didn’t realise their mistake till they were nearly back in Toddington!

BAMFORD BECKONS

After a commendably short wait it was off to Bamford. This is a section that seems to get rougher as it gets easier. The concrete steps were totally exposed, with no loose material covering them at all, so their was grip a plenty. All the Falcon’s cleaned the section OK but Bamford being Bamford their were drama’s. Neil Bray got another puncture but got out of the top OK, thanks to his tyres being bolted to the rims, otherwise the wheel would have spun inside the tyre. Dave Nash entertained the spectators with a clean amidst huge clouds of smoke when the oil pressure sender came out, spraying hot oil over the exhaust. Dave was at the top pondering what to do when a young spectator came running up with the missing part and he was able to continue. It wasn’t a bed of roses though as the Skeetle was getting a bit short of cogs to swap as it steadfastly refused too find second or reverse.

Keith Pettit had the prop shaft on his A35 break. Inevitably the car ran back down the hill until the prop shaft dug in and it was stuck, blocking the hill for quite a while. David Thompson stormed to the top in his buggy and was still clean on his first Classic. The only local casualty as far as I can ascertain was Jonathan Baggot who tried to slow trickle his Marlin at walking pace and found the old hill is a lot steeper than it looks!

The bridges over Ladybower reservoir were being repaired and it took sometime to get to Haggside. Experienced competitors were ready for the re-start, cunningly hidden just around the first hairpin, so the MCC didn’t claim to many Falcon scalps with this one. So it was back through the roadworks and past the Marquis to Great Hucklow. The roadbook issued before the start had not raised any fears for the lower classes. We were to have a straight climb, leaving the hard men in class eight to storm the bank. The route amendments issued at The Salt Box were to change that, we all had to climb the bank.

HORROR AT HUCKLOW

The Cambridge boys all got up OK, so did Clive and Mike. Stuart Cairney and Brian Alexander weren’t so lucky in their Imp and Fiat respectively. You needed big wheels and plenty of ground clearance for this one! The section started in the usual place. It was a bit muddier than usual and one or two people did have a bit of a problem getting away from the line. However, if you managed this OK it didn’t look to bad at all, not to much gradient and not to rough. As with Haggside the problem lay unseen around the corner. The normal exit onto the road was coned off, the route dived sharply to the left around a solid post, and up the bank of the cutting. It’s very steep muddy, rocky with deep ruts, otherwise it’s not to bad! It wouldn’t be to difficult if you could take a run at it but Laurie Knight, Tom Goggin et al are getting cunning in their old age, they needed something to slow down the gold rush on what is traditionally the MCC’s easiest event. So their was a re-start about ten yard’s before the deviation.

Stuart and Brian both tried to build their speed but weren’t going fast enough to drag the bottom of their low slung machines over the boulders. Their class four colleagues in The New Falconers Team were waiting in the queue, out of sight of the drama. They knew about it though as a spectating Dave Turner (former Boris the Beetle and Citeron AX man) was delighting in telling the waiting drivers how long it had been since the last clean! It was s**t or bust for Michael in his “new” Beetle, the b*****d was going up there or break in the process. Michael and Mike approached the re-start slowly and stopped with the front wheels just inside the box. The marshal dropped the flag. 4500 on the rev counter, dump the clutch, remember the Lords prayer and hang on.

The Yellow Beetle flew up the track, Michael turned the wheel to go up the bank and the car understeered straight on towards the trees. It was all or nothing. He kept his foot flat to the floor, the front wheels gripped just in time, found the ruts and the car was drawn around the corner and onto the bank, foot still flat on the floor, wheels spinning, six thousand how many on the clock? It shot out of the section like a champagne cork. Skilful stuff this Classic Trials driving!

Although all this ws taking place out of the sight of the other New Falconers they could here what was happening. Running in a team the real competition is not to fail a section one of your team-mates has climbed, especially if he is now in the same class as you. Honour was at stake, and was satisfied, Neil, Simon and Fred all cleaned Hucklow as well. Neil Birkett wasn’t so lucky in Murray’s Beetle. Despite Murray’s advise he went to far into the box and didn’t build enough speed, so it was the humiliation of the escape road for JAZ.

THE END IS NIGH

The event was drawing to a close now, but we had some good stuff to come. Jacobs Ladder was included for the first time in my Edinburgh career. It’s a long narrow section, a bit rocky but not too difficult. It’s approached through a lovely little village and up a very narrow track, the problem comes if a breakdown has to be retrieved. The MCC had tied to cater for this by having a holding control before the village to prevent queues blocking off access to peoples houses. This seemed successful and competitors appreciated having a go at such a nice section. It didn’t cause Falcon’s to many problems, although Simon picked up a puncture.

DISASTER AT DEEP RAKE

Then it was off to the quarry for the Deep Rake special test. This was a “start with front wheels on line A, stop with all four wheels in box B, drive in your own time to stop on line C” affair. It was quite a nice blast, including a hairpin and a deep puddle. However, box B was not very big and it was tricky to know if you had all four wheels in or not. This caught out quite a few people, including Peter Manning and Neil Bray who lost his gold.The Putwell’s rounded off the day and it was back to Buxton, more or less on time, thanks to good planning by the organisers and hard work by the marshals. As usual a substantial group of Falcons met up in the pub in the marketplace for an evening meal. Is it that the music gets louder and the youngsters younger or are we getting old? Who knows, who cares, it was an Excellent Edinburgh.

1998_edinburgh_results Download

Bellamy’s Brasilia Blues

This update on Alan Bellamy’s Brasilia was prompted by a family outing to Bug Jam at Santa Pod this summer. We were walking from our car to the track side when the junior member of the family announced “look there’s a Skoder Nash”. Ignorant boy, it wasn’t “a” Skoder Nash it was “the” Skeetle, don’t they teach them anything at school these days?

What we didn’t notice at first was the car behind, Alan’s rare Brasilia, looking very normal beside Dave’s creation and all the other wild rides nestling in the Bedfordshire countryside. It’s quite a few month’s since Alan finished the rebuild and all has not gone smoothly. The first event was the Lands End, when the Brasilia started to run roughly on the way to Popham. Alan stopped to tinker and the so and so absolutely refused to fire up again. Suspecting fuel starvation Alan squirted some jungle juice directly down its throat(s) and turned the motor over. It duly spat the fuel back out of the carbs and the wiring caught fire. The Brasilia was on the retired list before reaching the start!

Once the wiring was remedied the original problem had to be fixed and it was an interesting one. If the Brasilia was left overnight it would fire up and run OK for a while, then cough and die, defying all attempts to re-start. However, if it was left a while it started quite readily again. But would only run a short while before repeating the whole ghastly sequence. Finally Alan found the problem. Have you guessed? That’s right, there was a piece of paper in the brand spanking new petrol tank. It got sucked over the tank outlet, starving the engine of fuel. However, as the petrol pump stopped sucking the paper would eventually float away, allowing the motor to start again. Boy oh boy!

Anyway, the tank problem was all sorted out in time for the Manx Classic, so it was off on the Steam Packet to the Isle of Man. It started well, but half way through the event the engine started a terrible knock which Alan finally diagnosed as a small end on the way out. He retired and limped home, with Dave Nash in close attendance in case the Brasilia expired on the motorway. Surprisingly things didn’t get any worse, but the noise continued, and Alan prepared to rip the motor apart as soon as he got home. No sooner he taken the silencer off when it clanked and rattled as he put it down. You’ve guessed, the “small end” was a loose baffle. Nearly as bad as when I retired from the Edinburgh with loose wheel-nuts!

This was soon sorted and off went entries for the Testing Trial and The Edinburgh. During the Testing Trial the gearbox started to lock up and Alan discovered that there is terrible play in the diff that needs investigating. Meanwhile the linkage to one of the carbs broke and couldn’t be mended on the spot. Alan set the tick-over up high on the offender and drove home using the other carb!

No time to fix the diff before the Edinburgh. But look out for Alan as he will be driving his familiar Type 3 Fastback. As my friend Rowland Derry used to say when things were not going so well “it’s good here in’it”.

Alan’s new tank came from a VW part’s outlet in Venezuela. This guy can supply practically any Brasilia part except the front wings. The phone bills not to much of a problem, as Alan uses E-Mail to contact him, at the cost of a local call. It’s just as well that Alan found him. Just imagine the reaction of your local VW dealership if you went in “got a tank for a Brasilia squire”.

XMY 238 An Early Kit Car?

Peter Mountains Morgan has an interesting history. It’s a rare example of a car sold as rolling chassis by the Malvern factory. It was bought by a gentleman called Bert Range for £350. He completed the build and went on to use it for Racing and Rallying.

Bert Range in XMY 238 at Silverstone in 1952

Bert range at the rest halt on the Coronation Rally. He is on the right with the flasks of coffee.

IN 1951 THE MORGAN COMPANY FOUND THEMSELVES IN TROUBLE WITH THEIR BODY BUILDERS and were not able to complete cars. Because they had all the supplies of chassis, engines, gearbox’s etc, they put an advertisement in the motoring press to the effect that if anyone had the facilities to complete a car they would supply the parts as a kit without any purchase tax.

Bert Range took up their offer and built his car at his business premises at Kings Cross in London where he ran a fleet of lorries. It took him about six months, working in the evenings, to make the bodywork and fit all the parts. He then had it professionally sprayed in British Racing Green with Black wings.

Originally it was supposed to be a two seater but as he had two small children Bert decided to forgo one of the two spare wheels and extend the body backwards so as to provide a reasonable seat for them. When his car was finished Bert took his car back to Malvern. The works were surprised he had made it into a four seater but were pleased at the quality of his work.

Bert was on the committee of the Cemian Motor Club at the time and was later to become it’s chairman. Cemian were one of the “Eight Clubs” who promoted racing at Silverstone. On 7 June 1952 they ran a race meeting using the reorganised Club Circuit of 1.608 miles. Two Morgan Plus 4’s were entered, Bert’s and A. R. Morton’s of the 750 Motor Club. In the one-hour high-speed trial for 1501-3000 cc cars Bert was one of only four cars to complete the required thirty-two laps (51.46 miles), the others being a supercharged Alfa Romeo, a 2.5 litre Riley and a similarly engined Healey. Bert finished his day by finishing fourth in a five lap handicap race.

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Overall – Arthur Vowden (Marlin) 29 marks lost

Class 1 – Terry Coventry (Citeron AX) 46

Class 2 – S. G. White (Riley) 53

Class 3 – Edwin Hayward (Escort) 71

Class 4 – Murray MacDonald (VW 1302) 37

Class 5 – No finishers

Class 6 – Mark Smith (VW Beetle) 42

Class 7 – Adrian Marfell (VW-Alfa) 33

Class 8 – Mick Workman (GVS) 31

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